The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge

Many years ago, while browsing the shelves of W.H.Smith in Paris, I stumbled into a small book, elegantly written and brilliant as few books can be: "Frozen Desire - An Inquiry into the meaning of money" by James Buchan. In that book the writer argued that obsession with money was in fact mirror of an obsession with time. Money in other words to Buchan was but "frozen desire". * This book, "The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge" can be considered a variation on that theme. Focusing on the popularity and significance of Dickens' "Christmas Carol", the author look into the despair caused by the "frozen desire": the impossibility to live a meaningful life, the systematic postponement of pleasure and in the end the loss of every sense and true significance of life. * Since 1843 when it first made it appearance, Scrooge has been able to become a much larger persona than the main character of Dickens' Christmas story. He has been able to pervade the Christmas imaginary, becoming a symbol not just of redemption but as well of the afflictions of the modern times. * The book is organized around three main themes. * The first deals with Dickens writing of the story and the original message he wanted to relay. * The second has more to do with the reception of the story by contemporaries and its importance in shaping the idea of Christmas, while each new generation of readers re-interpreted the story. * The third - probably the most interesting - focuses on what Davis calls "the economics of Christmas" and analyzes this obsession with money versus the spirit of community incarnated by Christmas. * I read this book with immense pleasure. Compared to "Frozen Desire", the style here is less colorful and more modest, but Davis is able to hold the attention of the reader to the last page. Shame the book is currently out of print! * While Dickens in writing the Carol wanted it to be primarily a denunciation of the inhumane conditions in which the poor lived, it ended to became - already under his pen - a true mirror of the hopes and fears that haunted both contemporaries and posterity. Dickens effectively ended in reinventing Christmas, from countryside tradition to urban institution, from religious to secular celebration (a feature this one, that was harshly criticized by some contemporaries). * Notwithstanding this worldly dimension, Davis is able to emphasize the spiritual and religious sensibility that pervades the story: the model of the Bunjam's "Pilgrim Progress", image of the holy family mirrored in Tiny Tim's family, the many conversions of Scrooge ... It was this aspect that permitted the story to be read and reinvented by each new generation of readers: mirror story of the holy family, exemplary account of the punishment and conversion of the miser, ... * A true cameo is the story of the metamorphosis and reinvention of the Christmas Carol during the 1930s: the inspiration it provided to Frank Capra's "It's a wonderful life" (Lionel Bar