charles dickens did not like spitting i will tell you smth

I can see why this book was unpopular when it was released. Though Dickens is charming and engaging, he is brutally honest in his criticism of America. At the same time, there is a shallowness to his views, in that he often focuses on there aesthetic rather than the philosophical.
That said, as a historical artifact, this book is fascinating, especially when read alongside the writings of Dickens’s secretary, Mr. Putnam. Between the two of them, the reader learns much about America in 1842, and by virtue of contrast, much about what the English expected from America and Canada in 1842.
A final note: Dickens himself addressed the historic nature of his observations when he felt the need to add a note regarding America’s development, after his 1868 visit. This book is a travel log which functions as a very matter-of-fact account of America in 1842.

"America...I went there expecting greater things than I found."

Dickens, pure gold

What a combination of intelligence, memory, fair reporting, shear disregard for consequences, eye for the absurd and ridiculous, kindness, empathy, powerful advocacy! It's very hard to avoid hyperbole, Dickens is just amazing. Very readable, very amusing, very entertaining, very educational. I just love it. Though the issues should be out of date by now, are they? Read and judge for yourself. I have never enjoyed myself in reading a work so much as I have when reading this. I am reading all of CD novel's, his biography by John Forster and now this. I cannot yet judge but I feel certain that CD was very influential in the abolition of slavery. His chapter on Slavery is telling, chilling, sobering.

I started this one over a year ago, in preparation to read Martin Chuzzlewit, and then got sidetracked by many other awesome reading projects! Now that I'm buddy reading MC in July, I figured I had to get cracking and finish this, and I'm so happy I did! This is my first foray into Victorian travel writing, and it was fascinating and engaging. I'm so glad to have this window into Dickens's internal impressions of the US, prior to reading MC—his impressions of geography, culture, manners, suffrage, capitalism/trade, the prison system, slavery, and his infamous indictments of the American press and journalism. It will be fascinating to see how all of his personal experiences play out in the fictional canvas of MC. I can't wait to start it!

This is a terrific book, both funny and insightful. In the 1840s, Charles Dickens took a journey to the United States. It was not the easiest of ocean journeys back in those days, and the constant concern of the ocean, the battle against seasickness, and the angst for a quicker arrival make for a delightful way to start this story. His descriptions of what he witnessed, including a chapter on slavery, make for an interesting look at the country from someone born in England.

I would recommend this book as a way to introduce yourself to Dickens. Some of the novels can be daunting. If you want to try something in a more lighthearted vein, in a book that anticipates the travel books that came in later decades, then this is worth your time.

In January of 1842, Charles Dickens came to the United States with his wife and a small contingent to tour through the settled areas, some of eastern Canada and gather a picture of his American public. In return he wrote this book, a piece of travel writing, with diversions into areas of his personal interest such as prison systems and the rehabilitation of prisoners, the seemingly out of control habit of spitting among American males (and their neglect of using spittoons). Beyond that he considers the variety of hotels or boarding houses from Boston to Washington, from Cincinnati to the edge of the prairie, the various boats and carriages involved in his transport, the state (or lack of state) of roads, etc. Some conversation is serious while others appear to be firmly tongue in cheek though based in fact. His encounter with slavery in Baltimore and Washington D.C.resulted in his not venturing as far south as he had intended, as far the Carolinas.

While most of this book is written in a utilitarian way, there are sections where the prose comes alive and the novelist becomes apparent. The champion of the underdog can be seen in Dickens’ various discussions of the prisons he toured, the conditions he found, the prisoners he met. There are also sections of purely Dickensonian humor. A must read is the description of the ship boarding in England, in fact most of the boats and vehicles he used everywhere during his travels.

An appendix written in 1868, after a later trip to the U.S. attempts to offset the negative reception that followed his first. He states that it will be affixed to all future editions of the book. In it he states his increased admiration for the country and its people and society.

Another appendix deals with some other serious concerns from his 1842 visit, the treatment of slaves and free blacks in the new country and the amount of violence among the men, using weapons freely to solve arguments.

Anyone who wants to know Dickens should read this work.

