Miss Marley (2018) by Vanessa Lafaye #ALiteraryChristmas #InspiredByClassics

🎄 We all know A Christmas Carol is the most famous Christmas story ever, written by Charles Dickens, the man who re-invented the Christmas spirit. It' is about Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation - perhaps the biggest character transformation in literature. We know what has made him the hard miser we have known him at the start. And his transformation begun with Jacob Marley. But what we know about Marley? What had made him ended up a tormented spirit burdened with those self-forged chains? This novella, Miss Marley, is our answer, written as a prequel to A Christmas Carol.

🎄 Miss Marley is Clara Bell Marley, sister to Jacob Marley. The siblings lived comfortably in their big house. But after their parents death, they were expelled from their house by their corrupt wicked uncle. Thus begun their wretched lives in London's slump. It began in working house, which infected poor Clara's lung and gave her severe coughing. Then Jacob brought her out in the street. And that's where we saw them at the beginning of the story.

🎄 Few days before Christmas, cold, hungry, and homeless, the siblings kept dreaming of a better life. Jacob was caring and attentive towards his sister. During their wretched hours, he kept telling her that he will fight and work hard to make Clara's life happier. One night they witnessed a man dying in the corner of the street. Instead of calling for help, Jacob picked one the man's two purses, and they ran away.

🎄 The money provided them shelter and medicine for Clara. They started working, and with the money, Clara suggested to lend money to the poor - thus the start of their money-lending business. Later on Jacob would find the acquaintance of a young ambitious Ebenezer Scrooge, with whom he would partner in building Scrooge and Marley counting house.

🎄 As soon as they started the money-lending business, Clara witnessed how Jacob gradually changed, from the caring and attentive boy who protected her in the street, to be the ruthless businessman who ignored his clients' plight for the sake of gain. This makes Clara abandoned their joint business, and chose to work at the store instead. After Scrooge and Marley, Jacob's transformation to the heartless man became more permanent. He didn't even relent when Clara and her fiancée needed business fund.

🎄 If you love A Christmas Carol, then this novella might thrill you. But let me warn you that it's less cheerful and hopeful for a Christmas read. It's about what had led Marley to be the doomed spirit, is it not? You can't hope that kind of story would make you feel Christmassy. But as a classic reader, I'm sure you'll appreciate it. Moreover, Vanessa Lafaye has kept the atmosphere true to Dickensian London.

🎄 An interesting fact: Lafaye died in the midst of writing this novella. The publisher and her husband then asked her writer friend Rebecca Mascull to continue. And we must give credit to Mascull for a seamless story, which you wouldn't know had been penned by two writers.

Rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