Vánoční koleda – Dickens Charles (2019)

This Czech-language edition of A Christmas Carol presents Charles Dickens’s personal drama, a short five-chapter morality tale that has addressed successive generations of readers for more than 170 years and inspired numerous stage, operatic and film adaptations. Its enduring appeal lies not only in its powerful story and literary quality, but also in the hope it represents, something people need throughout their lives. The book is illustrated by the Italian painter Roberto Innocenti, whose large compositions evoke a sombre winter atmosphere and deepen the mood of Dickens’s story. The colours are dominated by dark shades, especially brown, while every illustration rewards close examination of its carefully rendered details. Innocenti brings the world of England in the first half of the nineteenth century to life with harmonious perspective and distinctive portraits whose almost identical, flat faces are marked by dark eyes. The final illustration is the only predominantly positive image, using colours beyond the dark palette. To work on A Christmas Carol, Innocenti visited London and studied original works by Dickens’s contemporaries. He enriched his realistic paintings with environmental detail, strong expression and magical realism, creating a suggestive atmosphere for Dickens’s fantastic tale. The book features illustrations by Roberto Innocenti (born 1940), an internationally acclaimed artist who received numerous awards, including the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2008. His work is published by houses in Europe, Asia, the United States and Japan, and The New York Times has presented him as “one of the greatest illustrators of children’s books in the world.”