In this hauntingly beautiful volume, artist John A.Rice re-envisions Dickens’s seemingly familiar Christmas classic as a true Victorian ghost story. The Victorians knew that the end of the year is a precipice, a time of change and transition.They captured the essence of this season — the yearning for what is lost, the fear of the unknown, but also the hope for what is to come — in the fantastical storytelling tradition known as the “midwinter’s tale.” And of all such tales, the most famous is A Christmas Carol. In his new illustrated edition of A Christmas Carol, John A.Rice draws on the influence of Victorian Spiritualism and fin de siècle Symbolism to emphasise the deeper symbolism and spirituality of Dickens’s novella.Through five absorbing full-page illustrations and a number of enchanting vignettes — married to an elegant typographic design — Rice reveals Scrooge’s encounters with the spirits as a soul’s journey from darkness to light.This is a fresh presentation of a seemingly familiar classic, one that will inspire contemporary audiences to heed the lessons of the ghosts — just as Dickens intended — and be kind to each other this holiday season and all throughout the year.