Very interesting Liz; you can tell by the writing the speed at which his thoughts must have tumbled onto the paper.
I also like the John Leech illustrations . . .which I only mention in passing as many years ago I was lucky enough to pick up an original cartoon of his. An antiquarian bookseller was having a closing-down sale and I found this rather grubby sheet of paper with a watercolour and pencil drawing, among a pile of odd prints, cobwebs and dust. It is titled 'Spring and Summer'. As 'Autumn and Winter' were missing I only paid 5 bob for it. ;-)

I agree, Vee - his handwriting looks very rushed and I commend whoever it was that "translated" his handwriting into typeset. his writing is worse than mine (and that's saying something).

How cool that you found a John Leech illustration in a shop closing down. Did you see in the article how the first illustration of one of the ghosts was done in red and then had to be done again in green? Is yours in a fire-proof safe somewhere?

The illustrations were one of the reasons the book wasn't a great seller at first - they pushed the price up too high (apparently)....

Fascinating!

I'd be tempted to try and find some interesting emendations - I'd love to have tea in J P Morgan's study! - but it's a little impractical for me to get there.

My favourite paragraph of Dickens is the wonderful short speech by the nephew:- "There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

I think it's interesting to see from the m/s that the bit about "the veneration due to its sacred name and origin" was an afterthought. I wonder if it he thought about it, and decided to put it in, or whether a reader or editor suggested that he should add it?

My great-grandfather (or two greats) was apprenticed to Dickens' printer, and family legend has it that he was the one who had to recopy the manuscript so it could be quickly read and typeset. Can't prove any of it except the apprenticeship, of course, but that's our story and we're sticking to it!