A Timeless Tale
© Meg Greene Malvasi
In the late fall of 1843, when he first began writing A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens was thirty-one years old. He was already a successful author of such works as The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Old Curiosity Shop. But even though his earlier works had proven popular with readers, Dickens was struggling with the publication of his latest novel, Martin Chuzzlewit, which was selling poorly. As a result, Dickens' publishers were threatening to reduce his salary. To add to his pressures, Dickens' wife Catherine was expecting their fifth child. His growing money problems even had Dickens considering the possibility of leaving England for Italy, where the cost of living was much cheaper.
Money had always been a worry for Dickens. He was born into a struggling lower-middle class family, who at one point was sent to debtor's prison, an experience that affected Dickens deeply for the rest of his life. But despite these grim circumstances, Dickens drew on his early life experiences in writing Christmas Carol The family home in Camden Town, London, a four-room house at 16 Bayham Street is thought to have been the model for Ebeneezer Scrooge's struggling clerk Bob Cratchits' house. The six Cratchit children are also believed to correspond to the six Dickens children, including Dickens's youngest brother, a sickly boy, known as "Tiny Fred," who was the inspiration for the character of "Tiny Tim." Dickens remembered too, that in spite of his family's constant money troubles, the Christmas holidays were always a happy time. Even well into his adult life, Christmas remained one Dickens' favorite times of the year.
