Dickensians! discussion
This topic is about
American Notes for General Circulation
All Around Dickens Year
>
American Notes for General Circulation Vol. 1 (hosted by John)
Greetings All from snowy and cold North Carolina. Perhaps it is fitting that we start this wonderful journey on January 29th because it is the same month that Charles, Catherine, and Catherine’s maid Anne Brown boarded the RMS Brittania bound for America.
American Notes For General Circulation is approximately 300 pages in length and is divided into 18 chapters. My thinking is we can spend about three days per chapter, which would get us to March 29th.
I have read this book twice and now will look forward to taking this journey with you. How appropriate because it is one of the first travel books ever written and what better way to enjoy it than in the company of others.
Over the next several days, and up to our start on January 29th, I will post general background and an overview. The back story to the book is an interesting one � what else could have prompted Dickens to make a winter crossing rather than wait for more temperate weather. The Atlantic in January is not known for its calmness. He was anxious to get started.
The basic details of this book are:A travelogue detailing his first trip to North America, which was from January to June of 1842. Dickens was not yet 30 years old. It took some convincing for Catherine to go and leave four children at home, but she went.
He was an astute observer and his writings form the best and most vivid snapshot of America in the 1840s. His journey was also an inspiration for his novel Martin Chuzzlewit. His letters home to John Forster form the basis of the book.
Arriving in Boston, they visited Lowell, New York, and Philadelphia, and travelled as far south as Richmond, as far west as St. Louis and as far north as Quebec. He saw Niagara Falls. He was greeted as a celebrity everywhere he went.
Biographers say that a prime impetus for this journey was to engage American political leadership in discussions about copyright law and protections. Dickens was cognizant of the fact that he was losing considerable money in royalties because his books were sold and passed around in what today would be described as bootlegs or pirated copies.
message 4:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 23, 2025 01:12PM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
I was tempted to put a picture of a dollar bill at the top, because I'm fairly sure the title is also a deliberate pun on "notes" as currency. After all it wasn't long since the worldwide financial panic of 1837, and the subsequent bank crashes which made a lot of paper currency worthless.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Great intro comments, thanks John! I'm itching to go with this one, and know you are too! 😊I was tempted to put a picture of a dollar bill at the top, because I'm fairly sure the title is also a ..."
Jean, I agree about the title. And one of Dickens� biographers � Michael Slater � believes the title is at the expense of American currency.
As previously mentioned, the letters Dickens wrote to his friend John Forster formed the basis of this book. Dickens also used letters he wrote to one of his illustrators, Daniel Maclise. I was not that familiar with Maclise, so below is a link to biographical information about Maclise, and one regarding a portrait done by him.American Notes was published in October of 1842 by Chapman & Hall. Dickens needed only three months from his return to put the book together. One of the first editions was inscribed to Daniel Maclise and signed “his friend Charles Dickens.�
Although Dickens expressed a wish to see the United States, I suspect the prime impetus for his visit was copyright law.. Dickens believed in the need for an international copyright agreement. The lack of such an agreement enabled his books to be published in the United States without his permission and without any royalties being paid.
He first realized that he was losing income because of the lack of international copyright laws in 1837 when The Pickwick Papers was published in book form. The novel was reprinted without his permission in the United States.
message 8:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 24, 2025 08:47AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
I'm sure you're right, that it gave him the final push. I'm looking forward to reading the passages where he confronts this issue.
Oh John! That's probably where I first got the idea! Michael Slater is excellent on Charles Dickens. I think his is the best biography of the decade.
I'll move this thread to "current" now, so more will notice it!
Jean I love the illustration you start this novel off with! Great introduction by John also! I have read Forster’s biography, so it will be interesting to hear about the trip straight from Dickens.
Hi JohnGreetings from a cold and bleak Toronto. I too wonder why Dickens would venture across The Atlantic in winter. But he did.
I’m looking forward to travelling around America and Canada with you.
message 11:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 24, 2025 12:33PM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
John, I have a question, (which you may be going to tell us ...)
I've been reading Lucinda Hawksley's Dickens and Christmas on the January when Charles and Catherine were travelling, or rather focussed on the 4 children who were left at home in the care of Aunt Georgie (Georgina Hogarth) and ... I cannot remember which of Dickens's male friends was in attendance. Was it John Leech? I'm not sure that's right ...
