This succinct little jewel of a story is one of those that should grace every library and be pulled out once a year to be read amongst the family around the fireside. It's not only an excellently-told tale of human redemption ; it's a banquet for the literary senses.
With perfect balance, timing and description, Dickens recounts the events that lead up to the softening, repentance and restoration of the legendary misanthrope Scrooge, whose name has become a by-word the world over for hard-frozen miserliness. But the wonder of the thing is the way in which the author weaves before our very eyes the stuff of Scrooge's heart and soul, it's ruin, and it's glorious healing, so spectacular that it immediately benefits, warms and illuminates all the lives that touch his own.
It's a book to be read, re-read and treasured.