Long before Dr. Seuss came along, Ebenezer Scrooge was the original Grinch, the man who hated Christmas and in fact anything (other than money) that brought light and joy to others. Dickens' description of Scrooge is downright harrowing: "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and he spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice." Some have suggested that Dickens may have endowed Scrooge with the pessimistic and misanthropic notions of Victorian economist Thomas Malthus. Although Scrooge is redeemed by the end of "A Christmas Carol," it is his darker original that has most currency in popular culture.
