Lantern Slide - A Christmas Carol; 'Fezzwig's Christmas Ball'; 1843-1880; Number 4 in a set of twelve slides in the series 'A Christmas Carol'. 'A Christmas Carol' is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman and Hall on 19 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological; ethical; and emotional transformation after the supernatural visitations of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past;