This is the only non-fiction of Dicken's that I have read. He made this trip in his younger years, before he had written many of his now famous novels. I read Martin Chuzzlewit many years ago. I suspect some of it was based on this trip. It wasn't well received in the states; it may have hit a little to close for those readers. Americans can be quite thin-skinned at times.
Others have given very good reviews here and I am tired, so read those with my blessing. I gave this five stars, not because it was a gripping read, though it is entertaining enough, but because of his sincerity in his descriptions. That he devoted an entire chapter to the horrors and disgrace of slavery is so like him. He always took the side of the oppressed, downtrodden and abused.

Dickens' trips to the United States, his first, is the impetus for this book. Starting dockside in London, his facility with language and witty novelist's descriptions make this an entertaining and engaging travelogue. Narrated well by Angela Cheyne, this audiobook finds Dickens "slumming". He goes right for the margins of society dissecting slavery, tromping the notorious Five Points in Manhattan, The Tombs prison, the succor and language given deaf-blind Laura Bridgman, and more.

One interesting thing to me was the divisive partisan politics Dickens saw around presidential party affiliation.

Quiet people avoid the question of the Presidency, for there will be a new election in three years and a half, and party feeling runs very high: the great constitutional feature of this institution being, that directly the acrimony of the last election is over, the acrimony of the next one begins...

Presaging our own nose rings of social media and a 24-hour news cycle, Dickens muses:

...I yet hope to hear of there being some other national amusement in the United States, besides newspaper politics.

ENGLISH: While reading the biography of Dickens by his friend John Forster, in the part about Dickens's first trip to America, which mentions the book he published later about that trip, I felt like reading it, so I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg and now have read it.

Interesting travel book, where Dickens not only tells what he saw, but also criticizes it, making comparisons with the methods used in his own country (the United Kingdom), criticisms that sometimes result in the detriment of one system and sometimes of the other.

Dickens tells about his visit to a school for handicapped children. One of the pupils he mentions is a girl in a similar situation to Hellen Keller (she was blind, deaf and mute and had also lost her sense of smell). He tells in detail how her teacher was able to pierce the darkness enveloping her mind and teach her first to read from texts written with bas-relief letters, and later the deaf-and-mute-language, in a similar way as when Ann Sullivan taught Hellen Keller to communicate and even to talk.

An interesting detail: in recounting his visit to the Philadelphia prison, Dickens seems to be writing a new version of "Le mie prigioni" by Silvio Pellico, a book I have just read. It's amazing how sometimes they almost use the same words. But while Silvio suffered what he recounts, Dickens is sharing the ideas that arose in his head when he saw what others suffered. Sometimes I've wondered if he had read Silvio's book, but being an Italian work published just ten years before, I don't think it's likely. If he did not read it, the coincidence of both views is remarkable.

There is a chapter about slavery, parts of which could be used now against the present scourge of abortion, just by changing a few words. And there is a onslaught against a certain press in the US, which may be interesting to quote, as it can be applied today to most of the press in both the US and Europe, where gender ideology has occupied the place of what Dickens was then denouncing:

While the newspaper press of America is in, or near, its present abject state, high moral improvement in that country is hopeless. Year by year, it must and will go back... year by year, the Congress and the Senate must become of less account before all decent men... When any man, of any grade of desert in intellect or character, can climb to any public distinction, no matter what, in America, without first grovelling down upon the earth, and bending the knee before this monster of depravity; when any private excellence is safe from its attacks... when any man in that free country has freedom of opinion, and presumes to think for himself, and speak for himself, without humble reference to a censorship which, for its rampant ignorance and base dishonesty, he utterly loathes and despises in his heart...: then, I will believe that its influence [of this press] is lessening, and men are returning to their manly senses.

Many Americans didn't like much this book, nor did they like how they appear in the subsequent Dickens novel (Martin Chuzzlewit), for they feel criticized, but Dickens simply explained his opinion about them sincerely and without unnecessary flattery.

ESPAÑOL: Leyendo la biografía de Dickens por su amigo John Forster, al llegar a la parte en la que hace referencia al primer viaje de Dickens a América y al libro que publicó después sobre ese viaje, me entraron ganas de leerlo, lo descargué del Proyecto Gutenberg y lo he leído.

