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A Christmas Carol
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A Christmas Carol
First edition cover (1843)
Author
Charles Dickens
Original title
A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.
Illustrator
John Leech
Country
England
Published
19 December 1843
Publisher
Chapman & Hall
Text
A Christmas Carol at Wikisource
A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843; the first edition was illustrated by John Leech. A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol at a time when the British were examining and exploring Christmas traditions from the past, such as carols, as well as new customs such as Christmas trees. He was influenced by experiences from his own past, and from the Christmas stories of other authors, including Washington Irving and Douglas Jerrold. Dickens had written three Christmas stories prior to the novella, and was inspired to write the story following a visit to the Field Lane Ragged school, one of several establishments for London's half-starved, illiterate street children. The treatment of the poor and the ability of a self-interested man redeeming himself by transforming into a more sympathetic character are the key themes of the story. There is discussion among academics as to whether this was a fully secular story, or if it is a Christian allegory.
Published on 19 December, the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve; by the end of 1844 thirteen editions had been released. Most critics reviewed the novella positively. The story was illicitly copied in January 1844; Dickens took action against the publishers, who went bankrupt, further reducing Dickens's small profits from the publication. He went on to write four other Christmas stories in subsequent years. In 1849 he began public readings of the story which proved so successful he undertook 127 further performances until 1870, the year of his death. A Christmas Carol has never been out of print and has been translated into several languages; the story has been adapted many times for film, stage, opera and other media.
With A Christmas Carol, Dickens captured the zeitgeist of the mid-Victorian revival of the Christmas holiday. He has been acknowledged as an influence on the modern Western observance of Christmas and inspired several aspects of Christmas, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games and a festive generosity of spirit.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
1.1 Stave one
1.2 Stave two
1.3 Stave three
1.4 Stave four
1.5 Stave five
2 Background
2.1 Literary influences
2.2 Social influences
2.3 Writing history
3 Characters
4 Themes
5 Publication
6 Reception
7 Aftermath
8 Performances and adaptations
9 Legacy
10 See also
11 Notes
12 References
13 Sources
13.1 Books
13.2 Online resources
13.3 Newspapers, journals and magazines
14 External links
Plot[edit]
"Marley's Ghost", original illustration by John Leech from the 1843 edition
Dickens divided the book into five chapters, which he labelled "staves".
Stave one[edit]
The story begins on a cold and bleak Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old miser, hates Christmas and refuses an invitation to Christmas dinner from his nephew Fred. He turns away two men who seek a donation from him in order to provide food and heating for the poor, and only grudgingly allows his overworked, underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off with pay to conform to the social custom.
At home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth, entwined by heavy chains and money boxes, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley tells Scrooge that he has one chance to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits and he must listen to them or be cursed to carry chains of his own, much longer than Marley's chains.
Stave two[edit]
The first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of Scrooge's boyhood and youth, reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The boyhood scenes portray Scrooge's lonely childhood, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan, and a Christmas party hosted by his first employer, Mr. Fezziwig, who treated Scrooge like a son. They also portray Scrooge's neglected fiancée Belle, who ends their relationship after she realises that Scrooge will never love her as much as he loves money. Finally, they visit a now-married Belle with her large, happy family on a recent Christmas Eve.
Stave three[edit]
The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to a joy-filled market of people buying the makings of Christmas dinner and celebrations of Christmas in a miner's cottage and in a lighthouse. Scrooge and the ghost also visit Fred's Christmas party. A major part of this stave is taken up with Bob Cratchit's family feast and introduces his youngest son, Tiny Tim, a happy boy who is seriously ill. The spirit informs Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die soon unless the course of events changes. Before disappearing, the spirit shows Scrooge two hideous, emaciated children named Ignorance and Want. He tells Scrooge to beware the former above all and mocks Scrooge's concern for their welfare.
Stave four[edit]
Scrooge and Bob Cratchit celebrate Christmas in an illustration from Stave Five of the original edition, 1843.
The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge a Christmas Day in the future. The ghost shows him scenes involving the death of a disliked man. The man's funeral will only be attended by local businessmen if lunch is provided. His charwoman Mrs. Dilber, his laundress, and the local undertaker steal some of his possessions and sell them to a fence named Old Joe. When Scrooge asks the ghost to show anyone who feels any emotion over the man's death, the ghost can only show him the pleasure of a poor couple in debt to the man, rejoicing that his death gives them more time to put their finances in order. After Scrooge asks to see some tenderness connected with any death, the ghost shows him Bob Cratchit and his family mourning the passing of Tiny Tim. The ghost then shows Scrooge the man's neglected grave, whose tombstone bears Scrooge's name. Sobbing, Scrooge pledges to the ghost that he will change his ways to avoid this outcome.
Stave five[edit]
Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning a changed man. He spends the day with Fred's family and anonymously sends a large turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner. The following day, he gives Cratchit an increase in pay and becomes like another father to Tiny Tim. From then on Scrooge begins to treat everyone with kindness, generosity and compassion, embodying the spirit of Christmas.
