im trying to read ‘a christmas carol’ by charles dickens quite literally one of the easiest books to read ever and i cant do it. at all. im trying to reread this one bit over and over and i am stressed out because my brain cant grasp it at all? what do i do? am i just stupid? english is my first language aswell and i have to read this by tomorrow, i’ve genuinely spent 2 hours reading this and got past 12 pages. wtf

‘The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge’s keyhole to regale him with Christmas carol: but, at the first sound of - “God bless you, merry gentleman! May nothing you dismay!” Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of act that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole the fog and even more congenial’

is this just a normal sentence?? can you see where my confusions coming from or am i just dyslexic or whatever.

  • Consoledreader@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    For starters you have typos in your example sentence.

    The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge’s keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of

    “God bless you, merry gentleman! May nothing you dismay!”

    Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.

    —————————-

    Basically we have an description of a Christmas Caroler’s nose as he peeps into a keyhole and sings him a Christmas Carol, which causes Scrooge to attack him with a ruler, which makes the singer run away and leave the keyhole empty (only the fog and frost).

    “Congenial frost” is a particularly interesting word choice since most people wouldn’t find frost pleasant, mimicking Scrooge’s personality at this point and desire to be alone.

    My advice is don’t get too caught up in analysis if that is tricky for you or understand every last sentence. Did you understand there was a Christmas Caroler? That Scrooge chased him away? Then that should be sufficient to move forward in the story.