Charles Dickens and Illustrator P. J. Lynch

You’d think the power of Dickens’ holiday workhorse would have been diluted by the ceaseless adaptations, knock-offs, and rip-offs it has inspired over the 163 years since it was published. Yet the irony of the Christmas Carol cottage industry is that despite so many crass, overblown, exploitative (or just plain lazy) versions that risk sabotaging the message of Dickens’ story, none has managed to dent its essential magic. Dickens’ combination of a compelling story, an indelible sense of place, terrifically drawn characters, joy, and redemption makes A Christmas Carol worth returning to year after year for fresh rewards and familiar pleasures. And while there have been scads of excellent illustrated versions over the years, P. J. Lynch’s watercolor-and-gouache spreads (at right) in this handsome new edition are both splendid and subtle: alternately teeming and forlorn, with just the right balance of darkness and light.