Background[edit]
Dickens at the blacking warehouse, as envisioned by Fred Barnard
The writer Charles Dickens was born to a respectable family which got into financial difficulties as a result of the spendthrift nature of John, Dickens's father. In 1824 John was committed to Marshalsea, a debtors' prison in Southwark, London. Dickens, aged 12, was forced to pawn his collection of books, leave school and go to work at a shoe-blacking factory, a dirty and rat-infested place. The change in Dickens's circumstances gave him what his biographer, Michael Slater, described as a "deep personal and social outrage", which heavily influenced his works.[1]
At the end of December 1842 Dickens began publishing his novel Martin Chuzzlewit as a monthly serial;[n 1] although the novel was his favourite work, sales had been disappointing and he faced financial difficulties.[2] By this time he was a well-established author, having written six major works,[n 2] as well as several short stories, novellas and other works.[3]
Celebrating the Christmas season had been growing in popularity through the Victorian era.[4] Although the Christmas tree had been introduced in Britain during the 18th century, its use was popularised by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and their practice was copied in many homes across the country.[5] In the early 19th century there had been a revival of interest in Christmas carols, following a decline in popularity over the previous hundred years. The publication of Davies Gilbert's 1823 work Some Ancient Christmas Carols, With the Tunes to Which They Were Formerly Sung in the West of England and William Sandys's 1833 collection Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern led to a growth in the form's popularity in Britain.[6]
Dickens had an interest in Christmas, and his first story on the subject was "Christmas Festivities", published in Bell's Weekly Messenger in 1835; the story was then published as "A Christmas Dinner" in Sketches by Boz (1836).[7] "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton", another Christmas story, appeared in the 1836 novel The Pickwick Papers,[n 3] followed by a passage about Christmas in Dickens's editorial Master Humphrey's Clock.[9]
Literary influences[edit]
Washington Irving in 1820
Dickens was not the first author to celebrate the Christmas season in literature.[10] Among earlier authors who influenced Dickens was Washington Irving, whose 1819–20 work The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. included four essays on old English Christmas traditions that he experienced while staying at Aston Hall near Birmingham.[11] The tales and essays attracted Dickens, and the two authors shared the belief that the staging of a nostalgic English Christmas might help restore the social harmony that had been lost in the modern world.[12]
Several works may have had an influence on the writing of A Christmas Carol, including two Douglas Jerrold essays: one from an 1841 issue of Punch, "How Mr. Chokepear Keeps a Merry Christmas" and one from 1843, "The Beauties of the Police".[13] More broadly, Dickens was influenced by fairy tales and nursery stories, which he closely associated with Christmas, because he saw them as stories of conversion and transformation.[14]
Social influences[edit]
Charles Dickens in 1842, the year before the publication of A Christmas Carol
Dickens was touched by the lot of poor children in the middle decades of the 19th century.[15] In early 1843 he toured the Cornish tin mines, where he was angered after seeing children working in appalling conditions.[16] The suffering he witnessed there was reinforced by a visit to the Field Lane Ragged school, one of several London schools set up for the education of the capital's half-starved, illiterate street children.[17]
In February 1843 the Second Report of the Children's Employment Commission was published. It was a parliamentary report exposing the effects of the Industrial Revolution upon working class children. Horrified by what he read, Dickens planned to publish an inexpensive political pamphlet tentatively titled, An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man's Child, but changed his mind, deferring the pamphlet's production until the end of the year.[18] In March he wrote to Dr. Southwood Smith, one of the four commissioners responsible for the Second Report, about his change in plans: "you will certainly feel that a Sledge hammer has come down with twenty times the force—twenty thousand times the force—I could exert by following out my first idea".[19]
In a fundraising speech on 5 October 1843 at the Manchester Athenaeum, Dickens urged workers and employers to join together to combat ignorance with educational reform,[20] and realised in the days following that the most effective way to reach the broadest segment of the population with his social concerns about poverty and injustice was to write a deeply felt Christmas narrative rather than polemical pamphlets and essays.[21]
Writing history[edit]
John Leech, illustrator of the first edition
By mid-1843 Dickens began to suffer from financial problems. Sales of Martin Chuzzlewit were slowing, and his wife, Catherine, was pregnant with the couple's fifth child. Matters worsened when Chapman & Hall, Martin Chuzzlewit's publishers, began to talk about reducing his monthly income by £50 if sales dropped further.[22] He began to write A Christmas Carol in October 1843.[23] Michael Slater, Dickens's biographer, describes the book as being "written at white heat"; it was completed in six weeks, with the final pages written in early December.[24] He built much of the work in his head while taking night-time walks of 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) around London.[25] Slater says that A Christmas Carol was
intended to open its readers' hearts towards those struggling to survive on the lower rungs of the economic ladder and to encourage practical benevolence, but also to warn of the terrible danger to society created by the toleration of widespread ignorance and actual want among the poor.[15]
George Cruikshank, the illustrator who had previously worked with Dickens on Sketches by Boz (1836) and Oliver Twist (1838), introduced him to the caricaturist John Leech. By 24 October Dickens invited Leech to work on A Christmas Carol, and four hand-coloured etchings and four black-and-white wood engravings by the artist accompanied the text.[26]
Characters[edit]
John Elwes, also called John the Miser; one of the models for Scrooge
The central character of A Christmas Carol is Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly London-based moneylender,[27] described in the story as "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!"[28] Kelly writes that Scrooge may have been influenced by Dickens's conflicting feelings for his father, whom he both loved and demonised. This psychological conflict may be responsible for the two radically different Scrooges in the tale—one a cold, stingy and greedy semi-recluse, the other a benevolent, sociable man.[29] Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, the professor of English literature, considers that in the opening part of the book covering young Scrooge's lonely and unhappy childhood, and his aspiration for money to avoid poverty "is something of a self-parody of Dickens's fears about himself"; the post-transformation parts of the book are how Dickens optimistically sees himself.[30]
