Today in History—December 19: Bah, Humbug!

Charles Dickens’s parable A Christmas Carol was first published on December 19, 1843. Firmly entrenched in the genre of holiday classics, the tale was written by Dickens in the span of six weeks. And lucky for him, the story was wildly popular, selling out by Christmas Eve. Dickens didn’t write it just for fun either: He had a message for his readers, just like the Ghosts of Christmas did for miserly old Scrooge. Most of Dickens’s stories were, at the end of the day, class commentary. Dickens had been forced to work at a factory as a child after his father was thrown into debtor’s prison, and the abysmal working conditions he faced permanently impacted his beliefs.

In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge meets the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, each of whom guide him through where he’s gone wrong in his life. The story addresses the fact that redemption may be possible, even for the richest and most corrupt among us. Controversial, we know.

Victorian England was marked by a widening gap between rich and poor, and Dickens, having grown up under difficult circumstances, was determined to address this without scaring off his more affluent readers. Inserting a certain level of gothic horror into the story made the delicate topic of class a bit more approachable. That’s why A Christmas Carol’s redemption message was so important, too. The Scrooge we first meet is miles away from the kindly, generous old man we witness at the end of the tale. Of course, real life isn’t quite so simple, and Scrooge’s dramatic change in personality might be just a bit exaggerated. Regardless, we like to think that the story can inspire a spirit of generosity during the holiday season.