A NOVEL ALL ABOUT THE POWER OF LOVE

AMONG the most memorable Christmases in literature must be the Christmas eve at the opening of Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. 

This is when Pip becomes acquainted with the convict Magwitch, and helps the unfortunate man, keeping his secret. This meeting, and pity for the convict, will have great consequences for the whole of the young boy's life.

Another memorable Christmas is the Christmas ball in Jane Austen's Emma, where Emma receives an unwelcome marriage proposal! Despite Emma's annoyance during the ball, Jane Austen notes that it was all very Christmassy, with snow, pudding and mistletoe.

Of course, the number one Christmas in literature goes to Charles Dickens, for A Christmas Carol. This Christmas short story has been in print since 1843, when it was first published. Editors predict that it will stay in print forever, and publishers agree in one thing: only the actual story of Christ's birth is a more popular Christmas story than A Christmas Carol.

Though I am not a religious expert, I do know that the Ancient Greek (Olympian) religion celebrated the end of December, with decorations, feasts and gifts to honor the Gods. December marks the slow awakening of nature; the Christmas tree is a survivor of older religions, and signifies the hope for spring and abundance.

Charles Dickens and Christmas were conflated in the Victorian imagination. The first Christmas without Dickens (i.e. the Christmas of 1870, the first Christmas after Dickens's death) were tough for the British.

Great Expectations is a stellar novel, and not because it begins at Christmas. It is a novel all about the power of love; how love can be both a blessing and a curse. The novel is excellent, in that it shows a young man who is not afraid to love and suffer for love, a young man who loves the woman for what she is, the good and the bad, without ever wanting to change her.

I find it amazing how novels speak to us, and change our lives, hundreds, sometimes thousands of years after an author's death.

As the English patient says, in Michael Ondaatje's novel with the same name; "Words, Caravaggio. They have a power".

Have a lovely first day for the year! xxx