Q 01/05

Which London firm published A Christmas Carol in December 1843?

A) Bradbury & Evans

B) Smith, Elder & Co.

C) Macmillan & Co.

D) Chapman & Hall

Answer · why

D) Chapman & Hall

The same publishers had just threatened to cut Dickens's monthly income by £50 if his sales kept slipping.

Q 02/05

How long did Dickens take to write A Christmas Carol?

A) Six days

B) Six months

C) Sixteen months

D) Six weeks

Answer · why

D) Six weeks

His biographer Michael Slater says it was written 'at white heat', with the final pages finished in early December 1843.

Q 03/05

What did Dickens call the five sections of A Christmas Carol, in keeping with the musical title?

A) Cantos

B) Verses

C) Staves

D) Choruses

Answer · why

C) Staves

A stave is a musical staff, so the book is a 'carol' in five staves; Marley's ghost appears in the first and Scrooge wakes reformed in the last.

Q 04/05

Which two emaciated children does the Ghost of Christmas Present reveal beneath his robe?

A) Poverty and Greed

B) Hunger and Sloth

C) Ignorance and Want

D) Vice and Folly

Answer · why

C) Ignorance and Want

The spirit warns Scrooge to beware the boy above all; the pair were inspired by children Dickens saw at a ragged school in London's East End.

Q 05/05

Which two-word festive greeting, first recorded in 1534, did Dickens's 1843 novella popularise?

A) Season's Greetings

B) Happy Holidays

C) Yuletide Cheer

D) Merry Christmas

Answer · why

D) Merry Christmas

'Bah! Humbug!' also entered the language from the book, and 'Scrooge' was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as a word for a miser in 1982.