What to read after A Christmas Carol in Prose?

MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubtwhatever about that. The register of his burial wassigned by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker,and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: andScrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything hechose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as adoor-nail.Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of myown knowledge, what there is particularly dead abouta door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, toregard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongeryin the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestorsis in the simile; and my unhallowed handsshall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. Youwill therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, thatMarley was as dead as a door-nail.Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did.How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he werepartners for I don't know how many years. Scroogewas his sole executor, his sole administrator, his soleassign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, andsole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfullycut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellentman of business on the very day of the funeral,and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back tothe point I started from. There is no doubt that Marleywas dead. This must be distinctly understood, ornothing wonderful can come of the story I am goingto relate. If we were not perfectly convinced thatHamlet's Father died before the play began, therewould be nothing more remarkable in his taking astroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts,than there would be in any other middle-agedgentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezyspot--say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance--literally to astonish his son's weak mind.