Scrooge could also be based on two misers: the eccentric John Elwes, MP,[31] or Jemmy Wood, the owner of the Gloucester Old Bank who was also known as "The Gloucester Miser".[32] According to the sociologist Frank W. Elwell, Scrooge's views on the poor are a reflection of those of the demographer and political economist Thomas Malthus,[33] while the miser's questions "Are there no prisons? ... And the Union workhouses? ... The treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" are a reflection of a sarcastic question raised by the Chartist philosopher Thomas Carlyle, "Are there not treadmills, gibbets; even hospitals, poor-rates, New Poor-Law?"[34][n 4]
There are literary precursors for Scrooge in Dickens's own works. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens's biographer, sees similarities between Scrooge and the elder Martin Chuzzlewit character, although the miser is "a more fantastic image" than the Chuzzlewit patriarch; Ackroyd observes that Chuzzlewit's transformation to a charitable figure is a parallel to that of the miser.[36] Douglas-Fairhurst sees that the minor character Gabriel Grub from The Pickwick Papers was also an influence when creating Scrooge.[37][n 5] Scrooge's name came from a tombstone Dickens had seen on a visit to Edinburgh. The grave was for Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, whose job was given as a meal man—a corn merchant; Dickens misread the inscription as "mean man".[39][n 6]
When Dickens was young he lived near a tradesman's premises with the sign "Goodge and Marney", which may have provided the name for Scrooge's former business partner.[41] For the chained Marley, Dickens had remembered a visit he had made to the Western Penitentiary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in March 1842, where he saw—and was affected by seeing—fettered prisoners.[34] For the character Tiny Tim, Dickens used his nephew Henry, a disabled boy who was five at the time A Christmas Carol was written.[42][n 7] The two figures of Want and Ignorance, sheltering in the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present were inspired by the children Dickens had seen on his visit to a ragged School in the East End of London.[17]
Themes[edit]
Ignorance and Want from the original edition, 1843
The transformation of Scrooge is central to the story.[44] Kelly writes that the transformation is reflected in the description of Scrooge, who begins as a two-dimensional character, but who then grows into one who "possess[es] an emotional depth [and] a regret for lost opportunities".[45] Some writers, including Grace Moore, the Dickens scholar, consider that there is a Christian theme running through A Christmas Carol, and that the novella should be seen as an allegory of the Christian concept of redemption.[46][n 8] Dickens's biographer, Claire Tomalin sees the conversion of Scrooge as carrying the Christian message that "even the worst of sinners may repent and become a good man".[48] Dickens's attitudes towards organised religion were complex,[n 9] although he based his beliefs and principles within the New Testament.[51] Dickens's statement that Marley "had no bowels" is a reference to the "bowels of compassion" mentioned in I John, the reason for his eternal damnation.[52][n 10]
Other writers, including Kelly, consider that Dickens put forward a "secular vision of this sacred holiday".[10] The Dickens scholar John O. Jordan argues that A Christmas Carol shows what Dickens referred to in a letter to Foster as his "Carol philosophy, cheerful views, sharp anatomisation of humbug, jolly good temper ... and a vein of glowing, hearty, generous, mirthful, beaming reference in everything to Home and Fireside".[53] From a secular viewpoint, the cultural historian Penne Restad suggests that Scrooge's redemption underscores "the conservative, individualistic and patriarchal aspects" of Dickens's "Carol philosophy" of charity and altruism.[54]
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol because of how British social policy treated children at the time, and wished to use the novella as a means to put forward his arguments against it.[55] The story shows Scrooge as a paradigm for self-interest, and the possible repercussions of ignoring the poor, especially children in poverty—personified by the allegorical figures of Want and Ignorance.[56] The two figures were created to arouse sympathy with readers—as was Tiny Tim.[57] Douglas-Fairhurst observes that the use of such figures allowed Dickens to present his message of the need for charity, without alienating his largely middle-class readership.[58]
Publication[edit]
First edition frontispiece and title page (1843)
As the result of the disagreements with Chapman and Hall over the commercial failures of Martin Chuzzlewit,[59] Dickens arranged to pay for the publishing himself, in exchange for a percentage of the profits.[30] Production of A Christmas Carol was not without problems. The first printing contained drab olive endpapers that Dickens felt were unacceptable, and the publisher Chapman and Hall quickly replaced them with yellow endpapers, but, once replaced, those clashed with the title page, which was then redone.[60] The final product was bound in red cloth with gilt-edged pages, completed only two days before the publication date of 19 December 1843.[61] Following publication, Dickens arranged for the manuscript to be bound in red Morocco leather and presented as a gift to his solicitor, Thomas Mitton.[62][n 11]
Priced at five shillings (equal to £23 in 2018 pounds[63]), the first run of 6,000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve. Chapman and Hall issued second and third editions before the new year, and the book continued to sell well into 1844.[65] By the end of 1844 eleven more editions had been released.[66] Since its initial publication the book has been issued in numerous hardback and paperback editions, translated into several languages and has never been out of print.[67] It was Dickens's most popular book in the United States, and sold over two million copies in the hundred years following its first publication there.[68]
The high production costs upon which Dickens insisted led to reduced profits, and the first edition brought him only £230 (equal to £21,000 in 2018 pounds[63]) rather than the £1,000 (equal to £90,000 in 2018 pounds[63]) he expected.[69] A year later, the profits were only £744, and Dickens was deeply disappointed.[59][n 12]
Reception[edit]
Thackeray in 1864. He wrote that A Christmas Carol was "a national benefit and to every man or woman who reads it, a personal kindness".[70]
Douglas-Fairhurst writes that the reviews of A Christmas Carol "were almost uniformly kind".[71] The reviewer from The Illustrated London News described how the story's "impressive eloquence ... its unfeigned lightness of heart—its playful and sparkling humour ... its gentle spirit of humanity" all put the reader "in good humour with ourselves, with each other, with the season and with the author".[72] The critic from The Athenaeum, the literary magazine, considered it a "tale to make the reader laugh and cry – to open his hands, and open his heart to charity even toward the uncharitable ... a dainty dish to set before a King."[73] William Makepeace Thackeray, writing in Fraser's Magazine, described the book as "a national benefit and to every man or woman who reads it, a personal kindness. The last two people I heard speak of it were women; neither knew the other, or the author, and both said, by way of criticism, 'God bless him!'"[70]
