Review by New York Times Review
"MR. DICKENS AND HIS CAROL" IS a novel for those who think they love Charles Dickens because they enjoyed film adaptations of "A Christmas Carol." Samantha Silva's confession that "the book is, most of all, a fan letter - a love letter" may explain why it reads at times like a treatment for a holiday comedy. Clearly she thinks it's funny, for example, to have Dickens step in "a steaming pile of dog excrement." But the book rises above farce when Silva lavishes her attention on moments that sparked her own imagination. She nicely captures the spirit of Dickens's favorite escape from his desk or from fights with his wife, his long midnight walks around London: "Fog hovered in the hat brims of cabdrivers, rolled into stairwells to blanket snoring beggars, crept down the Thames bridge by bridge." She convincingly portrays Dickens's restless energy, especially its manifestation in anxiety, his yearning for public approval, and how his narcissism could burn those drawn to his flame. After providing a glimpse of his wife, Catherine, and the children, Silva shuffles them offstage and brings on a young woman who becomes Dickens's romantic preoccupation during the few weeks in which this story takes place. Inspired in part by his notorious affair with the young actress Ellen Ternan, which actually would not begin until 1857, the character Eleanor Lovejoy is provided with a mute, tiny son named Timothy. Inevitably, he hurts his leg, and Dickens gives him a crutch. Silva is shameless in her plotting. Coincidences abound. Dickens eavesdrops on critiques of his reputation and strides out of late-night fog to overhear Maria Beadnell talking about him. The real Beadnell was Dickens's first love, in the early 1830s. Her parents didn't consider him a worthy suitor for their daughter. After a disappointing reunion in 1855, Dickens viciously parodied her as the witless Flora Finching in "Little Dorrit." Silva's fictional Beadnell shows up early and often, still young and slender, married a few years sooner than in real life. She materializes whenever Silva needs her, with the author acknowledging these appearances with such lines as "He could hardly believe his eyes." Dickens published "A Christmas Carol in Prose" in late 1843, in time for the holiday. The era is well documented, and when Silva weaves certain historical details into her story, she tends to spotlight them. "Tea, now? In the afternoon?" asks Dickens, and Maria Beadnell replies: "Haven't you heard? It's all the rage. With dinner so late these days, we all need a light repast to sustain us. You know that terrible sinking feeling 'round midafternoon? Of course, we have the Duchess of Bedford to thank for it." Silva's inside jokes are not subtle. "Mine is a bleak house," Dickens moans. His children gaze at him "with great expectation." The Ebenezer Temperance Society seeks a donation, and Dickens exclaims, "I'd like to screw and bruise them, scrouge and scruze them!" Fifty pages later, Dickens signs a hotel register - at Furnival's Inn, where he and Catherine had lived briefly when he was starting out - as Ebenezer Scrooge. He is hiding his identity, but he doesn't need to. The clerk doesn't recognize him, despite a sign reading "Charles Dickens Slept Here." Yet in the following scene Silva eschews vaudeville and again tunes herself to Dickens's imaginative frequency: "Dickens took off his hat with near-reverence as he stepped inside No. 13, at the top of the rickety stairs. The clerk used his candle to fire up the cloudy oil lamp on the mantel. ... He slid his hand across the dull grain of the old table, its nicks and burn marks, round spots of yellowed wax. He knew them all." At her worst, Silva elbows us to applaud a pratfall, but when she wants to, she inhabits Dickens's sensitivity to London's atmosphere, its chancellors and urchins, its cobblestones and fog. 'Mine is a bleak house,' he moans. His children gaze at him 'with great expectation.' MlCHAEL SIMS'S most recent nonfiction books are "The Adventures of Henry Thoreau" and "Arthur and Sherlock."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 14, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
It's November 1843, and Charles Dickens is a man besieged. His latest serial, Martin Chuzzlewit, isn't selling, and his wife and children expect a splendid Christmas, with expensive decorations and gifts. Other family members, reliant on his generosity, need him to pay their bills. Citing a clause in his contract, his publisher demands he write a Christmas-themed book to satisfy his fans, but time is pressing. And how can he get in the holiday mood when it's so unseasonably warm? Bah, humbug! Frustrated yet determined, Dickens embarks on a quest that takes him back to his old haunts and introduces him to a beautiful young seamstress who motivates him. Making her debut, Silva creatively imagines the circumstances that inspired A Christmas Carol. The characters and atmosphere of Victorian London feel wonderfully Dickensian, and it's fun to see Dickens gathering new material through his interactions. His writerly dilemmas should resonate with literary types, too. With the wit and sprightly tone of a classic storyteller, Silva presents a heartwarming tale of friendship and renewal that's imbued with the true Christmas spirit.--Johnson, Sarah Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT Silva's fiction debut offers a take on how Charles Dickens came to write his famous holiday story, A Christmas Carol. Dickens has just excitedly finished his latest installment of Martin Chuzzlewit and welcomed his sixth child when his publishers inform him that Chuzzlewit isn't selling and he needs to write a Christmas story or lose money from his advance. Dickens is adamantly opposed, but with family depending on him, he accepts the challenge. Beset by demands from everyone he encounters, he struggles to write the story. Finally, he's captivated by an unexpected muse and his holiday spirit comes back, inspiring the much-loved and enduring classic. VERDICT Silva has imagined an intriguing and atmospheric backstory to the quintessential holiday tale and its most revered author. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
