Dimensions
130 x 197 x 27mm
Two Everyman Classics in One Volume.
Remarkable and idiosyncratic Victorian travel writing.
Dickens went to America in 1842 expecting to find a brave new world whose institutions embodied his own political views. The Americans expected him to extol their new nation. Dickens, however, became deeply disturbed by American culture. This book attempts to portray fairly the young Republic's new cities, strange landscapes and bustling people, but is coloured by Dickens's doubts about the failings of democratic politics in an egalitarian society.
In Italy from 1844 to 1845 Dickens was determined not to write a conventional guide book, instead producing a record of his own life during the adventurous period and an idiosyncratic account of the "tourist round". As a Protestant he reacted sharply to Rome's Catholic ritual, but responded with wonder to the overwhelming beauty of Venice.
This is the most comprehensive edition available, with original illustrations, introduction, notes, historical appendices and chronology of Dickens's life and times.
