Sunday, October 12, 2008

LIBRARY JOURNAL SAYS THUMBS UP!


Yes, Virginia, I do read the reviews (the good ones that is.) And that is me on the right, pensively waiting for this one to show up.


The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's a Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits
Standiford, Les (Author)
ISBN: 0307405788
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: 2008-11
Binding/Price/Pages: Hardcover, $19.95 (256p)
Subject: Biography & Autobiography Literary; Literary Criticism Regional, Ethnic, Genre, Specific Subject English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Ages:
Reviewed: 2008-09-01

What would Christmas be without the yearly viewing or reading of A Christmas Carol? It is a classic of the season-perhaps the most memorable Christmas tale of all time-that captures the spirit of the holiday. Thriller and nonfiction writer Standiford (Bone Key: A John Deal Novel; Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America) attempts to address what prompted Dickens to write this much-loved tale in this affectionate portrait of a once-successful writer trying desperately to revive his career. After a triumphant beginning, Dickens struggled as his later works failed to gain any critical or monetary success. Verging on bankruptcy and looking for inspiration, Dickens agreed to speak at a fund-raiser for the Manchester Athenaeum. Dickens left the event inspired and walked around Manchester until he had the fully formed Carol in his head. Standiford deftly traces the many influences in Dickens's life that led to and followed that momentous event, weaving an entertaining tale that will delight Dickens and Christmas lovers alike. Recommended for public libraries.-Deborah Hicks, Univ. of Alberta Lib., Edmonton

No comments: