The writer came from a poor family and is remembered as a friend to the poor throughout his life. The book did have the cultural impact Dickens was hoping for, though. “What a wonderful thing it is that such a great success should occasion me such intolerable anxiety and disappointment!” he wrote. But due to the book’s lavish bindings and the relatively low price he chose to sell it for, writes Michael Varese for The Guardian, much of that money didn’t make it back to the author, who was hoping to make at least £1000 from the book.

By the end of the next year, writes Brandon Ambrosino for Vox, the book had sold more than 15,000 copies. He sold out the first print run in a week, all 6,000 copies of it. The already well-known writer’s solution worked, to a degree. “Thinking creatively, he wrote himself out of his dilemma,” she reports. He’d spent too much on his 1842 American tour, Golden writes, and he needed to support his large family. And that’s why Dickens wrote it.Īside from boosting people’s awareness of the plight of the poor in Victorian England, though, Dickens also had a more immediate need: cash. But it also helped change Victorian society, writes historian Catherine Golden for the National Postal Museum blog. In some ways, it’s a very Victorian story of urban circumstances: extremes of wealth and poverty, industry and inability. The publication of A Christmas Carol on this day in 1843 ensured that Charles Dickens’ name would forever be linked with Christmas. Its author hoped that its lessons would be remembered all through the year.

A Christmas Carol is more than a timeless Christmas story.

Charles dickens a christmas story