A Christmas Carol At The Morgan

In keeping with the generosity of both Dickens and Morgan, a celebration of the holiday season is taking place at the Morgan Library and Museum where the original manuscript for A Christmas Carol is on view the rotunda of the museum's famed McKim building.

A unique holiday experience, the exhibition of the manuscript illuminates not only the mindset and determination of the author, his concise skills and literary competency, but also his abilities to convey his conceptual visual message of Christmas, somewhat haunting at times, to his revered illustrator John Leech.

According to curators at the Morgan, an in-depth viewing of the manuscript reveals the author's methods of composition and construction. His "pace of writing and revision, apparently contiguous, is rapid and boldly confident. Revisions are inserted for vividness and immediacy of effect. Deleted text is struck out with a cursive and continuous looping movement of the pen, and replaced with more active verbs and fewer words to achieve greater concision. Dickens's manuscript shows vividly his efforts to create the highest quality literary work in the shortest possible time."

Interestingly, Dickens abandoned the use of chapters in A Christmas Carol , instead dividing the book into five "staves," a tool used to separate musical scores. It was an inside joke from the author, keeping in tune with the musical allusion of the title.

Michael Patrick Hearn, author of The Annotated Christmas Carol , states in an interview on David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page , "It is impossible to think of Christmas today without A Christmas Carol . It is as much a part of the season as mistletoe and plum pudding... Dickens in A Christmas Carol defined better than anyone before or since the secular meaning of Christmas… It is a beautifully constructed, compact parable as true today as it was in 1843."

The exhibition is on view through January 6. While at the Morgan, other exhibitions currently on view include "Drawing Connections: Baselitz, Kelly, Rockburne and the Old Masters"; "Painted With Words: Vincent Van Gogh's Letters to Emile Bernard"; American Treasures; "Masterworks from The Morgan, Near Eastern Seals"; and "Apocalypse Then: Medieval Illuminations from The Morgan."

The Morgan Library & Museum is at 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street. Museum hours are Tuesday–Thursday, 10:30 am to 5 pm; Friday, 10:30 am to 9 pm; Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm; Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm. Admission to the period rooms is without charge on Tuesday, 3 to 5 pm; Friday, 7 to 9 pm; Sunday, 4 to 6 pm.

The museum is closed Monday, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. The Morgan will close at 4 pm on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Admission to the McKim rotunda is without charge Tuesday, 3 to 5 pm; Friday, 7 to 9 pm; Sunday, 4 to 6 pm. For information, 212-685-0008 or www.themorgan.org .

Editor's note: David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page — www.charlesdickenspage.com — and Wikipedia — www.wikipedia.org — were among the sources for this article.