A Christmas Carol (1843) is a short fantasy novel.<br />Set in London, the tale tells the story of the conversion of the old and stingy financier Ebenezer Scrooge into a generous and nice man, after the visit, on Christmas Eve, by the three ghosts of Christmas: the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. The text has the merit of combining the social critique (the fight against poverty and illiteracy) with the typical Christmas spirit. A timeless and ageless classic.<br /><br /><br />Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812.<br />His life was marked by the changing fortunes of his family. He started working very young, abandoning his studies early on; the humiliation of poverty forever sealed his fate, characterizing the themes of his novels. In spite of everything he got a general education and, at twenty-six, he became a successful writer with the publication of The Pickwick Papers. His most famous novels include Oliver Twist (1838), David Copperfield (1850) and Great Expectations (1861).<br />He died at Gad&#39;s Hill, Kent, in 1870.