Fezziwig: A Life
Fezziwig is a character in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the kindly businessman to whom Ebenezer Scrooge is apprenticed as a young man. Fezziwig: A Life is an imagined memoir by William Fezziwig, moving from his humble beginnings in rural Lincolnshire to his life as a prosperous London merchant. In a series of adventures, and quite a few lucky escapes, he builds up his business in England and America, frequents the newly established London coffeehouses and befriends many of the major figures of the 18th century.
This was a time of great upheaval, and the story covers a whole range of subjects, from social injustice to scientific discovery, from political dissent to the American War of Independence. It is a thoroughly researched and ambitious trawl through 18th century London, using language and events to evoke a feeling of the age. However, as a reader, I would have preferred a narrower scope and more depth of description and characterisation. For instance, the account of Fezziwig’s courtship of his wife is sketchy, and we never learn very much about her personality or appearance. Given the class preoccupations of 18th-century England, I was also curious as to why his future father-in-law did not make pointed enquiries about his family background. But anyone with an interest in the period, or who enjoys a classic rags-to-riches tale, will find plenty in this book to satisfy them.
