In this hauntingly beautiful volume, artist John A. Rice reenvisions Dickens’s seemingly familiar Christmas classic as a true Victorian ghost story. The Victorians knew that the end of the year is a precipice, a time of change and transition. They captured the essence of this season—the yearning for what is lost, the fear of the unknown, but also the hope for what is to come—in the fantastical storytelling tradition known as the “midwinter’s tale.” And of all such tales, the most famous is A Christmas Carol. In his new illustrated edition of A Christmas Carol, John A. Rice draws on the influence of Victorian Spiritualism and fin de siècle Symbolism to emphasize the deeper symbolism and spirituality of Dickens’s novella. Through five absorbing full-page illustrations and a number of enchanting vignettes—married to an elegant typographic design—Rice reveals Scrooge’s encounters with the spirits as a soul’s journey from darkness to light. This is a fresh presentation of a seemingly familiar classic, one that will inspire contemporary audiences to heed the lessons of the ghosts—just as Dickens intended—and be kind to each other this holiday season and all throughout the year.