The poet Thomas Hood, in his own journal, wrote that "If Christmas, with its ancient and hospitable customs, its social and charitable observances, were ever in danger of decay, this is the book that would give them a new lease."[74] The reviewer for Tait's Edinburgh Magazine—Theodore Martin, who was usually critical of Dickens's work[71]—spoke well of A Christmas Carol, noting it was "a noble book, finely felt and calculated to work much social good".[75] After Dickens' death, Margaret Oliphant deplored the turkey and plum pudding aspects of the book but admitted that in the days of its first publication it was regarded as "a new gospel" and noted that the book was unique in that it actually made people behave better.[71] The religious press generally ignored the tale but, in January 1884, Christian Remembrancer thought the tale's old and hackneyed subject was treated in an original way and praised the author's sense of humour and pathos.[76]
There were critics of the book. The New Monthly Magazine's reviewer, while praising the story, thought the book's physical excesses—the gilt edges and expensive binding—kept the price high, which made it unavailable to the poor. The reviewer recommended the tale be printed on cheap paper and priced accordingly.[77] The unnamed reviewer from The Westminster Review mocked Dickens's grasp of economics, asking "Who went without turkey and punch in order that Bob Cratchit might get them—for, unless there were turkeys and punch in surplus, someone must go without".[78]
Following criticism of the US in American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit, American readers were less enthusiastic at first, but by the end of the American Civil War, copies of the book were in wide circulation.[79] In 1863 The New York Times published an enthusiastic review, noting that the author brought the "old Christmas ... of bygone centuries and remote manor houses, into the living rooms of the poor of today".[80]
Aftermath[edit]
"The Ghost of Christmas Present" from the original edition, 1843
In January 1844 Parley's Illuminated Library published an unauthorised version of the story in a condensed form which they sold for twopence.[n 13] Dickens wrote to his solicitor
I have not the least doubt that if these Vagabonds can be stopped they must. ... Let us be the sledge-hammer in this, or I shall be beset by hundreds of the same crew when I come out with a long story.[82]
Two days after the release of the Parley version, Dickens sued on the cases of copyright infringement and won. The publishers declared themselves bankrupt and Dickens was left to pay £700 in costs.[83] The small profits Dickens earned from A Christmas Carol further strained his relationship with his publishers, and he broke with them in favour of Bradbury and Evans, who had been printing his works to that point.[15]
Dickens returned to the tale several times during his life to amend the phrasing and punctuation. He capitalised on the success of the book by publishing other Christmas stories The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846) and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848); these were secular conversion tales which reflected the societal changes of the previous year, and which social problems still needed to be dealt with. While the public eagerly bought the later books, the reviewers were highly critical of the stories.[84]
Performances and adaptations[edit]
Main article: Adaptations of A Christmas Carol
By 1849 Dickens was engaged with David Copperfield and had neither the time nor the inclination to produce another Christmas book.[85] He decided the best way to reach his audience with his "Carol philosophy" was by public readings.[86] During Christmas 1852 Dickens gave a reading in Birmingham Town Hall to the Industrial and Literary Institute; the performance was a great success.[87] Thereafter, he read the tale in an abbreviated version 127 times, until 1870 (the year of his death), when it provided the material for his farewell performance.[88]
Play media
First film adaptation, 1901
In the years following the book's publication, responses to the tale were published by W. M. Swepstone (Christmas Shadows, 1850), Horatio Alger (Job Warner's Christmas, 1863), Louisa May Alcott (A Christmas Dream, and How It Came True, 1882), and others who followed Scrooge's life as a reformed man – or some who thought Dickens had got it wrong and needed to be corrected.[89]
The novella was adapted for the stage almost immediately. Three productions opened on 5 February 1844, with one by Edward Stirling sanctioned by Dickens and running for more than 40 nights.[90] By the close of February 1844 eight rival A Christmas Carol theatrical productions were playing in London.[71] The story has been adapted for film and television more than any of Dickens's other works.[91] In 1901 it was produced as Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost, a silent black-and-white British film; it was one of the first known adaptations of a Dickens work on film, although is now largely lost.[92] The story was adapted in 1923 for BBC radio.[93] The story has been adapted to other media, including opera, ballet, a Broadway musical, animation, and a BBC mime production starring Marcel Marceau.[94]
Legacy[edit]
Although the phrase "Merry Christmas" had been around for many years – the earliest known written use was in a letter in 1534 – Dickens's use of the term in A Christmas Carol popularised the term among the Victorian public.[95] The exclamation "Bah! Humbug!" entered popular use in the English language as a retort to anything sentimental or overly festive;[96] the name "Scrooge" became used as a designation for a miser, and was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as such in 1982.[97]
Scrooge extinguishing the first spirit
The modern observance of Christmas is largely the result of a mid-Victorian revival of the holiday. The Oxford Movement of the 1830s and 1840s had produced a resurgence of the traditional rituals and religious observances associated with Christmastide and, with A Christmas Carol, Dickens captured the zeitgeist of the age, while he reflected and reinforced his vision of Christmas.[98] He advocated a humanitarian focus of the holiday,[99] which influenced several aspects of Christmas that are still celebrated in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games and a festive generosity of spirit.[100][n 14] The historian Ronald Hutton writes that Dickens "linked worship and feasting, within a context of social reconciliation".[101]
Ruth Glancy, a professor of English literature, states that the largest impact of A Christmas Carol was the influence felt by individual readers.[102] In the spring of 1844 The Gentleman's Magazine attributed a rise of charitable giving in Britain to Dickens's novella;[103] in 1874, Robert Louis Stevenson, after reading Dickens's Christmas books, vowed to give generously to those in need;[104] and Thomas Carlyle expressed a generous hospitality by hosting two Christmas dinners after reading the book.[105] In 1867 one American businessman was so moved after attending a reading, that he closed his factory on Christmas Day and sent every employee a turkey,[71] while in the early years of the 20th century the Queen of Norway sent gifts to London's crippled children signed "With Tiny Tim's Love".[106] On the novella, the author G. K. Chesterton wrote "The beauty and blessing of the story ... lie in the great furnace of real happiness that glows through Scrooge and everything around him. ... Whether the Christmas visions would or would not convert Scrooge, they convert us."[107]
In The Man Who Invented Christmas, a 2017 biographical drama film directed by Bharat Nalluri and written by Susan Coyne, the plot follows Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) at the time when he wrote A Christmas Carol; it is based on the book of the same name by Les Standiford.
