| American Notes for General Circulation: Revised Edition Contributor(s): Dickens, Charles (Author), Ingham, Patricia (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0140436499 ISBN-13: 9780140436495 Publisher: Penguin Group OUR PRICE: $16.20 Product Type: Paperback Published: July 2001 Annotation: Charles Dickens was the most famous of many travelers of his time who journeyed to America, curious about the revolutionary new civilization that had captured the English imagination. His frank, often humorous descriptions in his 1842 account cover everything from his uncomfortable sea voyage to an ecstatic narrative of his visit to Niagara Falls. Yet Dickens is also critical of American society, its preoccupation with money, and reliance on slavery, as well as the rude, unsavory manners of Americans and their corrupt press. Above all, American Notes is a lively chronicle of what was for Dickens an illuminating encounter with the New World. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Travel | Essays & Travelogues - History | United States - 19th Century - Travel | United States - General |
| Dewey: 973 |
| LCCN: 2001271887 |
| Series: Penguin Classics |
| Physical Information: 0.61" H x 4.84" W x 8.05" (0.53 lbs) 368 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A fascinating account of nineteenth-century America sketched with Charles Dickens's characteristic wit and charm When Charles Dickens set out for America in 1842 he was the most famous man of his day to travel there - curious about the revolutionary new civilization that had captured the English imagination. His frank and often humorous descriptions cover everything from his comically wretched sea voyage to his sheer astonishment at the magnificence of the Niagara Falls, while he also visited hospitals, prisons and law courts and found them exemplary. But Dickens's opinion of America as a land ruled by money, built on slavery, with a corrupt press and unsavoury manners, provoked a hostile reaction on both sides of the Atlantic. American Notes is an illuminating account of a great writer's revelatory encounter with the New World. In her introduction, Patricia Ingham examines the response the book received when it was published, and compares it with similar travel writings of the period and with Dickens's fiction, in particular Martin Chuzzlewit. This edition includes an updated chronology, appendices and notes. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. |