There's a lovely picture of the four of them which hangs in Doughty St., and apparently it went with Catherine to remind her 🥰
Bionic Jean wrote: "Those who joined in the group read of Nicholas Nickleby towards the end of last year will remember that Daniel Maclise painted the "Nickleby portrait" (John's second l..."Jean, in checking Claire Tomalin’s Charles Dickens, it appears the person may have been the sculptor Angus Fletcher. Fletcher and Dickens� sister Fanny were apparently with them just before they departed. Though perhaps Leetch visited before they left, too � entirely possible. Yes, that picture of the children had a prominent spot in the stateroom on the voyage out. I use the word stateroom, but as we will find out, more of a walk-in closet.
Peter wrote: "Hi JohnGreetings from a cold and bleak Toronto. I too wonder why Dickens would venture across The Atlantic in winter. But he did.
I’m looking forward to travelling around America and Canada with..."
Greetings, Peter. Am happy you are joining us on the journey.
The link below is a history of the RMS Brittania, which carried Charles, Catherine, and Anne to North America. It was a new ship � commissioned only two years prior to the journey � and considered large for the time. It saw service of 40 years. #
Bionic Jean wrote: "Those who joined in the group read of Nicholas Nickleby towards the end of last year will remember that Daniel Maclise painted the "Nickleby portrait" (John's second l..."I thoroughly enjoyed Hawksley’s Dickens and Travel: The Start of Modern Travel Writing. It will be a good book for us to recommend as “further reading� for those who enjoyed this journey. It provided me a great deal of context � she gave much deserved kudos to Catherine for her support and company.
Looking forward to this, and thanks for all the prereading notes and recommendations!
As usual, I will probably be late to the party, but I do hope to at least keep up with others' posts here.
Some further commentary by Lucinda Hawksley, who also happens to be the great-great-great granddaughter of Dickens:Dickens discovered that Sketches by Boz was being printed in Philadelphia and sold to readers. With no copyright law in place, he was not seeing any royalties.
He also received letters from American fans and further realized that every book he wrote was being printed and sold in the United States � again without his permission or financial benefit.
He also learned about the reception of The Old Curiosity Shop in New York. The latest installment of the book would be taken by ship, transcribed, printed, and sold there. It got to the point that throngs went to the harbor waiting for the latest installment and asking about the fate of Little Nell.
We can also see, based upon the above, why he was so anxious to visit.
message 19:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 25, 2025 02:28PM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
This is an excellent idea John, especially with the examples you have just given us. Dickens and Travel: The Start of Modern Travel Writing can be our side read for the whole "All Around Dickens" season, so that when we are reading other authors, we still have a central focus and a little bit of the Inimitable himself 😊
I particularly like the way Lucinda Hawksley writes, and have a few books by her; the oldest (an Art book) dating from 1999. Now she writes mainly on history and Dickens. She is of course Charles Dickens's great-great-great-granddaughter ... (and if you ever doubt his hypnotic gaze, just take a look at her profile picture here! 😲) and has just taken over as President of the Dickens Fellowship, so we'll be seeing a quite a bit more of her in the journals, and at Doughty St.
But I'll put more in the side reads thread, so as not to divert this one. Thank you so much for recommending it John, as it costs over £14 on kindle.uk, so I can't check it out until the price comes down. (And I have been caught out before, setting a book as a side read prior to reading it myself, and finding it very poor indeed.) But others may be able to read a library and/or print version.
Bravo! 👏 This is a perfect choice.
I have a suggestion for ebook readers. If you use Kindle or Nook, you can download a Free Sample of the Modern Library version of American Notes.Contained within your Free Sample is an introduction to the book written by Christopher Hitchens. It is a lively and joyful introduction written only as Christopher Hitchens could.
If you own a hardcover of the Modern Library version, you can read it. If you have another version of American Notes already on your Nook or Kindle, you can still download the Free Sample, which contains enough pages to allow you to read the essay by Hitchens.
It is not imperative for our purposes to read the essay, obviously, but if you want, this availability is a nice read.
I'm really looking forward to reading this with the group! I love Dickens, and I love classic travelogues (Mark Twain's were great), so this is going to be so interesting!Thank you for leading us, John. Your background information is so interesting and helpful. At first I was surprised that they only went as far as St. Louis, but seeing the date, I realized this was the western frontier at the time. The Westward Migration was just getting started.
I can see why Dickens made this trip. He was definitely losing a huge source of revenue. I hope his trip was successful in that regard.
