3 Dec, 2009
Our Christmas stories
A Christmas Rewrite, as Dickens Edits Dickens
It is an enduring mystery of English literature: What secrets lie entombed beneath the thick scribbles that Charles Dickens made as he wrote, and rewrote, the 66 pages of “A Christmas Carol” in 1843? The manuscript of this classic holiday ghost story, written in six weeks to raise much-needed cash, is housed at the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan, where it bears all of Dickens’s additions and subtractions in his own hand.
On page 3, he inserts “his eyes sparkled” to amplify the portrait of Scrooge’s nephew, whose beneficence is crucial to the plot. On page 12, where Scrooge takes Marley’s ghost to be evidence not of the supernatural, but of his own indigestion, (“more of gravy than of grave,”) he converts the offending bit of food from being a “spot of mustard” to a less digestible “blot of mustard.”
The manuscript is exhibited each holiday season at the Morgan, but as a matter of expedience, only one page is put on view each year, under glass, in the sumptuous former library of the financier John Pierpont Morgan.
This year’s page describes a moment when Scrooge hears Bob Cratchit report that the sickly Tiny Tim is “growing strong and hearty.’’ Initially, Dickens had Scrooge demand: “Is that so, Spirit?” only to be disabused of that notion by the Ghost of Christmas Present. “The child will die,’’ the spirit advises him.
Dickens regretted divulging that fact so soon and restored the passage two pages later in the text, employing a half-cross-out approach with his quill pen that came in handy when he was not quite ready to throw words away.
On Friday, six Morgan museum officials — a curator, a registrar, an assistant registrar, a technician, a conservator and a spokesman — oversaw the installation of the manuscript in the elegant period room that once housed Mr. Morgan’s personal library.
First to behold the results was Rob Matthews, 35, an artist from Philadelphia.
“I’m not sure how the printers made this out,’’ Mr. Matthews said, squinting. “This is notoriously bad penmanship.’’
Story & photo courtesy of — The New York Times
Matthew 1:24-25 (NIV)
"When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus."
Luke 2:6-7 (NIV)
"While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."
When you tell a story does it ever change as you're telling it?
Maybe after you've told a story about your grandpa it took several tellings before you settled upon just the right word to describe grandpa's mood that night when he threw grandma's Christmas stocking into the fire place. He wasn't "cranky", although that's what you told your friends at work the first time you told the story, he wasn't "grumpy", although that's what you told your small group at church, he was actually "grouchy", which is the word you finally settled upon after several tellings and have cemented into the story as just the right word to describe your grandfathers mood that infamous Christmas Eve years ago.
Maybe Luke and Matthew were the same way. In collecting the oral traditions of the birth narratives Matthew and Luke sifted and sorted through dozens of accounts passed on from eyewitnesses to the events themselves. Thus each story had particular details emphasized, depending on the perspective of the story teller. So in this respect Matthew and Luke were more like "editors" than writers of these stories. Their job was to uncover layers and layers of meaning from the oral traditions and pass those on to their readers.
I've always wondered why they chose to tell us what they did? Why does Luke emphasize the physical wrapping and laying of Jesus in a manger? Why does Matthew emphasize the naming of the child but make no mention of the manger?
Take some time to read the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke and see what stands out. How are they similar, how are they different? Which details really bring the story to life for you? Try to pick out the themes, unique language, and story telling style of each gospel author. Above all, as you read each version of the birth of Jesus, allow it to "read you" too. In other words, listen to what God is telling you about how you are to live in response to the life changing gift of Jesus!
- Ask your parents or grandparents to tell you their version of a favorite family Christmas story.
- Do something "story worthy" this Christmas. Imitate God's gift of Christ by (serving, giving, loving) someone in a life changing way.
- Ask a friend to tell you one of their favorite Christmas stories
- Tell the story of Jesus' birth from memory to a friend. Take note of which details you emphasize and which ones you don't. Is your story more like Matthew's or Luke's?
- February 2012 [5]
- January 2012 [18]
- December 2011 [20]
- November 2011 [15]
- October 2011 [15]
- September 2011 [14]
- August 2011 [22]
- July 2011 [19]
- June 2011 [21]
- May 2011 [20]
- April 2011 [20]
- March 2011 [21]
- February 2011 [20]
- January 2011 [21]
- December 2010 [21]
- November 2010 [21]
- October 2010 [21]
- September 2010 [22]
- August 2010 [21]
- July 2010 [22]
- June 2010 [20]
- May 2010 [18]
- April 2010 [21]
- March 2010 [23]
- February 2010 [19]
- January 2010 [22]
- December 2009 [22]
- November 2009 [21]
- October 2009 [22]
- September 2009 [21]
- August 2009 [20]
- July 2009 [21]
- June 2009 [22]
- May 2009 [18]
- April 2009 [15]
- March 2009 [7]
- February 2009 [17]
- January 2009 [20]
- December 2008 [23]
- November 2008 [19]
- October 2008 [22]
- September 2008 [22]
- August 2008 [19]
- July 2008 [22]
- June 2008 [11]
- May 2008 [19]
- April 2008 [22]
- March 2008 [21]
- February 2008 [18]
- January 2008 [20]
- December 2007 [18]
- November 2007 [15]
- October 2007 [19]
- September 2007 [18]
- August 2007 [12]
- July 2007 [12]
- June 2007 [9]
- May 2007 [11]
- April 2007 [10]
- March 2007 [11]
- February 2007 [14]
- January 2007 [7]
- December 2006 [4]
- November 2006 [13]
- October 2006 [17]
- September 2006 [11]
- August 2006 [16]
- July 2006 [10]
- June 2006 [3]
