Not a Dickens Classic

This was a tedious read. Some parts were interesting because I’ve been there but overall I found it very hard to get through.

Should have been called “Dickens Tries to Vacay But Can’t Catch a Break”

Reading non-fiction by Charles Dickens is very different from his fiction. His first person narrative is so unlike his other writing that I found it difficult to believe it was the same author. However, once I got into the rhythm of it, I found the book to be enjoyable and often wryly humorous. Dickens doesn't seem to care much for the Italian people he meets, but he is fascinated by the ghosts of the Italian past. He visits the Coliseum every day he is in Rome because of the images of the ancient past it evokes. Pompeii haunts him with its desolation and the knowledge of its former glory.

When in Rome, Dickens witnessed a public execution by guillotine. This was a decade before "A Tale of Two Cities" and may have been the inspiration for at least those scenes of the French Revolution. You can practically see him writing it in his mind during and after the gruesome spectacle.

Short stories on visiting Italy and what has impressed the most the author. It is full of description of Italian traditions, parties and religious rituals, thus presenting the "soul" of the Italian people. When visiting museum or other points of attraction, the description does not focus on the visual aspects of the place, but merely on the history behind that and the feelings that the author has. It is a good book to daydream and travel with your mind in the Italy of late 19th century.

Not much love for the Catholic Church but beautiful descriptions of Florence, Naples, Rome and especially dream like Venice.

I've always not enjoyed reading travel log books and one's like this where the author himself isn't enjoying himself are excruciating. After this and his previous outing in 'American Notes', I'll choose to just remember the great man who wrote this for his amazing works of fiction instead.

In 1844, author Charles Dickens and his family traveled through France to Italy where they spent almost a year visiting the major towns and sites. After returning home he wrote about what he saw and his impressions of the people and the towns for The Daily News. In 1846 he published those articles in the book, Pictures from Italy. The pictures are those Dickens drew with words.

Dickens’ comments about his trip are very personal, and from his perspective. He was very clear about what he liked and what he did not like. In reading Pictures from Italy, it becomes very obvious that Dickens disliked the Catholic churches as they are very different from the Protestant ones he was used to in England. Dickens especially disliked St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. However, in Rome he very much liked the Colosseum and the Roman Carnival, which is held just before Lent begins.

I especially enjoyed viewing, through Dickens’ eyes, the places where I’ve been in Italy, including Venice, Milan, Pisa and Rome, even though I visited those places over 150 years later. Dickens writes about the view of Florence from above the Arno; I have photos taken from the same point and was equally awed. He saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa before it was somewhat straightened. I wish I had read this book before my trip.

I was very impressed with Dickens’ description of his trip up Mount Vesuvius. They went right up to the active crater and looked in.

“What with their noise, and what with the trembling of the thin crust of ground, that seems about to open underneath our feet and plunge us in the burning gulf below (which is the real danger, if there be any); and what with the flashing of the fire in our faces, and the shower of red-hot ashes that is raining down, and the choking smoke and sulphur; we may well feel giddy and irrational, like drunken men. But, we contrive to climb up to the brim, and look down, for a moment, into the Hell of boiling fire below. Then, we all three come rolling down; blackened, and singed, and scorched, and hot, and giddy: and each with his dress alight in half-a-dozen places.”

I did not enjoy his change of tone and perspective when he wrote about Venice.

Now that he has visited Italy he can use it as a setting in his novels, which he did in Little Dorrit.

I found it interesting that while he was traveling with his wife, five of his children, and other family members, he rarely mentions being with anyone other than himself and, sometimes, his guide.

Pictures from Italy is a great resource for what Italy and travel were like in the middle of the nineteenth century. Dickens’ experiences can be used by those writing about that time and place.

A map of his trip can be found here:
https://www.charlesdickenspage.com/ch...

While much more famous for his novels, Dickens was also a memorable travel writer. The Pictures from Italy are well-named as they are just that, a kaleidescope of different pictures of various aspects of Italian life as seen by an observant outsider. From the outset, Dickens clarifies that he is not intending to provide a guidebook and that his impressions are personal. Given that he is Dickens, these impressions are well worth noting as they are expressed in his inimitable style with much humour and wry comment. I particularly like the one on art appreciation in the context of the Vatican Museums: " there will be no lack of objects, very indifferent in the plain sight of any one who employs so vulgar a property, when he may wear the spectacles of Cant for less than nothing, and establish himself as a man of taste for the mere trouble of putting them on."
For a contemporary reader what is striking is the time people had available - Dickens was travelling in Italy for about a year, much of it spent in Genoa - and the time it took to get from a to b with all the discomforts of travelling in carriages. One admires Dickens' professed humour in difficult circumstances and his ability to make light of bugs and draughts, smoking fires and damp beds. It is also clear how much poorer a place Italy was at the time, there are incessant references to the beggars everywhere and their memorable gestures including the hitting of the chin with the right hand to denote hunger. The described pitiable state of many of the art works also gives the lie to a time when tourism was not yet a major source of income and art restoration technology unmastered. Yet through all this, the spirit of the people emerges from the redoubtable Condottiere to the Vetturino, as Dickens notes:"a people naturally well-disposed, and patient, and sweet-tempered:" Overall Dickens succeeds in providing a remarkable picture of everyday Italian life at the time.

i am still it sure how to rate this book!

i loved some parts of it, dickens sharp, sometimes even biting descriptions on main land European lives hat he found lacking or too extreme (mostly there is no in between for him, either he finds if highly lacking and in poor taste or way over the top and mostly in poor taste because of that) but the way he describes moments, scenery and towns is wonderful!

but at the same time i constantly felt as if dickens saw himself and ever english men (person) as something better than everyone else in europe.
he seems to be constantly criticizing, comparing and complaining about all the differences between where he was and england.

and while that clearly brings something to the book and makes the way it is written different it’s not really how i personally enjoy travel writing.

on the other hand this was one of the very first books of this kind published, so is there really a way to say that dickens did it wrong if he was one of the first to do it?
and anyway is there really a wrong way to travel or share that experience?

i guess not even if not every reader will absolutely love how the experience is shared - since i didn’t really love this, but i also didn’t hate it.


i can certainly appreciate how dickens shares his view and it did transport me back in time in some aspects, so it wasn’t that bad.


all on all i do think that’s something every sickens lover should read and give a try.

or if you are interested in it without loving dickens other works.

it’s defiantly readable and interesting and worth a try!

but please don’t read the introduction of the penguin black library book before reading the actual book - because of you do why even bother with the rest of it seeing that it’s basically a shortened version of what dickens is going to share?

I had a hard time getting through this. My favorite parts of the book were Mr. Dickens' sense of humor. I think sketches or illustrations would have been great in this memoir of Italy.

In 1844, Charles Dickens took a break from novel writing to travel through Italy for almost a year and Pictures from Italy is an illuminating account of his experiences there. He presents the country like a magic-lantern show, as vivid images ceaselessly appear before his - and his readers' - eyes. Italy's most famous sights are all to be found here - St Peter's in Rome, Naples with Vesuvius smouldering in the background, the fairytale buildings and canals of Venice - but Dickens's chronicle is not simply that of a tourist. Avoiding preconceptions and stereotypes, he portrays a nation of great between grandiose buildings and squalid poverty, and between past and present, as he observes everyday life beside ancient monuments. Combining thrilling travelogue with piercing social commentary, Pictures from Italy is a revealing depiction of an exciting and disquieting journey. In her introduction, Kate Flint discusses nineteenth-century travel writing, and Dickens's ideas about perception, memory and Italian politics. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, notes and an appendix.

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