I enjoyed clicking on the link and seeing the picture of the RMS Brittania they sailed on. It might have been large for its time, but it sure looked small to me for such a transatlantic crossing! What surprised me most was seeing three modes of propulsion on one ship: Sails, paddle wheel and coal engines! She was prepared for anything!
Fortunately, I was able to check this book out from my local library. Looking forward to another great Dickensians! read.
The American Mark Twain was also an early travel writer. His INNOCENTS ABROAD was published in 1869. He went on to write 5 more travelogues.
Thanks, John. I will look for the free sample.
I have to say that I just completed my second read of the essay by Hitchens. It had been a long time since I read it for the first time � I believe it was contained in a book of essays by Hitchens. He seemed a bit tough on Dickens, and he does apologize for it. He’s willing to state that it is a grand Victorian effort at travel writing, but also believed it was written in a sour mood.
Perhaps. Hitchens� essay is still engaging.
I just found this discussion! Very much looking forward to it. My notifications aren't working as well as I would like lately, but I'm going to mark this for updates and cross my fingers.
It happens that I have this book on my kindle. I am hoping to join with the group though I may end up reading at my own pace. Having had two viruses since Christmas has knocked me off my pace a bit. Streaming tv takes some time and little energy! But it’s on the first page of my kindle so hopefully!
Hello fellow readers, I am an old acquaintance of Jean. Looking forward to the read.
I have ordered my copy of this but it’s been slow getting here. Hopefully I’ll get it soon!
I checked with Amazon and my copy will not get here until mid February. Not sure why as I ordered it over 10 days ago. But I will try to catch up once I get my copy.
For readers that may be unable to start reading with us this week, I will say that the chapters are relatively self-contained and usually correspond to a geographic location. So, if you begin with us, let’s say on Chapter 6, you will be reading about the visit to New York. I don’t think much would be lost with a late start and encourage all to join when you can. We will start Chapter 1 this Wednesday, January 29th. Which I would like to say is the birthday of my cousin who has been a rare books seller now for 45 years.
I wanted to post this link:If you scroll down, you will see a rendering of the “stateroom� that Charles and Catherine had for their journey to America.
Much has been made about this stateroom � Dickens marveled at the ingenuity of storing away items within the furniture, but was also astonished that anyone could call this a stateroom.
I thought it would be good to see this before we start Chapter One.
I suppose the porthole could make this a stateroom. LOL. At least Dickens and Catherine didn't have a dark inside room.
The room is really rather quaint and functional, all things considered.
I can, though, imagine the surprise they must have felt upon entering this room
Wonderful to have the stateroom picture! Thank you John. I love having this visual before we start reading.I suppose Charles slept in the top bunk :-)
message 34:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 28, 2025 03:13AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
Hi Luffy - good to see you - and all the newbies and returning members too.
John - You are posting some great information to whet our appetites - I can hardly wait! And thanks for checking on the names for me 😊
Bionic Jean wrote: "Great to see so many people in for this one!Hi Luffy - good to see you - and all the newbies and returning members too.
John - You are posting some great information to whet our appetites - I ca..."
Hi Jean! Reading Nicholas Nickleby along with this read.
Greetings from Milton, Florida, where most of our 8 inches record setting snow is almost melted. Our last snow of 3 inches was in 1977.Thank you to John for the interesting introduction to American Notes for General Circulation and the suggestion for the Kindle Modern Library version. I will be following along to read the thoughts of the group. Deepest appreciation to be included in this group even I merely participate as a fly on the wall. Happy 📚 reading!
VOLUME 1Chapter The First
Going Away
On the 3rd of January, 1842, Charles, Catherine, and Catherine's maid Anne Brown boarded the RMS Brittania, bound for Halifax and Boston, and carrying Her Majesty's mails.
They are immediately astonished by the small size of their stateroom, given they had lengthy and detailed discussions about the journey and reviewed pictures of where they would be living for three weeks. As Charles wrote: this utterly impracticable, thoroughly hopeless, and profoundly preposterous box.
He felt a bad joke had been played upon them. But they carried on like good sailors and talked themselves into how nice it was for such a journey, their home for the next three weeks.
The ship is a beehive of activity. Provisions being stored, sailors busy, baggage checked in, passengers literally tumbling over each other. It is a steamship and it was one of the largest ships of the day. Charles took comfort in the size of it and its look of purpose and strength.
