关于本书
这部经典中篇小说的主人公埃比尼泽·斯克鲁奇是一个冷酷无情、贪得无厌的人，他厌恶圣诞精神，拒绝一切人际往来。故事发生在维多利亚时代的伦敦，讲述了这个尖刻的守财奴孤独的生活如何受到一连串超自然事件的冲击，迫使他直面自己的过去、现在和可能的未来。
开篇
MARLEY'S GHOST
马利的鬼魂
Marley was dead, to begin with.
首先，马利已经死了。
There is no doubt whatever about that.
这一点毫无疑问。
The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner.
他的下葬登记册上有牧师、执事、殡葬承办人和主要送葬人的签名。
Scrooge signed it.
斯克鲁奇也签了名。
And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to.
而斯克鲁奇的名字在交易所里，无论他想插手什么事，都是靠得住的。
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
老马利死得像门钉一样透。
Mind!
注意！
I don't mean to say that I know of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail.
我并不是说，我凭自己的了解知道门钉究竟有什么特别死的地方。
I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade.
我自己倒可能倾向于把棺材钉看作五金行里最死的一件铁器。
But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile;
但是我们祖先的智慧就在这个比喻里；
and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the country's done for.
我这双不洁的手可不该去扰动它，否则国家就完了。
You will, therefore, permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
因此，请允许我再一次强调地重复：马利死得像门钉一样透。
Scrooge knew he was dead?
斯克鲁奇知道他死了吗？
Of course he did.
他当然知道。
How could it be otherwise?
怎么可能不知道呢？
Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years.
斯克鲁奇和他做合伙人，我也不知道有多少年了。
Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner.
斯克鲁奇是他唯一的遗嘱执行人、他唯一的遗产管理人、他唯一的受让人、他唯一的剩余遗产继承人、他唯一的朋友，也是唯一的送葬人。
And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event but
而即便是斯克鲁奇，也并没有被这件伤心事弄得那么悲痛欲绝，
that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.
以至于在葬礼当天他仍是一个出色的生意人，并用一笔无可置疑的好买卖来庆祝了这个日子。