The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Man Who Invented Christmas is both a book and a film about the famous 19-Century English writer Charles Dickens. His novel A Christmas Carol is one of the most well-known Christmas stories of all time.

Many people think Charles Dickens is one of the greatest novelists in English literature. His writing and use of words are praised, and the fictional characters he created are lively, popular and memorable after all these years. Do you want to know more about the works of this literary genius who created so many classic masterpieces?

A Christmas Carol

Author: Charles Dickens
Publish: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2005
ISBN: 140507258X

 

Orphans are poor children because they do not have care and love from their parents. In the past, their life was even poorer. They did not get enough food, and were often mistreated. Many of them were forced to work in poor conditions as no one would provide for them. Oliver Twist was one of these orphans. He was born in England in mid-19^th Century. When he was nine, he was put to work. Then, he ran away to London, and met someone who was trying to make him a pickpocket. Would Oliver become a criminal just to make his life better?

The young, hungry Oliver once said, ‘Please, sir, I want some more.’ His humble request for food has become a classic quote because it vividly shows how miserable an orphan’s life could be.

Oliver Twist

Author: Charles Dickens
Publish: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2005
ISBN: 1405073004

 

David Copperfield was written in the first person. It told the life of David Copperfield from a child to an adult. Although David’s father died before David was born, he had a kind and loving mother. However, everything changed when his mother remarried. His stepfather was cruel and treated David badly. David was sent away to a boarding school and then to work in his stepdad’s factory. He would face a lot of hardship before he grew up to become a successful writer.

Many things told in the story followed events in Charles Dickens’s life, and so people think the novel is in a way like Dickens’s autobiography. David Copperfield was also Charles Dickens’s favourite among his own works.

David Copperfield

Author: Charles Dickens
Publish: 商務印書館(香港), 2016
ISBN: 9789620704635

The opening line of A Tale of Two Cities is a classic and memorable one: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…’ How can a time be both the best and the worst, and both wise and foolish? The reader will wonder what the writer wants to tell us.

This classic story is set in the cities of London and Paris at the time of the French Revolution, which took place from 1789 to 1799 in France. Charles Darnay is a young Frenchman of the noble Evrémonde family. He didn’t like the cruel way his family treated the poor, and so he gave up his family name and moved to England. He married his love Lucie Manette. When Charles returned to France to help an old servant, he was put in jail and sentenced to death because of his noble background. Would he be able to escape from this great danger?