Victorian values

Did I mention Charles Dickens was the person I met twice in his lifetime?

It was a bleak, dark day, and to my shame, I didn't recognise the boy I'd met in the prosperous gentleman who stood before me. It was he who recognised me, I have to confess!

However, he knew me right away, and pressed a good quantity of money into my hat, bending down to talk to me before I'd had a moment to gather my wits.

He had convinced himself that our time together had been some vivid dream he'd experienced; but he recognised me instantly.

And as it transpired, he had given me a central role in his wonderful Christmas story. Oh, everything else in it was pure invention; Scrooge and the other ghosts or spirits are but the creations of his original mind. But I was flattered to learn that he'd created the Spirit of Christmas Present in my own image.

Why, his rendering of me was so powerful, that to this very day I speak as if I were some kind of Victorian!

You must find my manner somewhat rum, but it is as if I cannot bring myself up-to-date, such a spell he has cast over me! It is for this reason that even now, your Christmas has something of a Dickensian flavour. And yet, is that so terrible?



Story begins here