Richard Barlow Adams ’67 has released “Eben Kruge: How “a Christmas Carol'” Came to Be Written”. Why did Charles Dickens Write “A Christmas Carol”? What triggered his imagination to write a story so unlike anything he had written before—a story about Christmas, with flashbacks and flash-forwards and infused with the supernatural?
In “Eben Kruge: How ‘A Christmas Carol’ Came to be Written” (Audible release 12/1/20), Richard Barlow Adams delivers a plausible tale weaving fact and fiction for a penetrating look inside the life and psyche of Dickens.
Having traveled to America in 1842 at the invitation of Washington Irving, an already world-famous Charles Dickens, with his wife Catherine, has just concluded a five-month tour of the country with their final stop at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Here, the historical record of the Dickens’ tour ends, and author Richard Adams’ tale begins.
With his return to England and publisher’s deadline imminent, the famously celebrated and prolific Dickens finds himself facing “writer’s block” for the first time. When the Innkeeper relates the mystery of a dramatic and sudden change in local attorney, Eben Kruge, a man “Whose black turned to white quite literally overnight” the previous Christmas Eve, Dickens is hooked and must know more. The next morning, he sets off for the nearby town of Cornwall determined to meet the man and know his story. A story that comes at the price of Dickens revealing the secret he had intended to take to his grave.
The audiobook version of “Eben Kruge: How ‘A Christmas Carol’ Came to be Written” is read by veteran narrator, Christopher Lane, five-time winner of the Audio Publishers Association Audie Award and multiple recipient of Audiofile Magazine’s Earphone Awards.