Ghost story · Drama
A Christmas Carol
On Christmas Eve, the miser Scrooge is visited by three ghosts who show him his past, present and future.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
Marley was dead
On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold and miserly London businessman, refuses to give to charity, turns down his nephew’s invitation to dinner and grudgingly lets his poor clerk, Bob Cratchit, have Christmas Day off. That night the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley, appears in chains and warns him that three spirits will visit him. They show him Christmases past, present and yet to come. Charles Dickens published the story in December 1843, and it has been a Christmas favorite ever since.
Why it works for learners
It’s short, the length of a long short story, and divided into five “staves”, each a complete scene. The structure is simple and the moral is clear. Everyone knows the outline, which helps you follow it in a new language with confidence. The vocabulary is wonderfully concrete: cold, fog, fire, coal, money, food, Christmas, family, ghost, grave. Dickens’s descriptions of the Cratchits’ Christmas dinner and old Fezziwig’s party are among the most famous scenes of food and celebration in English, and they translate well.
Which level to start at
A2 is a good start, and B1 is ideal. B2 brings out more of Dickens’s humor, which is sharper than most adaptations suggest. It’s a book you can finish in a few evenings, and it was made to be heard: Dickens gave public readings of it for years, so try the narration, with each ghost in its own voice.
Read next
- Oliver Twist, Dickens’s London at its darkest
- The Canterville Ghost, a ghost story played for laughs
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a ghost story for Halloween