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A review by martinbihl
American Notes For General Circulation; by Charles Dickens
2.0
I think you have to start with the understanding that this is a non-fiction piece, and perhaps cut the guy some slack because he wasn’t a non-fiction writer. Sure, sure, he started out that way, but really even by the time he got to “Sketches by Boz” he was a fiction writer. And while he may have done research for the subsequent novels, there’s a big difference between that and writing non-fiction.
As such, I think he was presented with the problem of how to talk about what he was seeing. On top of that is the fact that whatever opinion the US public had of Dickens – one they probably confused with the narrator of the books – there was no way they were going to be pleasantly surprised with the real man. Especially since he was more than a bit of a snob where Americans were concerned, and as he grew horrified by their inability to treat him, or anyone as far as he could tell, as their social superior.
On the other hand, he didn’t really make it easier on himself. I mean, when you go on vacation to a new country, is your first stop the prisons, lunatic asylums and homes for the blind? I know, I know, he visited these places in England as well, and it was fashionable to do so. But come on. America is waiting to see what the great man will say about their nation – and he paints them a picture of morons, thieves and madmen. I’m not saying we’re not – I’m just saying you can’t paint that picture and expect to be cheered.
There is the outside chance that Dickens was doing all this on purpose, of course. He’d been fighting with American publishers for years about the fact that they infringed the copyright of all his books, and that he never saw a penny from all the US sales of his work. And this was a point he made time and again in speeches on his tour. So it is possible that he was intentionally writing a book that he felt would not have a market in the US – the logic being – well, if they won’t pay me for what I write anyway, I might as well write something they won’t publish.
Unfortunately, they did.
Will this keep me from reading more Dickens? Hardly. But I can heartily recommend that unless you’re a scholar of the era or the great man, I think you can pass this book by.
One side note – apparently while Dickens was in Baltimore he met briefly in his rooms with a young American author. The two did not hit it off, though both were quite cordial and polite. The author? Edgar Allan Poe.
As such, I think he was presented with the problem of how to talk about what he was seeing. On top of that is the fact that whatever opinion the US public had of Dickens – one they probably confused with the narrator of the books – there was no way they were going to be pleasantly surprised with the real man. Especially since he was more than a bit of a snob where Americans were concerned, and as he grew horrified by their inability to treat him, or anyone as far as he could tell, as their social superior.
On the other hand, he didn’t really make it easier on himself. I mean, when you go on vacation to a new country, is your first stop the prisons, lunatic asylums and homes for the blind? I know, I know, he visited these places in England as well, and it was fashionable to do so. But come on. America is waiting to see what the great man will say about their nation – and he paints them a picture of morons, thieves and madmen. I’m not saying we’re not – I’m just saying you can’t paint that picture and expect to be cheered.
There is the outside chance that Dickens was doing all this on purpose, of course. He’d been fighting with American publishers for years about the fact that they infringed the copyright of all his books, and that he never saw a penny from all the US sales of his work. And this was a point he made time and again in speeches on his tour. So it is possible that he was intentionally writing a book that he felt would not have a market in the US – the logic being – well, if they won’t pay me for what I write anyway, I might as well write something they won’t publish.
Unfortunately, they did.
Will this keep me from reading more Dickens? Hardly. But I can heartily recommend that unless you’re a scholar of the era or the great man, I think you can pass this book by.
One side note – apparently while Dickens was in Baltimore he met briefly in his rooms with a young American author. The two did not hit it off, though both were quite cordial and polite. The author? Edgar Allan Poe.