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Books : American Notes for General Circulation (Penguin Classics)In association with Amazon.comby: Charles Dickens  Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 917.30458 EAN: 9780140430776 ISBN: 0140430776 Label: Penguin Classics Manufacturer: Penguin Classics Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 368 Publication Date: November 30, 1974 Publisher: Penguin Classics Studio: Penguin Classics Sales Rank: 2493180 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Mr. Charles Dickens tours a young America in 1842Charles Dickens left London for America in the cold January of 1842. He left behind several children and such bestsellers as "Pickwick Papers"; "Oliver Twist:, "The Old Curiosity Shop" and "Nicholas Nickleby." He and his wife Catherine Hogarth Dickens would journey to the land of their Yankee cousins for six months. This long journey resulted in a short account of the famed novelist's time in the United States. The passage from Liverpool took 18 days with storms and heavy rain to ... Read More Rating: - Not a Dickens novel I had eagerly looked forward to reading this work. I had expected that Dickens would provide a rich Pickwick Papers-like cast of American characters. Instead Dickens writes of conditions, of scenery, of things but not really of people, not in the way anyway he writes about them in his novels. This made the book disappointing on the 'experiential level'. In terms of American vs.British conditions he does have interesting things to say. He strongly opposes Slavery and so will not travel to the ... Read More Rating:  - Not What I Had Hoped ForPerhaps because I have read so much of Dickens' fiction and enjoyed it so thoroughly, I had certain expectations that simply cannot be met in a work of non fiction. To be sure, Dickens' account of America in the 1800s is interesting and his penultimate chapter railing against the institution of slavery is fantastic, but the book seemed a bit verbose (not a surprise, I suppose) and contradictory at times. He makes many observations worth knowing about in relation to Transatlantic studies, but ... Read More Rating: - DisappointingI must regretfully confess that this book, so promising in its circumstances, amounts to a profound bore. The opportunity to see a distinct American epoch through the eyes of a Charles Dickens is one that I lusted after. Yet, as Goldman and Whitley's introduction to the Penguin edition rightly observes, the book is "extremely disappointing in its omissions and pervasive flatness." That "flatness" ought to have concerned me upon first reading the title. "American Notes for General Circulation" is hardly ... Read More Rating: - Naaaaah, we don't look too good here...Especially when you realize that some things haven't changed about America. Nevertheless, true or not, is a great book by Dickens. Reading it you get a great sense of the author as well as how he observed the world. His humor really shines through, as does his familiararity. No matter if you agree with the book or not (and sometimes I do, other times I don't) this book is nevertheless a great read for any Dickens fan. Browse for similar items by category:
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