Pictures from Italy

by Charles Dickens

Overview

In 1844, Charles Dickens took a break from novels to travel in Italy for almost a year. This thrilling travelogue is the result of his encounters with Italy's colorful street life, the visible signs of its richly textured past, and its urban desolation. Dickens was particularly drawn to the costumes, cross-dressing, and sheer exuberant energy of the Roman carnival. Avoiding the traditional tourist sites, Pictures from Italy reveals the anxieties and concerns of its author as he presents, according to Kate Flint, the country "like a chaotic magic-lantern show, fascinated both by the spectacle it offers, and by himself as spectator".

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781508027843
Publisher:	Dead Dodo Definitive Dickens
Publication date:	09/16/2015
Series:	Charles Dickens Collection
Sold by:	PUBLISHDRIVE KFT
Format:	eBook
Pages:	290
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

A literary phenomenon in his lifetime and renowned as much for his journalism and public speaking as for his novels, Charles Dickens (1812–70) now ranks as the most important Victorian writer and one of the most influential and popular authors in the English language. His memorable and vividly rendered characters and his combination of humour, trenchant satire and compassion have left an indelible mark on our collective imagination.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington

Table of Contents

One reader's passport; Going through France; Lyons, the Rhone, and the Goblin of Avignon; Avignon to Genoa; Genoa and its neighbourhood; To Parma, Modena, and Bologna; Through Bologna and Ferrara; An Italian dream; By Verona, Mantua, and Milan, across the Pass of the Simplon into Switzerland; To Rome by Pisa and Siena; Rome; A rapid diorama.

Editorial Reviews

This travelogue of Dickens's 1844 Italian sojourn retains the wit and sumptuous detail of his novels, but lacking an explicit narrative, the book never coalesces into much more than a series of sketches. The fragmentary nature of the text is exacerbated by the removal, by editor V. Geetha, of "sections that appear tediously familiar today." As a result, the most memorable sections of the book are not descriptions of the Italian countryside or cities, but Dickens's own reveries on memory and history, which still hold their power even in excerpt. In fact, the text is somewhat secondary in this handsome edition; the primary reason to obtain this volume is the gorgeous illustrative work of Italian artist Livia Signorini. Collaging old maps, postcards, and photographs, Signorini's design complements the introspective nature of Dickens's text, particularly when she interprets his surreal vision of Venice in an eerie, dream-like four-panel spread. So while Dickens aficionados may be disappointed by the textual liberties taken by Geetha, those interested in studying the ways in which visual art and text can interact with and complement one another will gain much from paging through this edition. Color illus. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly