menu
cover image A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens. Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, $30 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-55670-161-0

Few of the many interpretations of Dickens's holiday parable can match this handsome edition for atmosphere, mood and sheer elegance. Innocenti's full-page watercolors are striking, full-bodied evocations of 19th-century London, particularly the life and vigor of the city's streets: merchants sell their wares, urchins tumble and play, the gentry ride in their carriages, and the destitute huddle in doorways and keep warm at makeshift stoves. At the same time, the paintings' realism, dramatic intensity, occasional luminosity and almost microscopic observation of detail strongly recall the exquisite art of the Italian Renaissance. Their stateliness is carried through in the book's design: each page of text is boxed with fine sepia rules, overlaid with a delicate, gradually fading wash, and topped by a single, modest ornament. The effect suggests an old manuscript or parchment--one that, every so often, opens a splendid pictorial window on the world of this classic narrative. For all its elegance, however, this is a somber and unsentimental view of Dickens's world. The beautiful and the sordid, the good and the malevolent, are never far apart--a concept that is powerfully suggested through the frequent use of high, oddly angled perspectives, as if readers, along with Scrooge and the spirits, are privy to telling glimpses of life skimmed from above. All ages. (Oct.)
close
Details

Reviewed on: 08/29/1990

Genre: Fiction

Compact Disc - 978-1-4332-1421-9

Compact Disc - 978-1-4417-1116-8

Compact Disc - 978-1-4332-1421-9

Compact Disc - 978-1-6651-9015-2

Compact Disc - 979-8-200-52514-0

Hardcover - 50 pages - 978-1-64032-113-7

Hardcover - 112 pages - 978-0-7358-4421-6

Hardcover - 82 pages - 978-1-161-41652-7

Hardcover - 144 pages - 978-0-14-312249-4

Hardcover - 152 pages - 978-1-56846-278-3

Hardcover - 96 pages - 978-0-435-12405-2

Hardcover - 2 pages - 978-1-84456-083-7

Hardcover - 82 pages - 978-1-169-22867-2

Hardcover - 112 pages - 978-1-60512-018-8

Hardcover - 152 pages - 978-1-56846-278-3

Hardcover - 112 pages - 978-1-60512-018-8

Hardcover - 160 pages - 978-0-7636-3120-8

Hardcover - 120 pages - 978-1-4218-0610-5

Hardcover - 136 pages - 978-93-89157-97-0

Hardcover - 112 pages - 978-1-61895-948-5

Hardcover - 98 pages - 978-0-359-94787-4

Hardcover - 127 pages - 978-1-929266-19-7

Hardcover - 78 pages - 978-3-7523-6646-4

Hardcover - 116 pages - 978-1-934169-02-5

MP3 CD - 1 pages - 978-1-4332-1422-6

MP3 CD - 979-8-200-52513-3

Paperback - 142 pages - 978-0-87946-442-4

Paperback - 50 pages - 978-1-64032-114-4

Paperback - 82 pages - 978-1-162-64787-6

Paperback - 70 pages - 978-1-936041-56-5

Paperback - 116 pages - 978-3-640-22785-3

Paperback - 112 pages - 978-1-936594-34-4

Paperback - 100 pages - 978-1-935785-76-7

Paperback - 130 pages - 978-0-9816466-5-7

Paperback - 108 pages - 978-1-60796-193-2

Paperback - 86 pages - 978-1-4486-8268-3

Paperback - 80 pages - 978-1-4499-1041-9

Paperback - 160 pages - 978-1-60450-953-3

Paperback - 94 pages - 978-3-8424-4333-4

Paperback - 70 pages - 978-1-4610-6553-1

Paperback - 102 pages - 978-0-9829543-5-5

Paperback - 82 pages - 978-1-162-64787-6

Paperback - 48 pages - 978-1-906814-35-9

Paperback - 64 pages - 978-1-906230-02-9

Paperback - 96 pages - 978-0-9551566-8-7

Paperback - 96 pages - 978-1-85459-987-2

Paperback - 112 pages - 978-1-60512-118-5

Paperback - 160 pages - 978-1-4341-0214-0

Paperback - 94 pages - 978-3-8424-4333-4

Paperback - 110 pages - 978-1-61949-011-6

Paperback - 112 pages - 978-1-4414-0838-9

Paperback - 150 pages - 978-1-948696-20-3

Paperback - 138 pages - 978-0-578-74659-3

Paperback - 78 pages - 978-3-7523-1212-6

Paperback - 80 pages - 978-1-55742-983-4

Paperback - 96 pages - 978-1-85459-987-2

Paperback - 112 pages - 978-1-60512-118-5

Paperback - 160 pages - 978-1-4341-0214-0

Paperback - 160 pages - 978-0-14-132452-4

Paperback - 96 pages - 978-0-9551566-8-7

Paperback - 164 pages - 978-1-931243-18-6

Paperback - 128 pages - 978-1-78955-059-7

Paperback - 110 pages - 978-1-61895-947-8

Paperback - 98 pages - 978-0-359-94670-9

Paperback - 170 pages - 978-1-7225-0297-3

Paperback - 128 pages - 978-1-7342722-1-5

Paperback - 84 pages - 978-1-9816-8166-2

Paperback - 70 pages - 978-1-4942-5380-6

Paperback - 198 pages - 978-1-7212-8530-3

Paperback - 78 pages - 978-3-7523-1212-6

Paperback - 138 pages - 978-0-578-74659-3

Paperback - 150 pages - 978-1-948696-20-3

Paperback - 98 pages - 978-93-89843-12-5

Paperback - 102 pages - 978-93-88318-26-6

Paperback - 110 pages - 978-81-949145-3-2

Paperback - 34 pages - 978-1-396-32132-0

Paperback - 164 pages - 978-1-931243-18-6

Paperback - 112 pages - 978-0-486-45124-4

Paperback - 116 pages - 978-1-934169-03-2

Paperback - 80 pages - 978-1-55742-983-4