Quote of the Day (A.N. Wilson, on How ‘A Christmas Carol’ ‘Invented the Modern Christmas’)

“A Christmas Carol changed not only Dickens's life, but the Western world. It invented the modern Christmas. By February 1844 at least three theatrical productions based on the book were being performed in London alone. In the years that followed, he would publish further Christmas stories, including The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) and The Battle of Life (1846). As far as he was concerned, Christmas had become the busiest time of year and one of the most lucrative—especially after 1853, when he had begun a series of public readings of A Christmas Carol. The Christmas edition of All the Year Round was something he spent six months planning. For it was always the Carol, of all his stories for Christmas, that captured the imagination of readers. Before the Carol was published, Christmas Day was not a public holiday in Britain. By 1846 the newspapers were reporting that ‘Experienced salesmen at Leadenhall-market state that the demand for Christmas geese this year exceeded that of any previous season, and that the establishment of clubs has, within the last few days, brought upwards of 20,000 geese into the market. In some parts of the metropolis, “plum pudding clubs” have been established.’”—English man of letters A.N. Wilson, The Mystery of Charles Dickens (2020)

The image accompanying this post is one of the original 1843 illustrations by the Victorian cartoonist John Leech (1817-1864) in A Christmas Carol—in this case, one of the happier memories of Ebenezer Scrooge’s youth: Mr. Fezziwig’s ball. It comes from this post from The Victorian Web. (Scanned image by Philip V. Allingham.)

Quote of the Day (A.N. Wilson, on the ‘Light of Christ” at Easter and Beyond)

“The light of Christ is handed from neighbour to neighbour not only in the Easter ceremony but down the ages. The huge majority of Christians have derived their faith not from reading books but from contact with other people. One of the things that liturgy, or public prayer, does is link you and me now with all the many who have gone before us; not as a club, or a party or a political movement is linked — collectively — but as a series of flickering candle-flames, each distinct, each ablaze with a different light, though touched by the common source, which is Christ. Those of us who count ourselves (even if, as in my case, wishy-washily) among the Christian number do so because we have been shown the light by other Christian lives — by friends or family, or by lights in history.”— A.N. Wilson, “He Is Risen!” The Financial Times, Apr. 4-5, 2015

(The image accompanying this post is a detail from the painting Resurrection, by the Italian Renaissance master Piero della Francesca.)

Quote of the Day (A.N. Wilson, on the ‘Non-Historical Nature’ of the Gospels)

“The non-historical nature of the gospel narratives should not make us dismiss them as inventions. It is simply the case that their way of writing a narrative is not our way. If the authors had been inventing the whole story, they would surely have made it more emphatic, banishing doubt.” — A.N. Wilson, “He Is Risen!” The Financial Times, Apr. 4-5, 2015

(The image accompanying this post deals with the resolution of doubt: the 1602 oil painting Doubting Thomas, by Caravaggio.)