Interesante libro de viajes, en el que Dickens no sólo cuenta lo que vio, sino que lo critica, haciendo comparaciones con los métodos empleados en su propio país (el Reino Unido), críticas que a veces resultan en detrimento de un sistema y otras veces del otro.

Dickens cuenta su visita a una escuela para niños discapacitados. Una de las alumnas que menciona es una niña en una situación similar a Hellen Keller (era ciega, sorda y muda y también había perdido el sentido del olfato). Dickens cuenta con detalle cómo su maestro fue capaz de perforar la oscuridad que la envolvía y enseñarle primero a leer textos escritos con letras en relieve, y luego el lenguaje de los sordomudos, de una manera similar a como Ann Sullivan enseñó a Hellen Keller a comunicarse y a hablar.

Un detalle interesante: al contar su visita a la prisión de Philadelphia, Dickens parece escribir una nueva versión de "Le mie prigioni" de Silvio Pellico, un libro que acabo de leer. Es increíble cómo a veces casi usan las mismas palabras. Pero mientras Silvio lo sufrió, Dickens está contando las ideas que surgieron en su cabeza al ver lo que sufrían los demás. A veces me he preguntado si habría leído el libro de Silvio, pero siendo una obra italiana publicada diez años antes no me parece probable. Si no lo leyó, la coincidencia de ambos es notable.

Hay un capítulo sobre la esclavitud, del que algunas partes podrían usarse ahora contra el flagelo actual del aborto, simplemente cambiando algunas palabras. Y hay una arremetida contra cierta prensa de los EE. UU. que me parece interesante citar, ya que hoy se puede aplicar a la mayor parte de la prensa, tanto en los EE.UU. como en Europa, donde la ideología de género ocupa ahora el lugar de lo que Dickens denunciaba:

Mientras la prensa de Estados Unidos siga estando en su abyecta situación actual, no es posible mejorar el estado moral de ese país. Año tras año, ese estado moral retrocederá... año tras año, el Congreso y el Senado deben rebajarse cada vez más ante cualquier hombre decente... Cuando cualquier hombre, cualesquiera que sean sus merecimientos intelectuales o de comportamiento, pueda alcanzar cualquier distinción pública, no importa cuál, en América, sin tener que arrastrarse doblando la rodilla ante este monstruo de depravación; cuando cualquier excelencia privada esté a salvo de sus ataques... cuando cualquier hombre en ese país libre tenga libertad de opinión, y pueda pensar por sí mismo y hablar por sí mismo, sin tener en cuenta una censura que, por su desenfrenada ignorancia y su vil falta de honradez, él detesta y desprecia totalmente en su corazón...: entonces, creeré que su influencia [de esa prensa] disminuye, y que el hombre recobra su sentido viril.

A muchos estadounidenses no les gustó este libro, ni tampoco cómo los presenta la novela subsiguiente de Dickens (Martin Chuzzlewit), porque se sienten criticados, pero Dickens se limitó a explicar su opinión sobre ellos con sinceridad y sin halagos innecesarios.

Sections of the book I enjoyed very much, but I found the book overall very uneven. I think this may because it was published as a series in the mid- 19th C. I enjoyed best sailing with Dickens and his family or riding in the stage coach or moving slowly up the canal in a boat. One of the stories was about how institutionalized children are treated in America during the 19th C. Dickens comments critically about slavery, and portrays the passengers on the canal boat quite negatively -- yet, much of his observations seemed spot on to me. I could see his novels in this writing. The dialog was often terrific and at times I laughed out loud. I was considering sending it to my 90 year old step father, but I did not, because as I mentioned--the book is too uneven. Still, this book gets a 4, a strong 4 from me. I also learned some interesting facets about Charles Dickens-- though poverty and societal ills show up in his novels repeatedly, I di not realize how much of a crusader for these issues he was.

A fascinating piece of research for Dickens Fair, a humorous read, a fascinating window on the United States of 170 years ago...and a scathing diatribe on slavery and human rights. This little-read and atypical Dickens outing is a hidden gem.