Brooks on Books: The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford

OK, "The Man Who Invented Christmas" isn't exactly an appropriate title. Would you believe, "The Man Who Loved Christmas and, Through His Enduring Short Novel, Did Much to Assure the Continuing Growing Popularity of the Holiday"?

Not quite as catchy, eh? Well, Standiford writes a fun, short account of Charles Dickens' creation of "A Christmas Carol" nevertheless. As for that hyperbolic title, Standiford himself makes no such claim for Dickens. He points out the lasting influence "A Christmas Carol" has had in our culture, but I'm pretty sure he only says that many commentators have given the author such credit.

It doesn't matter, though. Instead of focusing on what Dickens isn't, focus on what this book IS: A concise biography of Dickens himself, an entertaining account of the writing of perhaps his most famous work, and a brief history of the Christmas holiday itself. Standiford himself is modest regarding his goals, but he's written a real winner here. It's not exactly small enough to be a stocking stuffer, but the compact volume should make a great gift this season.

At the time he conceived "A Christmas Carol," Dickens, though a prominent and highly successful author, was in the midst of a series of commercial and personal setbacks. So while this isn't exactly a case of a guy scraping himself off the bottom to achieve sudden fame, Standiford does a good job of establishing the stakes for the author and how significant this work was for him. He barely needs to convince us of the continuing modern impact of the story, but the book is effective here as well.

We've been saturated with Scrooge for so long in so many different variations that it's possible the core story has been diluted somewhat. That's as good a reason as any to go back and, if not read the actual book, read Standiford's engaging tale of its creation. It's a fast but worthy experience, one that'll fill you with "ho ho ho" and Christmas cheer.