Customer Reviews

American Notes for General Circulation (Penguin English Library)

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In 1842, the young Dickens made a sweeping tour of the United States and Canada, visiting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Cincinatti, St. Louis, Niagra Falls, Montreal, and Quebec among other places. (He chose not to venture to the south, out of a repugnance for slavery.) This brief account of his travels begins with optimism and the usual Dickens eye for the comic. As it goes on, we begin to sense the weariness of the journey and the author's disappointment with what he found. We get a vivid picture of a nation still being built, quite literally in the case of frontier places. The fine introduction to the Penguin edition places this work in the context of English travel narratives of the time. This edition is also well footnoted and contains a sampling of letters Dickens wrote to friends at home, in which he is quite candid. Modern readers may find fascinating glimpses of American life at the time (such as the disgusting habit of spitting and the nastiness of the press), but may be less interested than the author was in prisons, courts, and other public institutions. Furthermore, some places are passed over cursorily, but this is to keep the journey moving along. (My favorite parts are the anecdotes about individual characters that Dickens meets while travelling.) As the introduction suggests, this book is as much about Dickens and his personal evolution as it is about America, despite the fact that Dickens does not speak extensively of the inconveniences he faced due to his fame. The trip was to inspire parts of "Martin Chuzzlewit" and must be taken in the context of Dickens' career - some of the views herein were moderated by a second trip to America later in life.

Someone please pick up this book! I've already mentioned it to two of my English professor who knew almost nothing about what I consider a true classic. Just because there is no movie to accompany it does not mean it should'nt be read for fear of confusing a public accustomed to Dickens' supposed "classics". Please take the time to open one of my favorite books. I am sure it will surprise and delight you. Remember, a "classic" is what we make of it!

I 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 an inviting description of what's inside. Not one to judge a book by its cover, though, I dismissed this minor oversight and dove in. However, while Whitley and Goldman go on to suggest that "American Notes" is somehow "fascinating as a record of the ways in which the foremost creative writer of his day responded to the most exciting social experiment of his time," that "fascination" is merely superficial and fails to last beyond the book's mildly humorous opening scenes of a sea journey to Boston.

The book's problems are its redundancy and timidity. Dickens seems to be exclusively interested in reporting on every hospital and prison in America, which he does for at least the first third of the book. While some of his descriptions and observations in this portion of the narrative reveal the character of one of literary history's most compassionate figures, this too grows stale as Dickens fails to overcome his peculiar infatuation and look beyond. Even when he does move on, in DC, Cincinatti and elsewhere, some of the most controversial issues of his day -- slavery, Native American negotiations with the US government -- are mentioned only fleetingly as Dickens turns increasingly inward and elaborates for many pages on the most forgettable and mundane experiences common to any journey or vacation, whether it be a cruise through the Caribbean in 2004 or a trip on a riverboat up the Mississippi in 19th-century America, a river that meets with Dickens's intense disdain.

Some of Dickens's observations on the functions and implications of the American democratic system as well as generalizations on the mannerisms of Americans go far to show how little has changed since Dickens came to Boston in 1842, but rarely rise to the lyrical intensity or vivid portraits one would expect from a powerhouse such as Charles Dickens. The letters included in this edition demonstrate just how much Dickens held back in the writing of the book, which leads me to wonder just why people like Washington Irving found it so objectionable as to never speak to Dickens again. Surely the book offers some less-than-flattering ruminations on the people and corruption surrounding him, but had Dickens's book reflected the more aggressive tone of his letters, "American Notes" may have been as much of a classic today as it might have been an unconscionable offence to Irving or the American journalists who panned it at the time.

Unfortunately, the book is incapable of engenering much more than the relatively tame emotional response it received upon its release, and if its sales were impressive (which they were), this was due chiefly to the author's name and not to anything that is said between the front and back cover. Whitley and Goldman make the excellent point that some of Dickens's high-profile American friends -- Longfellow, for one -- may have influenced his impressions to such an extent that they diluted the final product. This is a case in which Dickens's fame hindered the sincerity of his work. For a more entertaining and memorable reading experience, try Parkman's "Oregon Trail," Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley" or Least-Heat Moon's "Blue Highways". For a great travel-read from a time and place far beyond 19th or 20th-century America, try Marco Polo's truly "fascinating" "Travels".

There's a tradition in British literature of the travel writer. He doesn't write books in the sense of a travelogue: instead he travels somewhere, and either he writes while he's traveling, or after, about his travels, what he sees, who he meets, and so forth. He usually has some comments on the society he has visited, and the book usually has a faint air of comedy to it.

American Notes is such a book, written by Charles Dickens, of Oliver Twist fame. Dickens traveled to the States in 1842, visiting Boston, New York City, St. Louis, and parts of Canada, and observing various things about our society. He appears to have been very interested in various public institutions, so much of the book is devoted to prisons, orphanages, and institutions that house those with serious disabilities, such as a girl who's blind, deaf, and dumb all at once.

The author is repulsed by the institution of slavery (can't say I blame him, but it wasn't that common a reaction in the 19th century) and so while he initially intended to travel as far south as Charleston, South Carolina, in point of fact he only makes it as far as Richmond, Virginia. He visits the high points in Washington D.C., actually gets to meet the President, and wanders the country, even at one point venturing out to see a "prairie". He travels on various conveyances, mostly railroads, wagons, and riverboats, stays in various hotels, and takes his meals in various places. Apparently his wife was his traveling companion, and at one point he mentions his wife having brought a maid with him (the rich were *very* different in those days) but he says little about either, instead focusing on the people they meet.

