Dickens wrote other great Christmas stories besides that one about old Scrooge [View all]

Before there was a Grinch Who Stole Christmas, or any other Christmas-hating misanthrope, there was of course Ebenezer Scrooge, that “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner.” Scrooge, as we all know, was the creation of one of the most brilliant writers of all time, the “inimitable” Charles Dickens.

And though many have tried to imitate Dickens (including your truly, whose success in emulating the style of Dickens I will leave for you to decide), it may come as a surprise to know that the inspiration for Dickens’ classic Scrooge character came from another, previously published story, contained in one of Dickens’ earlier works – The Pickwick Papers. Dickens actually imitated Dickens.

The Pickwick Papers was Dickens’ first published book, written when he was in his early twenties, and contains a hodge-podge of stories — many of which are hysterically comical, even by today’s standards — which center around a bumbling but lovable gentleman named Pickwick and his coterie of friends, servants, and followers as they travel around jolly old England.

Chapter 29 of the Pickwick Papers is titled “The Goblins Who Stole A Sexton,” which I have taken the liberty of ripping it out of its original context — essentially a Christmastime ghost story told around the fireplace by a rich country gentleman — and presenting it here on its own for your holiday enjoyment.

Much like his literary descendant, old Scrooge, the villain of this tale not only hates Christmas, he also hates children. But his graphic comeuppance at the hands (and feet) of some particularly nasty goblins makes Scrooge’s visitation by three ghosts seem like a vacation in Bermuda. Other similarities between the two stories, and important differences, will be apparent upon reading it, and I will not subject you to a book report “comparing and contrasting” the two.

Nevertheless, I will add that the moral of The Goblins and Gabriel Grub, like that of The Christmas Carol, is not that we should all love and cherish the Christmas season as a time for friends and family to gather, although that is quite true, but much more importantly, that we should observe Christmas as a time for honoring the most precious and sacred of all people in our midst — children.

That is a moral which I believe worth reminding ourselves of at any time of the year.

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