The Christmas Eve cover

The Christmas Eve

Rating 4.5
Word count
170K words
Chapters
17

Tags

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Der Weihnachtsabend by Charles DickensAuthor: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870,Language: German, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Aug 31, 2007

Editor's review

This is the German translation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol, a public-domain ebook. The story tells of the miserly businessman Scrooge, who is guided by successively visiting spirits on Christmas Eve, gradually awakens, and changes his way of treating others. The German translation preserves the original's narrative rhythm, in which warmth and satire coexist. It is not long, making it a good introduction to Dickens and also suitable as graded reading material for German learners. The electronic edition makes it easy to look up new words and read alongside the English original. As you read, note how the order of the spirits' visits corresponds to the protagonist's psychological transformation; this reveals the work's structural care more than simply remembering the plot.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who want to read Dickens but worry about length
  • Learners with basic German who want to practice reading with literary texts
  • Readers interested in Christmas themes and Western holiday culture

Not a good fit for

  • Beginners with no German reading ability at all
  • Readers expecting a research-oriented annotated or scholarly edition

Reading tips

  1. Read through once to understand the plot; on the second pass, look up new words and sort out the characters.
  2. Read alongside the English original or a Chinese translation and compare how the translation handles the text.
  3. Read in sections following the order of the spirits' visits; pause after each section to feel the protagonist's change.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17

FAQ

Can I read this book without knowing German?
The original is in German, and reading it with no German will be very difficult. You could first read the English original or a Chinese translation, then use the German edition as language-learning material for comparison.
What is the relationship between this book and A Christmas Carol?
Der Weihnachtsabend is the German title of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It tells the story of Scrooge's transformation on Christmas Eve and is not a separate work.
How should I read the electronic edition?
Use reading software that supports dictionary lookup and annotation; mark new words and key plot points as you read so you can quickly find them when reviewing.

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About the author

Charles Dickens (Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870) is one of the most influential novelists in the history of English literature. The library holds 115 of his works, including novels, novellas and short stories; representative titles include The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol. He was known for serialized fiction, with plot twists and vivid characters, and he used humor and satire to portray Victorian society, paying particular attention to poor children, the lower classes and education, and his works often convey warmth and moral concern. In the library his works are often classified under "inspirational growth," and many of his novels have been adapted for stage and screen and are widely circulated. Public information about the details of his life is limited, so no speculation is offered here.

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