It’s the time of the year when many movies seem to be based on Charles Dickens classic. (Full disclosure: We stream a Christmas movie every night between Thanksgiving-the fourth Thursday of November- and Christmas.) Some adhere more closely to Dickens’ story while could euphemistically be said to take their inspiration from it.

In one of our conversations about what was happening in the movie we were watching at the time my wife said I should read Dickens original. That led me to a website I often go to for books and stories from the past that are out of copyright, Project Gutenberg, which is easily found by a web search. Project Gutenberg is one of those sites reflects what the world wide web was before it was commercialized into what it is today. All work is done by volunteers and all the books are available for free. And there are also books that are available in languages beside English.

In the end I read the original 1843 first edition after downloading it to my tablet. Even though I thought I knew the story quite well, the images Dickens prose generates in the reader’s mind gives a better impression of what takes place than do the various movies. Project Gutenberg also has the 1905 and 1915 additions available as well as Dickens original handwritten pages. Below are a few images to hopefully whit your appetite to peruse the original yourself.