See also[edit]
Dickens Christmas fair
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Serialisation was in 20 parts, which concluded on 30 June 1844.[2]
Jump up ^ These were Sketches by Boz (1836); The Pickwick Papers (1836); Nicholas Nickleby (1837); Oliver Twist (1838); The Old Curiosity Shop (1841); and Barnaby Rudge (1841).[3]
Jump up ^ In the episode from The Pickwick Papers, a Mr Wardle relates the tale of Gabriel Grub, a lonely and mean-spirited sexton, who undergoes a Christmas conversion after being visited by goblins who show him the past and future.[8]
Jump up ^ Carlyle's original question was written in his 1840 work Chartism.[35]
Jump up ^ Grub's name came from a 19th-century Dutch miser, Gabriel de Graaf, a morose gravedigger.[38]
Jump up ^ Scroggie was unlike Scrooge in nature, and was described as "a well-known hedonist who loved wine, women, and parties ... a dandy and terrible philanderer who had several sexual liaisons which made him the talk of the town ... a jovial and kindly man".[40]
Jump up ^ Henry was also used as the basis for Paul Dombey Jr in Dombey and Son[43]
Jump up ^ Others who have examined the Christian theme include Geoffrey Rowell, Claire Tomalin and Martin Sable.[47]
Jump up ^ The author G. K. Chesterton wrote of Dickens's religious views that "the tone of Dickens towards religion, though like that of most of his contemporaries, philosophically disturbed and rather historically ignorant, had an element that was very characteristic of himself. He had all the prejudices of his time. He had, for instance, that dislike of defined dogmas, which really means a preference for unexamined dogmas."[49] Dickens stated that "I have always striven in my writings to express the veneration for the life and lessons of our Saviour."[50]
Jump up ^ The full verse of I John 3:17 is "But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"[52]
Jump up ^ In 1875 Mitton sold the manuscript to the bookseller Francis Harvey – reportedly for £50 (equal to £4,300 in 2018 pounds[63]) – who sold it to the autograph collector, Henry George Churchill, in 1882; in turn Churchill sold the manuscript to Bennett, a Birmingham bookseller. Bennett sold it for £200 to Robson and Kerslake of London, which sold it to Dickens collector Stuart M. Samuel for £300. Finally, it was purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan for an undisclosed sum. It is now held by the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.[64]
Jump up ^ Dickens's biographer, Claire Tomalin, puts the first edition profits at £137, and those by the end of 1844 at £726.[68]
Jump up ^ The Parley version was titled A Christmas Ghost Story reoriginated from the original by Charles Dickens Esquire and analytically condensed for this work.[81]
Jump up ^ One example of this was the introduction of turkey as the main meat of the Christmas meal. In Britain the tradition had been to eat roast goose, but a change to turkey followed the publication of the book. By 1868 Mrs Beeton, in her Book of Household Management, advised her readers that "A Christmas dinner, with the middle-class of this empire, would scarcely be a Christmas dinner without its turkey.[96]
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Ackroyd 1990, pp. 67–68; Slater 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b Ackroyd 1990, p. 392.
^ Jump up to: a b Diedrick 1987, p. 80.
Jump up ^ Callow 2009, p. 27.
Jump up ^ Lalumia 2001; Sutherland, British Library.
Jump up ^ Rowell 1993; Studwell & Jones 1998, pp. 8, 10; Callow 2009, p. 128.
Jump up ^ Callow 2009, p. 30.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, pp. 19–20; Slater 2003, p. xvi.
Jump up ^ Slater 2003, p. xvi.
^ Jump up to: a b Kelly 2003, p. 12.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, p. 20.
Jump up ^ Restad 1996, p. 137.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. viii; Ledger 2007, p. 117.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xxiv.
^ Jump up to: a b c Slater 2011.
Jump up ^ Childs & Tredell 2006, p. 92.
^ Jump up to: a b Lee, British Library.
Jump up ^ Callow 2009, p. 38.
Jump up ^ Ledger 2007, p. 119.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, p. 15; Sutherland, British Library.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, p. 15; Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xvi.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xvi; Callow 2009, p. 38.
Jump up ^ Rowell 1993.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xix; Slater 2011.
Jump up ^ Tomalin 2011, pp. 148–149.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xix; Tomalin 2011, p. 148.
Jump up ^ DeVito 2014, 522.
Jump up ^ Dickens 1843, p. 3.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, p. 14.
^ Jump up to: a b Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xix.
Jump up ^ Gordon 2008; DeVito 2014, 424.
Jump up ^ Jordan 2015, Chapter 5; Sillence 2015, p. 40.
Jump up ^ Elwell 2001; DeVito 2014, 645.
^ Jump up to: a b Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xiii.
Jump up ^ Carlyle 1840, p. 32.
Jump up ^ Ackroyd 1990, p. 409.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xviii; Alleyne 2007.
Jump up ^ Alleyne 2007.
Jump up ^ DeVito 2014, 392.
Jump up ^ DeVito 2014, 412.
Jump up ^ DeVito 2014, 548.
Jump up ^ Ackroyd 1990, pp. 519–520.
Jump up ^ Ackroyd 1990, p. 519.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, p. 25; Garry & El Shamy 2005, p. 132.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, pp. 25–26.
Jump up ^ Moore 2011, p. 57.
Jump up ^ Sable 1986, p. 67; Rowell 1993; Tomalin 2011, p. 150.
Jump up ^ Tomalin 2011, pp. 149–150.
Jump up ^ Chesterton 1989, p. 163.
Jump up ^ Hammond 1871, p. 308.
Jump up ^ Sable 1986, p. 67.
^ Jump up to: a b Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. 421.
Jump up ^ Jordan 2001, p. 121.
Jump up ^ Restad 1996, p. 139.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xvi; Sutherland, British Library.
Jump up ^ Moore 2011, p. 18.
Jump up ^ Jaffe 1994, p. 262.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xvi.
^ Jump up to: a b Kelly 2003, p. 17.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xxxi; Varese 2009.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xix; Varese 2009.
Jump up ^ Provenance, The Morgan Library & Museum.
^ Jump up to: a b c d UK CPI inflation.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xxx; Provenance, The Morgan Library & Museum.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, pp. xix–xx; Standiford 2008, p. 132.