The passengers all seem nervous about their trip. Are you a good sailor, is asked. What should one drink to cure seasickness. They seem ready for a winter voyage. The mails are late, but once arrived, the journey out to sea begins.
Dickens is an acute observer of things around him and his descriptions and comments are clear with a sometimes humorous touch:Before descending into the bowels of the ship, we had passed from the deck into a long narrow apartment, not unlike a giant hearse.
A rack fixed to the low roof, and stuck full of drinking glasses and cruet stands, hinted dismally at rolling seas and heavy weather.
I do verily believe deducting the two berths, one above the other, than which nothing smaller was made for sleeping in except coffins; it was no bigger than one of those hackney cabriolets which have the door behind and shoot their fares out like sacks of coal upon the pavement.
God bless that steward for her piously fraudulent account of January voyages!
The captain... a well made, tight built dapper little fellow; with a ruddy face and letter of invitation to shake him by both hands at once.
Three more cheers and the vessels throbs like a strong giant that has just received the breath of life.... and breaks proudly through the lashed and foaming water.
Most of the writing in this chapter strikes me as profoundly nervous about this trip and wondering whether the right decision was made to go in January or at all. From the biographies, once his mind was made up to go there was little to stop him. Even today, ocean liners crossing the Atlantic in the winter are met with harsh seas. There are some videos on YouTube that were taken on huge ships like the Queen Mary 2 that are epic in the harsh and violent winter sea. The Queen Mary 2 is 148,000 tons while the RMS Brittania was 1,500 tons. My goodness, one can imagine it getting tossed around like a toy.
message 40:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 29, 2025 05:08AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
Contained within your Free Sample is an introducti..."
I've been looking but can't find this! Do you have the ASIN please John? Perhaps it's only on US kindle and not UK.
I hadn't heard of Christopher Hitchens as being especially interested in Charles Dickens, so presumably the journalistic connection is the reason why he was invited to write an introduction. Still, I'd like the read the essay, and it's a good idea! I square this sort of thing (like reading a complete first short story in a sample) with my conscience by remembering just how pricey some of these ebooks are - especially Penguins - when there is no attempt to adapt them e.g. provide a comparable index, or alter the size of illustrations. They are just straight downloads from the print book. So no worries!
Bionic Jean wrote: "John wrote: "I have a suggestion for ebook readers. If you use Kindle or Nook, you can download a Free Sample of the Modern Library version of American Notes.Contained within your Free Sample is ..."
Try this link Jean,
message 42:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 29, 2025 05:46AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
It's interesting that your main impression of the tone was the author's nervousness. I see it more as nervous excitement. I would like to go back to the preface to the first cheap edition though. (It's safe enough for us to read this, isn't it, with it being nonfiction?) Charles Dickens writes:
"I never have been otherwise than in favour of the United States. No visitor can ever have set foot on those shores, with a stronger faith in the Republic than I had, when I landed in America. "
That is quite outspoken in approval, for a loyal subject of Queen Victoria. And then he continues with a sort of apologia - it is so defensive!
"I have nothing to defend, or to explain away. The truth is the truth; and neither childish absurdities, nor unscrupulous contradictions, can make it otherwise. The earth would still move round the sun, though the whole Catholic Church said No."
Wow! So 8 years later he is still smarting from the criticisms he got.
I have to say that A I enjoyed the first chapter immensely, and B I understood it very limitedly. But the words are so delightful, almost always.I hope to keep finding the book charming, and more dawning of comprehension would be very welcome too.
message 44:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 29, 2025 06:38AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
Cramped Conditions:
Rooms in a family house in the UK are typically far smaller than in the US - and our flats are tiny compared with US apartments. Once my brother rented a bedsit in Oxford St. (very unusual in a famous street of shops!) and I remember him telling me that he could do "everything at once" there. Sit on the bed while frying an egg, kind of thing.
And how very human to all talk it up among themselves and persuade each other that it was actually a paradise of a cabin, and not a miniscule box of a room at all. This part:
"by twining in and out like serpents, and by counting the little washing slab as standing-room,—we could manage to insinuate four people into it, all at one time"
reminded me so much of my brother's windowless Oxford St. flat - where you could use the washbasin as a seat if necessary (we were very young ...)
message 45:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 29, 2025 07:37AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
So the fact that Charles Dickens and all his friends were so shocked at the cramped conditions of the "state room" (which sounds so grand!) is even more marked, as we in the UK are used to smaller living accommodation.
