#ReadThis #ChristmasPeachy @Flatironbooks #HolidayPeachy #WhomYouKnow #CharlesDickens MR. DICKENS AND HIS CAROL by Samantha Silva #SamanthaSilva #FlatironBooks #MrDickensandHisCarol
What do you get for the person that has everything for the holidays?
This book! Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a highly creative take on the imagined story of how Dickens himself came up with his legendary tale, A Christmas Carol. Based on background knowledge of London, Dickens's history and the era, Samantha Silva has taken the liberty to create a fantastic tale that is an innovative spin on a timeless classic. For all that appreciate the work that goes into a creative anything, Mr. Dickens and His Carol will delight you.
We love Dickens at Whom You Know and its likely genetic, passed onto Peachy from her great-grandfather, Patrick Deegan, first-generation American born in Connecticut.
Previously on Whom You Know, we've featured Bleak House by the BBC which we loved and watch again and again:
We worked with Sony on The Invisible Woman featuring the incomparable Ralph Fiennes and and fabulous Felicity Jones:
Earlier this season we featured Christmas with Dickens:
Of course, this is fictitious, however, if you have also strolled the paths of London like Dickens, Samantha and Peachy, you'll have a high appreciation for her fun application of how the story might have been created. Naturally, a modern twist has spun the dialogue and reverie to put you in a sugarplum mood. Dickens was under the gun to produce something great, and he rose to the occasion most fabulously as history has shown. Dickens knew that pressure is what creates diamonds.
Silva considers the critics of the time, family members and specific sources of inspiration in her stimulating inspired tale. It's a page turner that deserves to be teamed up with a nice Irish coffee or similar hot celebratory sip. She spins words like the pro she is; we understand she's also a screenwriter. Everything old is new again! Her verbs go to work like le Carre says they ought to and her adjectives paint a visual you wan to see: "the night was an embroidery of stars on a taffeta sky so blue..."(p. 230). You won't see anything new by Dickens himself obviously, but the spirit of Dickens lives on.
Mr. Dickens and His Carol is Recommended by Whom You Know.
In the spirit of Shakespeare in Love, Samantha Silva’s delightful debut novel MR. DICKENS AND HIS CAROL (Flatiron Books; Hardcover; October 31, 2017) imagines the month Charles Dickens spent writing the most beloved book of the season.
London, 1843. Charles Dicken’s latest novel, Martin Chuzzelwit, has been pronounced a flop. Dead as a doornail. Just a few weeks before Christmas, his publishers come knocking to issue an ultimatum: Write a successful Christmas book in one month, or else pay the publisher back their losses.
With relatives hounding him for loans, his wife planning an excessively lavish holiday party, and his children expecting more presents this year than last, Dickens can only do one thing. He grudgingly accepts.
Frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens is hardly feeling the Christmas spirit. He seeks solace and inspiration in London itself, his great playground of wandering and palace of thinking. On one of his long walks, in a once familiar square, he meets an enigmatic young woman who might just be the muse he needs. Eleanor Lovejoy propels Dickens on a Scrooge-like journey that tests everything he believes about generosity, friendship, ambition—and Christmas.
Laced with humor, rich historical detail from Dickens’ life, and clever winks to his works, MR. DICKENS AND HIS CAROL is an irresistible new take on an adored classic.
Samantha Silva is an author and screenwriter based in Idaho. MR. DICKENS AND HIS CAROL is her debut novel. Over her career she's sold film projects to Paramount, Universal, New Line Cinema and TNT. A film adaptation of her short story, THE BIG BURN, won the 1 Potato Short Screenplay Competition at the Sun Valley Film Festival in 2017. Silva will direct, her first time at the helm. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, where she studied in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C. She’s lived in London three times, briefly in Rome, is an avid Italophile, and a forever Dickens devotee.
