Acclaimed author Neil Gaiman performs a memorable dramatic reading from New York Public Library’s own rare copy of “A Christmas Carol,” which includes edits and prompts Charles Dickens wrote in his own hand for his unique public readings 150 years ago. Dressed in full costume and joined by writer and BBC researcher Molly Oldfield, Gaiman performs the classic tale as its great author intended.
This has all the best elements for me. Neil Gaiman is in the pantheon of my literary deities–I don’t know of another living writer who embodies storytelling skill as masterfully as he does.
His reading of A Christmas Carol takes me back to childhood. I grew up without television and movies, so it was a very big deal for my brothers and sisters and me to gather around the radio on Christmas Eve and try to tune into a broadcast of the old Campbell’s Soup dramatized version of Dickens’s famous old tale. Our mother would make a kettle of hot chocolate and bring us a huge bowl of buttered popcorn. We’d wrap ourselves in blankets and listen to this story until it ended just before midnight, and then we’d yawn ourselves off to bed in anticipation of Christmas morning.
I hope that you enjoy this story, read by a brilliant writer and creative, as much as I do.
One Response
I went to Los Angeles to watch and listen as Patrick Stewart did a reading of The Christmas Carol – wonderful and moving, his performance was Shakespearean/Lewis perfection!