I consider this to have been an interesting book, if a bit over-written at times. When he wants to discuss the blind-deaf-dumb girl in the institution in Boston, for instance, I think he spends too much time on her and how her situation was resolved (as much as it was). If he's critical of American society, he's also fairly objective in his discussion of it. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

Charles 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 propel the Britishers forward to the land of the free and home of the brave! Dickens visited several cities. He had good and bad things to say about America. Dickens:
a. Visited Boston and New York insane asylums and homes for the indigent.
He also visited prisons. Dickens was a liberal social reformer and thought the treatment of the insane could be improved. He did not think much of American penology believing the prisoners should be worked harder.
b. From the East the Dickens party traveled West. They passed through Louisville, Cincinnati and Sandusky. Dickens complained about pigs in the streets of these burgeoning cities. He thought Americans bold and brassy with an inordinate patriotism manifestly condescending to foreigners.
c. Dickens traveled to St.Louis complaining of the isolated life found in log cabins and the hot temperatures of North America.
d. Dickens disliked the partisan American press; he thought Americans were ruled by mobocracy and often used guns and fisticuffs when they were not necessary!
e. The travel in stage and by train was difficult in this era in the new American nation. Dickens often comments on how miserable he was!
f. Dickens saves his greatest wrath for the abominable practice of chattel slavery in the American South. In his journey to Virginia he comments on how run down the farms and homes were. Like the earlier English visiotr Fanny Trollope he is to be commended for his hatred of slavery which was the curse of American life in the antebellum period.
g. Dickens also hated the American propensity to spit tobacco juice everwhere in sight including the floor of the US House of Representatives and in the Senate Chamber!
Dickens also toured Canada which at that time was ruled by Great Britain. He is much less critical of Canadians!
Dickens is critical in many pages of the book. The book was not liked in America and little read in England. Dickens also was appalled at the lack of copyright law protecting him and English authors from the pirating of their literary efforts. Dickens would write his next novel "Martin Chuzzlewit" in which the hero travels to America only to be greatly disillusioned by this experience.
Dickens returned to America late in life amending some of his earlier harsh views about the 1842 visit. Slavery had been then been abolished.
It should not be forgotten that Dickens was also very critical of society in Great Britain! This greatest of Victorian novelists was a man who believed society needed to improve in education, care for the poor giving people more equitable justice and a higher standard of living. Dickens failed to realize on his 1842 tour that America would take time to grow as a nation and society. Some of his pointed observations, though, such as our love for elections, guns and military titles still stand!
American Notes is dry reading in many places. It is valuable for how a famous author saw America when he and the United States were both young.

Perhaps 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 truth be told, certain ideas begin to become repititious fairly early on.
While I feel Dickens' observations are/were valid, I think Fanny Trollope's "Domestic Manners of the Americans" is a much more enthralling read-- an account imbued with wicked humor and wit. In fact, Dickens was very much influenced by Trollope's account of America.
Without question, Dickens is the King of Victorian literature and I am a HUGE fan, but if you want his best...go for broke with "Dombey and Son," "Bleak House," or "David Copperfield."

Disappointing memoir of Dickens' trip to the U.S. which he took during a twelve month break between BARNABY RUDGE and MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. Dickens hated the national arrogance, the shrill politics and, especially, the hypocrisy of slavery paraded under the banner of the Declaration of Independence. Yet his commentary on it all, as laid down here, is generally circumspect and often flippant. It's as if he was concerned about giving too much offense. Perhaps he felt too exposed without the cloak of fiction to allow his imagination free reign to picture what he really saw. In the end what we have is a compromised account which pleased no one, not the Americans nor the fans of his social satire. There are good bits: the initial passage across a stormy Atlantic, the persistent disgust with the fade of chewing tobacco. And the Penguin edition has a useful introduction and notes, most of which refer to the influence of the American sojourn on MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. The American sections of that novel are exteme, pointed, undoubtedly unfair and utterly unforgettable. They are Dickens' true American notes.

Charles Dickens visited America for the first time when he was 30, and already a famous novelist. While the book about that visit is sometimes amusing and appealing, it is by no means what it might have been. CD was hardly a born travel writer.
He travelled from Liverpool to Boston, and then visited places like New York, Washington, St.Louis, the Great Lakes, and Canada.
He spent much time visiting institutions like mental asylums, poor houses, prisons, but also courts, parliaments, theaters. Not to forget the White House for a dinner with President Tyler (of whom we learn little).
While his basic tone is respect and admiration for much that he liked, there is also a strong element of criticism. His foremost target was the institution of slavery. We find several examples of observations during the trip report, and a summarizing essay among the concluding chapters. His stance was loud and clear.
A less serious, but persistent subject was his disgust with the ubiquitous habit of chewing tobacco and expectorating the juice, rather like the Indian habit of betel chewing. (Chinese can hawk and spit without needing a stimulating juice.)
Much of the book is not very interesting and not very original, so I rate it just 3 stars (but I add a bonus star for the slavery and spitting attitude).

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.

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 slave - states. He notes a uniformity in American social opinion and condemns this, and a certain lack of manners. But he also see that in terms of democratic principles the United States is ahead of Britain.This is surprisingly a quite humorless work, again lacking one of Dickens defining virtues as a writer.