Jump up ^ Jackson 1999, p. 6.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. viii; A Christmas Carol, WorldCat.
^ Jump up to: a b Tomalin 2011, p. 150.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, p. 17; Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, pp. xx, xvii.
^ Jump up to: a b Thackeray 1844, p. 169.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xx.
Jump up ^ Literature, The Illustrated London News.
Jump up ^ Chorley 1843, p. 1127.
Jump up ^ Hood 1844, p. 68.
Jump up ^ Martin 1844, p. 129.
Jump up ^ Welch 2015, p. 169; Notice of Books, The Christian Remembrancer, p. 119.
Jump up ^ Christmas Carol, New Monthly Magazine.
Jump up ^ Senior 1844, p. 186.
Jump up ^ Restad 1996, p. 136.
Jump up ^ Charles Dickens, New York Times.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, p. 18.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, pp. 18–19.
Jump up ^ Ackroyd 1990, p. 416; Tomalin 2011, p. 150.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, pp. xxi–xxiii.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xxvii.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xxviii.
Jump up ^ Slater 2009, p. 353; Ledger 2007, p. 119.
Jump up ^ Billen 2005, pp. 8–10; Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xxviii; Ledger 2007, p. 119.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xxi.
Jump up ^ Standiford 2008, p. 168.
Jump up ^ Sutherland, British Library.
Jump up ^ Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost, BFI Screenonline.
Jump up ^ A Christmas Carol, BBC Genome.
Jump up ^ Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. viii.
Jump up ^ Cochrane 1996, p. 126; Martin 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b Standiford 2008, p. 183.
Jump up ^ Scrooge, n. OED.
Jump up ^ Rowell 1993; Hutton 1996, p. 113; Kelly 2003, p. 9.
Jump up ^ Forbes 2008, p. 62.
Jump up ^ Kelly 2003, pp. 9, 12.
Jump up ^ Hutton 1996, p. 113.
Jump up ^ Glancy 1985, p. xii.
Jump up ^ Harrison 2008, p. 28.
Jump up ^ Deacy 2016, p. 44.
Jump up ^ Slater 2003, p. xx.
Jump up ^ Glancy 1985, p. xiii.
Jump up ^ Chesterton 1989, p. 137.
Sources[edit]
Books[edit]
Ackroyd, Peter (1990). Dickens. London: Sinclair-Stevenson. ISBN 978-1-85619-000-8.
Billen, Andrew (2005). Charles Dickens: The Man Who Invented Christmas. London: Short Books. ISBN 978-1-904977-18-6.
Callow, Simon (2009). Dickens' Christmas: A Victorian Celebration. London: Frances Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-7112-3031-6.
Carlyle, Thomas (1840). Chartism. London: J. Fraser. OCLC 247585901.
Chesterton, G. K. (1989). The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton: Chesterton on Dickens. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press. ISBN 978-0-89870-258-3.
Childs, Peter; Tredell, Nicolas (2006). Charles Dickens. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-1919-9.
Cochrane, Robertson (1996). Wordplay: origins, meanings, and usage of the English language. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-7752-8.
Deacy, Christopher (2016). Christmas as Religion: Rethinking Santa, the Secular, and the Sacred. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-106955-0.
DeVito, Carlo (2014). Inventing Scrooge (Kindle ed.). Kennebunkport, ME: Cider Mill Press. ISBN 978-1-60433-555-2.
Dickens, Charles (1843). A Christmas Carol. London: Chapman and Hall. OCLC 181675592.
Diedrick, James (1987). "Charles Dickens". In Thesing, William. Dictionary of Literary Biography: Victorian Prose Writers before 1867. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. ISBN 978-0-8103-1733-8.
Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert (2006). "Introduction". In Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Books. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. vii–xxix. ISBN 978-0-19-920474-8.
Garry, Jane; El Shamy, Hasan (2005). Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-2953-1.
Glancy, Ruth F. (1985). Dickens' Christmas Books, Christmas Stories, and Other Short Fiction. Michigan: Garland. ISBN 978-0-8240-8988-7.
Hammond, R. A. (1871). The Life and Writings of Charles Dickens: A Memorial Volume. Toronto: Maclear & Company.
Harrison, Mary-Catherine (2008). Sentimental Realism: Poverty and the Ethics of Empathy, 1832–1867 (Thesis). Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest. ISBN 978-0-549-51095-6.
Hutton, Ronald (1996). Stations of the Sun: The Ritual Year in England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285448-3.
Jordan, Christine (2015). Secret Gloucester. Stroud, Glos: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-4689-3.
Jordan, John O. (2001). The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66964-1.
Slater, Michael (2003). "Introduction". In Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Writings. London: Penguin Books. pp. xi–xxviii. ISBN 978-0-14-043905-2.
Forbes, Bruce David (2008). Christmas: A Candid History. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-520-25802-0.
Glancy, Ruth F. (1985). Dickens' Christmas Books, Christmas Stories, and Other Short Fiction. Michigan: Garland. ISBN 978-0-8240-8988-7.
Harrison, Mary-Catherine (2008). Sentimental Realism: Poverty and the Ethics of Empathy, 1832–1867 (Thesis). Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest. ISBN 978-0-549-51095-6.
Hutton, Ronald (1996). Stations of the Sun: The Ritual Year in England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285448-3.
Kelly, Richard Michael (2003). "Introduction". In Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Ontario: Broadway Press. pp. 9–30. ISBN 978-1-55111-476-7.
Ledger, Sally (2007). Dickens and the Popular Radical Imagination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84577-9.
Moore, Grace (2011). Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. St Kildare, VIC: Insight Publications. ISBN 978-1-921411-91-5.
Restad, Penne L. (1996). Christmas in America: a History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-510980-1.
Sillence, Rebecca (2015). Gloucester History Tour. Stroud, Glos: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-4859-0.
Slater, Michael (2009). Charles Dickens. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16552-4.
Standiford, Les (2008). The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits. New York: Crown. ISBN 978-0-307-40578-4.
