A Christmas Carol is one of my favorite pieces of literature, ever, not only for its story of Christmas grace and human redemption, but for Dickens’ frequently amusing writing. I recently saw a theatrical production of it (via the Montevallo Main Street Players) and was inspired to see if there were any readings on Audible I hadn’t encountered. Last year I listened to the wonderful version of it by no less than Patrick Stewart, The Best Scrooge Ever. (Stewart’s A Christmas Carol is the one I re-watch every year, and not necessarily during Christmas.) In my search I found this, Tim Curry’s version. It is….definitely an experience, I will say that.

When he is simply reading, Curry’s accent makes this an enjoyable experience: when he is doing characters, though, his great talent for voicing villainous characters makes most scenes sound…askew, at best. The Crachitt children sound like demons, or at the very least like they’re demon-possessed. When Curry does Fred laughing, it sounded like I was hearing the concierge from Home Alone 2 or Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers. Curry was born for malicious characters, and his vocal talents — while serving well the buzzard-like charwoman who undresses a corpse to sell its clothing — don’t lend themselves to beauty, grace, or joy. He plays a little with accents: I’m still developing my ear for English accents, but I heard at least three (RP, Yorkshire, and Cockney).I kept listening to this mostly because it was so fascinatingly weird.

For an audio version of A Christmas Carol, I say Patrick Stewart’s on Audible is the mark to beat. It appears that Curry did voice Scrooge in an animated version of this.

Related:
My original 2008 review of A Christmas Carol
Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol