Author: Charles DickensPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
Dickens on America & the Americans
Author: Charles DickensPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
American Notes
Author: Charles DickensPublisher: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ISBN: 8726595591
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 149
Book Description
"All that is loathsome, drooping, or decayed is here." In 1842 Dickens sailed to America to observe The New World that held such fascination for the English. He went to magnificent landmarks like Niagara Falls but also included visits to mental institutions and prisons. He met President John Tyler in D.C and the well-educated Laura Bridgman, who was deaf-blind. Dickens found lots to admire, but also noted how coarse and ill-mannered the Americans were. That did not go over well with the Americans. With superb language and humour, Dickens gathered these fascinating observations in this travelogue that will have anyone with the slightest interest in cultural differences completely spell-bound. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English author, social critic, and philanthropist. Much of his writing first appeared in small instalments in magazines and was widely popular. Among his most famous novels are Oliver Twist (1839), David Copperfield (1850), and Great Expectations (1861).
Charles Dickens's American Audience
Author: Robert McParlandPublisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739118587
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 253
Book Description
From 1837 to 1912, Charles Dickens was by far the most popular writer for American readers. Through several sources including statistics, literary biography, newspapers, memoirs, diaries, letters, and interviews, Robert McParland examines a historical time and an emerging national consciousness that defined the American identity before and after the Civil War. American voices present their views, tastes, emotional reactions and identifications, and deep attachment and love for Dickens's characters, stories, themes, and sensibilities as well as for the man himself. Bringing together contemporary reactions to Dickens and his works, this book paints a portrait of the American people and of American society and culture from 1837 to the turn of the twentieth century. It is in this view of nineteenth-century America--its people and their values, their reading habits and cultural views, the scenarios of their everyday lives even in the face of the drastic changes of the emerging nation--that Charles Dickens's American Audience makes its greatest impact.
Mr. Dickens and His Carol
Author: Samantha SilvaPublisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 1250154030
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
"CHARMING...I READ IT IN A COUPLE OF EBULLIENT, CHRISTMASSY GULPS." —Anthony Doerr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of All The Light We Cannot See "GRACED BY THE GHOSTLY PRESENCE OF MR. DICKENS HIMSELF...PROMISES TO PUT YOU IN THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT." —USA Today A beloved, irresistible novel that reimagines the story behind Charles Dickens' Christmas classic Charles Dickens is not feeling the Christmas spirit. His newest book is an utter flop, the critics have turned against him, relatives near and far hound him for money. While his wife plans a lavish holiday party for their ever-expanding family and circle of friends, Dickens has visions of the poor house. But when his publishers try to blackmail him into writing a Christmas book to save them all from financial ruin, he refuses. And a serious bout of writer’s block sets in. Frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace in his great palace of thinking, the city of London itself. On one of his long night walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets the mysterious Eleanor Lovejoy, who might be just the muse he needs. As Dickens’ deadlines close in, Eleanor propels him on a Scrooge-like journey that tests everything he believes about generosity, friendship, ambition, and love. The story he writes will change Christmas forever.
Domestic Manners of the Americans
Author: Frances TrollopePublisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199676879
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
Domestic Manners of the Americans is an entertaining, witty, and often scathing account of Trollope's travels in America between 1827 and 1832 and her criticisms of American manners, from vulgarity to the treatment of slaves. One of the most influential travel books of the century, it also speaks to political debates on equality in England.
The Other America
Author: Michael HarringtonPublisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 068482678X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254
Book Description
Examines the economic underworld of migrant farm workers, the aged, minority groups, and other economically underprivileged groups.
A World on Fire
Author: Amanda ForemanPublisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0375756965
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1010
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 10 BEST BOOKS • THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • 2011 NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • The New Yorker • Chicago Tribune • The Economist • Nancy Pearl, NPR • Bloomberg.com • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In this brilliant narrative, Amanda Foreman tells the fascinating story of the American Civil War—and the major role played by Britain and its citizens in that epic struggle. Between 1861 and 1865, thousands of British citizens volunteered for service on both sides of the Civil War. From the first cannon blasts on Fort Sumter to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, they served as officers and infantrymen, sailors and nurses, blockade runners and spies. Through personal letters, diaries, and journals, Foreman introduces characters both humble and grand, while crafting a panoramic yet intimate view of the war on the front lines, in the prison camps, and in the great cities of both the Union and the Confederacy. In the drawing rooms of London and the offices of Washington, on muddy fields and aboard packed ships, Foreman reveals the decisions made, the beliefs held and contested, and the personal triumphs and sacrifices that ultimately led to the reunification of America. “Engrossing . . . a sprawling drama.”—The Washington Post “Eye-opening . . . immensely ambitious and immensely accomplished.”—The New Yorker WINNER OF THE FLETCHER PRATT AWARD FOR CIVIL WAR HISTORY
Dickens and Travel
Author: Lucinda HawksleyPublisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1526735644
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 349
Book Description
From childhood, Charles Dickens was fascinated by tales from other countries and other cultures, and he longed to see the world. In Dickens and Travel, Lucinda Hawksley looks at the journeys made by the author – who is also her great great great grandfather. Although Dickens is usually perceived as a London author, in the 1840s he whisked his family away to live in Italy for year, and spent several months in Switzerland. Some years later he took up residence in Paris and Boulogne (where he lived in secret with his lover). In addition to travelling widely in Europe, he also toured America twice, performed onstage in Canada and, before his untimely death, was planning a tour of Australia. Dickens and Travel enters into the world of the Victorian traveller and looks at how Charles Dickens’s journeys influenced his writing and enriched his life.
Christmas in America
Author: Penne L. RestadPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199923582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping, and family togetherness. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions-- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.
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