Studwell, William Emmett; Jones, Dorothy E. (1998). Publishing Glad Tidings: Essays on Christmas Music. Binghampton, NY: The Haworth Press. ISBN 978-0-7890-0398-0.
Tomalin, Claire (2011). Charles Dickens: A Life. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-670-91767-9.
Welch, Bob (2015). 52 Little Lessons from a Christmas Carol. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-1-4002-0675-9.
Online resources[edit]
"A Christmas Carol". BBC Genome Project. BBC. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
"A Christmas Carol". WorldCat. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
Davidson, Ewan. "Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901)". Screenonline. British Film Institute. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
Elwell, Frank W. (2 November 2001). "Reclaiming Malthus". Rogers State University. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
Gordon, Alexander (2008). "Elwes, John (1714–1789)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8776. Retrieved 13 January 2016. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
Lalumia, Christine (12 December 2001). "Scrooge and Albert". History Today. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
Lee, Imogen. "Ragged Schools". British Library. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
Martin, Katherine Connor (19 December 2011). "merry, adj". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 16 January 2017. (subscription required)
"Provenance". The Morgan Library & Museum. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
Rowell, Geoffrey (12 December 1993). "Dickens and the Construction of Christmas". History Today. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
"Scrooge, n". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 16 January 2017. (subscription required)
Slater, Michael (2011). "Dickens, Charles John Huffam (1812–1870)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7599. Retrieved 3 January 2016. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
Sutherland, John. "The Origins of A Christmas Carol". British Library. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
Varese, Jon Michael (22 December 2009). "Why A Christmas Carol was a flop for Dickens". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
Newspapers, journals and magazines[edit]
Alleyne, Richard (24 December 2007). "Real Scrooge 'was Dutch gravedigger'". The Daily Telegraph.
"Charles Dickens; Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition". The New York Times. 19 December 1863.
Chorley, H. F. (23 December 1843). "A Christmas Carol". The Athenaeum (843): 1127–1128.
"Christmas Carol". The New Monthly Magazine. 70 (277): 148–149. January 1844.
Hood, Thomas (January 1844). "A Christmas Carol". Hood's Magazine. 1 (1): 68–75.
"Literature". The Illustrated London News (86). 23 December 1843.
Jackson, Crispin (December 1999). "Charles Dickens, Christmas Books and Stories". The Book and Magazine Collector. Diamond Publishing Group (189).
Jaffe, Audrey (March 1994). "Spectacular Sympathy: Visuality and Ideology in Dickens's A Christmas Carol". PMLA. 109 (2): 254–265. JSTOR 463120.
Martin, Theodore (February 1844). "Bon Gaultier and his Friends". Tait's Edinburgh Magazine. 11 (2): 119–131.
"Notice of Books". The Christian Remembrancer. 7 (37): 113–121. January 1844.
Sable, Martin H. (Autumn 1986). "The Day of Atonement in Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'". Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought. 22 (3): 66–76. JSTOR 23260495.
Senior, Nassau William (June 1844). "Spirit of the Age". The Westminster Review. 41 (81): 176–192.
Thackeray, William Makepeace (February 1844). "A Box of Novels". Fraser's Magazine. 29 (170): 153–169.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: A Christmas Carol
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
A Christmas Carol
Wikimedia Commons has media related to A Christmas Carol.
Charles Dickens portal
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A Christmas Carol public domain audiobook at LibriVox
Using Textual Clues to Understand A Christmas Carol
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Mexican Train
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A typical game of Mexican Train with the branching doubles variation
Mexican Train is a game played with dominoes. The object of the game is for a player to play all the dominoes from his or her hand onto one or more chains, or "trains", emanating from a central hub or "station". The game's most popular name comes from a special optional train that belongs to all players. However, the game can be played without the Mexican Train; such variants are generally called "Private Trains" or "Domino Trains". It is related to the game Chicken Foot.
Contents
[hide]
1 Equipment
2 Objective
3 Setup
4 Gameplay
4.1 Public Trains
4.2 The Mexican Train
4.3 Playing doubles
4.4 Scoring
4.5 Partnerships
4.6 Elements of strategy
5 Variations
6 References
Equipment[edit]
A double-twelve set of dominoes is marketed as the standard for Mexican Train, and accommodates up to 8 players. Other sets are commonly used as well. The following alternate sets are common, depending on the number of people playing:
Double-Six (2 players)
Double-Nine (2–4 players)[1]
Double-Twelve (5–8 players)[1]
Double-Fifteen (9–12 players)
Double-Eighteen (13+ players)
In addition to dominoes, the game also requires:
One token or marker for each player
A special spacer, known as the "station" or "hub", used to evenly space the trains around the central domino (optional).
Pencil and paper to keep score
Many sets of dominoes include a station and special train-shaped tokens for markers, and packaged games with a central "station" and custom tokens are available. However, the station piece is not strictly needed, and anything from coins to poker chips to even pieces of candy or slips of paper can be used as markers.
Objective[edit]
The object of all Trains games is to be the first player to place all of their dominoes. Dominoes may be placed onto the player's train, onto the Mexican train if available, or on the trains of other players under special circumstances.The middle tile counts as the start of your multiple tile train.
Setup[edit]
At the start of each round, the dominoes are placed face side down, shuffled, and drawn by players to form their hands. Using the double-nine set, players draw dominoes as follows:
2–4 players: 10 dominoes each
5–6 players: 9 dominoes each
7–8 players: 7 dominoes each
Any remaining dominoes are placed to one side, forming the "boneyard".
Gameplay[edit]
With a standard double-twelve set the double twelve is placed in the station. In each successive round the next lower double is used until all doubles are used. The double-blank is the final round.
Play continues to the left.[1][2] Each person lays one legally placed domino per turn, or two if the player's first domino is a double. If they are unable to, they must draw a domino from the boneyard. If they are able to lay that domino, they must do so immediately.[1] Otherwise, their turn is over and play continues to the left, each player trying to place all their dominoes by playing matching dominoes one at a time, end to end.[1][2]
A train can be as long as the players can make it; it only ends when all dominoes that could match its endpoint have already been played. As a result, trains can become quite long, especially with an extended domino set. It is acceptable to "bend" the train 90° or 180° to keep the train on the playing surface, as long as it does not interfere with the endpoints of other trains.
