Anne here, and since it's almost Christmas, and it's 170 years since the first publication of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843), I thought it might be fun to do a little quiz about Dickens and the writing of this perennially popular story.
To do this quiz you'll need a pen and paper to note your answers. Then click on the link at the end of the quiz and it will take you to the answer page. Check your scores and come back and tell us how you went.
Have fun!
1) Dickens originally wrote A Christmas Carol:—
a) because his wife was pregnant and he needed the money
b) for a bet
c) because his vicar asked him to write a morality tale
d) to entertain his children
2) How long did Dickens take to write A Christmas Carol?
a) seven months
b) nine months
c) six weeks
d) three years
3) The story was originally published:—
a) in a green baize cover
b) in serial form in a magazine
c) in a handsomely bound red leather volume
d) in a series of cheaply bound paper booklets
4) When A Christmas Carol was published:—
a) Dickens gave a tenth of the profits to charity
b) Dickens published it at his own expense
c) the publisher paid Dickens a lump sum of £100
d) Dickens made no money at all from it.
5) The book was a huge artistic success but:
a) most critics hated it
b) it didn't sell very many copies
c) Dickens was very unhappy with it.
d) it wasn't a financial success
6) When Dickens' was twelve, his father was imprisoned for:-
a) fraud
b) debt
c) embezzlement
d) plagiarism
7) The tale was influenced by Dickens's own life. As a boy he was forced to work:—
a) in a shoe blacking factory
b) in a book binding shop
c) in a goose-plucking establishment
d) in a carriage-making factory
8) His fellow workers referred to the 12 year old Dickens as:
a) "his nibs"
b) "the young scribbler"
c) "the young gentleman"
d) "the little prince"
9) In an early draft of the manuscript, Tiny Tim was called:
a) Tiny Tom
b) Little Johnny
c) Limping Leo
d) Little Fred
10) The original manuscript gave no hint of the fate of Tiny Tim but at the last minute Dickens inserted a sentence that indicated Tiny Tim did not die and that Scrooge became a second father to him. The reason Dickens did this is:—
a) because Dickens's wife asked him to let the boy to live
b) not known
c) because Dickens's publisher asked him to let the boy to live
d) because hundreds of people wrote and begged him to let the boy live
Hope you found this little quiz fun.
Click here to get the answers -- and don't forget to come back and tell us how you went.
Happy Christmas, from Anne