PREFACE.
“A CHRISTMAS CAROL,” by Charles Dickens, is here presented to the reader in an Irish dress. For the selection of this work my friend, Mr. H. J. Gill, is responsible, and there are many considerations to commend his choice. Keen satire and melting pathos, well known characteristics of Dickens, are fairly represented in this piece, and these qualities are calculated to commend him to Irish readers. Besides, the sympathy with the poor and outcast, with which this story abounds, will ensure it a welcome in many an Irish home. If modern Irish is to strike deep literary roots it must be cultivated in the domain of translation from other modern languages, and a better selection could hardly be made to begin with than Dickens.
The translation here given is as close to the original as the difference of idiom of the two languages permitted. A more thorough upsetting of the order in some of the longer sentences than is here attempted, would, no doubt, produce a more satisfactory result, but a close following of the order of the original, as far as possible, will prove of advantage to the student, who cannot be kept out of sight in the present condition of Irish studies.