Public Trains[edit]
All trains begin the game as "public", and all players may play on it. When a player plays a domino on their train it then becomes "private". When a player draws a domino and is unable play it, they must mark their train as "public" by placing a marker on their train.[1] If a player is deemed to have made a strategic error the highest score of that round is added to theirs.
Players have the option, whether they can play on their own train or not, of playing a domino on any train currently marked "public". When a player with a "public" train adds a domino to it, it becomes "private" again and may not be played on except by the train's owner.[2]
The Mexican Train[edit]
The Mexican Train is an additional train that anyone may play on during their turn. They can start the train by playing a domino matching the engine (i.e. the double played at the beginning of the round) or add to the train. Mexican trains can be added as long as a space remains.
Playing doubles[edit]
When a double is played, it is placed perpendicular to the train. Subsequently, adding a domino to the double is called "finishing", "satisfying the double" or "covering the double".
The player who played the double must take another turn. This additional turn follows exactly the same rules as any normal turn. They may play anywhere they like, and do not have to "finish the double" on this turn. They may play elsewhere and, provided they make a legal play, do not have to mark their train for not finishing the double (unless the double was played on their own train). Blanks are wild. Like any other turn, if they cannot play they must draw a domino and mark their train as "public".[2]
If a double remains unfinished after it has been played, the train becomes a "public" train. No other train can be added to by any player until someone "finishes the double". Play passes to the next player who can legally play on this train (if the train is theirs, or if they can legally play on "public" trains). If they cannot "finish the double", they must draw a domino, and if they cannot play it on the double, their own train becomes "public". Play continues like this until someone "finishes the double". Single and double blanks are considered wilds.
Branching on doubles as in Chicken Foot is allowed as an option (see Variations below).[2]
Scoring[edit]
At the end of each round, the player going out receives 0 points, while all other players receive the sum of all pips (dots) on their dominoes. The person with the fewest points after all thirteen rounds have been played is the winner. In the case of a tie, the person with the most 0-point rounds is the winner. (If this is still a tie, the person with the lowest round total other than 0 is the winner).
Partnerships[edit]
With four, six or eight players, the game can be played in teams of two, with partners sitting opposite each other. Rules are identical except that a player's train and their partner's train are considered one and the same (they will usually extend from opposite sides of the station), and thus a player can play on their own end or their partner's, and neither end becomes public until neither partner can play a tile. Scoring is also handled in pairs, with the player who went out scoring zero for their team (even though their partner will have dominoes remaining) and other teams summing their scores for a team score.
Elements of strategy[edit]
It is generally in a player's best interest to keep their train private. By making a train public, the player allows other players to break an impasse in extending the train, but the player loses all other options except to attempt to play on the endpoint of their own train.
While public trains offer additional options, the player's own private train should be considered first. Trains usually are public because their owners cannot play on them; if that train's endpoint does not change, its owner has no options until they draw a domino they can play on it.
A player may choose to dump unmatched tiles on public trains first, before starting their own train, to trick the other players into believing that the player cannot start a train.
If one or more players played on a public train and the endpoint value has changed, play another tile that will change the endpoint value back to its original value or to a value the player is thought not to have.
It is sometimes advantageous to play a double on one's own train and intentionally leave it unfinished. If the value of the double has been heavily played elsewhere, other players may be unable to finish it, which will cause many players to have to mark their own trains. This is a good defensive play when subsequent players are low on dominoes; they are unlikely to have a matching domino, and must draw and mark their trains until someone can finish the double.
Because a player playing an unfinished double on someone else's train does not have to mark their own train as public, it is recommended that players play doubles on public trains whenever possible. Not only does this remove a major disadvantage to playing an unfinished double, it does not change the endpoint value of the train meaning its owner probably will not be able to play, and other players do have to mark their trains if they cannot finish the double. However double on another player's train gives that player and everyone else (if public) more options.
Variations[edit]
There are a number of other versions of the rules for Mexican Train, varying the number of dominoes drawn by each player, the rules for playing doubles, or the number of tiles that can be played during one turn. For example:
Fast Game variation: After the starting double has been placed, turns are ignored, and each player focuses on making their own train as long as possible. Once everyone has made as long of a train as they can, play reverts to turns, using the rules listed above. This speeds up the game, but eliminates some of the strategies of playing doubles.
Delayed First Turn variation: Similar to the Fast Game variation listed above, instead of simultaneously, each person takes turns playing as many dominoes on their train as possible. Any player that is unable to play on their first turn draws a domino, and may then begin their first turn or pass. When a player who has passed finally starts their train, they may play as many dominoes as they can string together. After starting their train, players are only permitted to play one domino at a time as usual, unless playing a double. This version allows a player to save their "first turn" string of dominoes for when they have a chance, instead of being stuck with all dominoes from the beginning.
Branching Doubles variation: Once a double has been satisfied, players may continue to branch off of the double in two more directions, meaning the double will have a matching endpoint on all four sides. Often, players like to angle these branches at a 45-degree angle to accommodate for more room. This variant gives players more choice and speeds up the game.
Swan Drive variation: A player who can play on their own train may also play one tile on each subsequent public train in clockwise order. Each public train must be played on in order to continue in this manner, and only one tile per train may be played (unless a double must be finished). Once a player cannot play on the next public train, or has looped around to their own train, their turn ends. While playing on each public train, the player may choose to play on the Mexican train or skip it when he comes to it, making the placement of the train somewhat strategical. This version makes for a much faster game.
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Kelly, Jennifer A., Great Book of Domino Games. Sterling 1999. ISBN 978-0806942599.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e McLeod, John, ed., Mexican Train, Card Games Website
Mexican Train on BoardGameGeek
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mexican_Train&oldid=836603963"
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