Book Club - Holiday Read Along

 

First I read Anton Chekhov's At Christmas Time and it was not very lifting of the holiday spirit...

An old, illiterate couple miss their daughter around the holiday.  They haven't heard from her in some time now, since she left after marriage.  They pay a man in the village to write a letter.

Then we catch up to their daughter, tucked in a room with her children while her husband works.  It mentions that she is very much frightened of him, and then we learn he has failed to send off the letters she has given him for her parents.  Upon receipt of their letter, she cries and tells her children about her home and their grandparents.

The webpage for the story indicates that the end, when the husband responds, "Charcot duche," may have a double meaning, suggesting the prospect of "healing the homesick."  I have my doubts about him though...

Next I read Matchless: A Christmas Story by Gregory Maguire.

It was very sad and touching how he incorporated the story of The Little Match Girl and I did tear up toward the end, when she was helping young Frederik.  I was grateful for the happy ending.

For this week, I found another piece that expands on a classic.  Louisa May Alcott's A Christmas Dream, and How It Came to Be True is a spin-off of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Read Here

And Dickens

I won't be recapping Dickens, I just wanted to include it for perspective.

Happy Reading!!