Dickensblog

Inventing Scrooge, by Carlo DeVito (Cider Mill Press, 2014).

Carlo DeVito's new book about the writing of A Christmas Carol is unquestionably well-researched and full of fascinating details about the origin of Scrooge's and Marley's names, the relationships with family members that inspired some of the characters, Dickens's haunting fear of poverty and the Scrooge-like tendencies he had to fight in himself, the Malthusian ideology that he was trying to combat, and much more.

I wish I could also say the book was well-written. Unfortunately, though it's so informative and occasionally genuinely touching, it's marred by copious errors. The author uses wrong words (e.g., "abet" for "abate"); constantly repeats himself; refers to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's wife as "Mrs. Wadsworth"; spells Thackeray's name two different ways; spells Claire Tomalin's name three different ways (the most interesting of which is "Catherine Tomlain"); and calls Michael Slater "James Slater." (I think "Nigel Slater" was also meant to refer to Michael Slater, but I couldn't trace the quote attributed to this Nigel, as DeVito's endnotes are vague in the extreme.)

The book also suffers from a lack of structure, and at times lapses into long strings of quotations that should have been condensed, broken up, and worked into DeVito's own narrative. Perhaps the oddest mistake is that DeVito gives Belle's husband's name as "Tut" because she says to him, "Tut, don't I know?" 

I'm sorry to be so harsh, but a reviewer has to be honest. The plethora of errors seriously hampered my enjoyment of the book. And they were so unncessary; all that was needed was a good editor. Frankly, I cannot fathom why DeVito's publishers let the book go to press in this condition. It's a shame that they did. This could have been a really good book, instead of just a loose collection of interesting facts and a few moving descriptions.

(Review copy purchased from Barnes & Noble.)