A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a holiday classic, no doubt. It's been told and retold countless times. Everyone from George C. Scott to Bill Murray to The Muppets have taken a crack at it. Hollywood has produced no less than 10 versions and who knows how many other adaptations have been created - everything from radio dramas to stage plays.

Besides the 2000 year old original, it's reasonable to say that A Christmas Carol might be the most well-known and beloved Christmas story.

In Dickens' day, it's possible that you could've heard the author read it aloud. According to Issac Gewirtz, Dickens gave about 150 public readings of this book, but the actual text he read was greatly changed from the published work. Speaking and listening are different than reading (yes, I know... I can just hear my 13 year old self saying, "yeah, duh."), and to facilitate the public readings, Dickens created a promptbook; which is now owned by the New York Public Library.

His first performances clocked in around 3 hours, though Dickens soon cut it down to a more manageable 1.5 hours. He was ruthless in his editing, most of the wording meant to convey atmosphere was removed with Dickens relying on dramatic stage cues instead, that is, letting his voice convey the meaning.

In the spirit of his public performances, the New York Public Library enlisted author Neil Gaiman to perform a public reading from Dickens' own promptbook. Gaiman went all out for this, dressing and even parting his hair like Dickens.

The performance is wonderful, you can listen to it here, and the School Library Journal has several photographs of the event.

Finally, it's worth noting that writers in Dickens' day almost universally saw public readings by authors as a desecration of their art. Mark Twain (who didn't share this opinion) attended a Dickens reading, but wasn't impressed. To quote, “There is no heart,” Twain said. “No feeling – it is nothing but glittering frostwork.”

To which I can only hope that Charles replied with, "Bah Humbug!"