"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" There's no-one like Dickens for talking about poverty, at any rate - his rant on the subject in Bleak House is what makes that book my favourite of his work, and the sheer volume of anger and pity in A Christmas Carol is enormously and similarly affecting. The two little figures of Ignorance and Want, especially, tucked starving into the robes of Christmas Present, are particularly awful. Altogether they're the largest part of why this book is such a deserved classic, I think. For while it's chock-full of blistering one-liners, from a modern perspective at least there are parts that I find purple and over-written.. but the combined emotional effect, the stand on social justice and responsibility to others, makes me just not care about the minor quibbles. It's lovely the way that it is.