I laughed out loud at the visual image of the "portmanteaus which could now no more be got in at the door, not to say stowed away, than a giraffe could be persuaded or forced into a flower-pot" 😂
message 46:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 29, 2025 06:41AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
Like John, I very much liked the stewardess's optimistic outlook. She was so positive, trying to cheer Catherine up by:
"plainly[ly] show[ing] that all young mothers on one side of the Atlantic were near and close at hand to their little children left upon the other"
with her "piously fraudulent account of January voyages!" As Charles Dickens said approvingly: "Light be her heart, and gay her merry eyes, for years!"
But what struck me here as was what skilled writing it is. We are treated to an entertaining account with this entire chapter, but also with details like this we pick up the author's heavy implication in the subtext, that the journey will not be as smooth and care-free as the stewardess has said. She too is "talking it up".
For all the idea we might have had of a state room and a saloon, and the luxurious life on a large ship, Charles Dickens is doing his best to tell us that it is not going to be like that at all!
message 47:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Jan 29, 2025 01:04PM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
I'm really going to enjoy this read! It will put all the self-censored sections of Charles Dickens's letters which we read in John Forster's bio in their proper context. Thanks John - and I promise I won't be writing so much usually! I've never been to North America and I think I am as excited about it as Charles Dickens 😆
(Happy Birthday to your book aficionado cousin, by the way! Perhaps you could invite them to join us ...)
Bionic Jean wrote: "Most of this first chapter I found hilarious! Charles Dickens exaggerated for effect to the point of absurdity, e.g. I loved the idea of the faces of his friends there to see him of..."Thanks a lot, Jean!
Bionic Jean wrote: "The second thing that might be different in the 2 cultures is artists' impressions. Here they typically have a wide angle view (as if a wide angle camera lens were used). So in the picture John sh..."
That's an insane amount of detail, Jean. Thank you both John and Jean.
Yes indeed the Dickens’s accommodations were, to sound like an estate agent, cozy. With that said, just imagine the accommodation of the Dickens’s maid, Anne Browne. I would guess she shared an even more cramped space that did not have a porthole. To enter the Dickens’s room Anne must have seen it as being rather palatial.For some reason I always think of Anne Browne when I read about Dickens. Oh, the stories she could tell, the secrets she could reveal.
I found Chapter 1 so funny! Dickens has such a way with words. Like you, Jean, I had to laugh when Dickens compared the ease of getting a portmanteau through the cabin door to persuading a giraffe to force his head into a flower-pot! 😂. Oh, the imagery!And this... Dickens was comparing the wisdom of eating a full-course rich meal to eating a sensible meal right before sailing, then said "My own opinion is, that whether one is discreet or indiscreet in these particulars, on the eve of a sea voyage, is a matter of little consequence; and that, to use a common phrase, 'it comes to very much the same thing in the end.' ". (Was this a delicate referral to the effects of seasickness?) Did that make me chortle!
Poor Charles and Catherine! They were definitely sold a bill of goods. I can't imagine sleeping on a "very thin mattress, spread like a surgical plaster on a most inaccessible shelf" for three weeks!
Dickensians!
Books mentioned in this topic
A Tale of Two Cities (other topics)Dickens and Empire: Discourses of Class, Race and Colonialism in the Works of Charles Dickens (other topics)
The Count of Monte Cristo (other topics)
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (other topics)
The Life of Charles Dickens by John Forster (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Charles Dickens (other topics)John Forster (other topics)
Grace Moore (other topics)
Washington Irving (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
More...
Illustration by Marcus Stone 1913
Here is the thread for American Notes For General Circulation - a variously hilarious and outspoken account of his travels in North America from January to June 1842 by Charles Dickens. It is hosted by John between 29th January and 28th March.
I'm really looking forward to this one, and hope others are too! John has sung its praises to us for some time, so it's a great one to kick off our "All Around Dickens" season.
JOHN'S SCHEDULE
VOLUME 1:
January 29: Chapter the First LINK HERE
February 2: Chapter the Second LINK HERE
February 5: Chapter the Third LINK HERE
February 9: Chapter the Fourth LINK HERE
February 13: Chapter the Fifth LINK HERE
February 17: Chapter the Sixth LINK HERE
February 21: Chapter the Seventh LINK HERE
February 25 Chapter the Eighth LINK HERE
VOLUME TWO
LINK HERE