Ah, a Christmas classic! I very much enjoyed the animated Mickey Mouse version when I was a kid, but I had never read the book until now. I did read Charles Dickens in high school, and I'd definitely forgotten how dated his writing is. The familiar story was entertaining and heartwarming, even if I did have trouble parsing some phrases, and had to settle for getting the gist of some passages. If it weren't for the accompanying illustrations, I'm not sure if I would have figured out that Bob Cratchit's "comforter" was a scarf!
One particular quote struck me as timelessly relevant. At one point (on pages 116-117 of my edition), the Ghost of Christmas Present says to Scrooge, "There are some upon this earth of yours who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name; who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us."
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