num_pages: 192
description: Dickens (1812-70) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and his novels and short stories remain widely read today. His literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers and within a few years he had become an international celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. Dickens made his first trip to the United States and Canada from January to June 1842, arriving in Boston, which remained his favourite city, visiting New York and Philadelphia, and travelling as far south as Richmond, as far west as St Louis and as far north as Quebec. He described his impressions in a travelogue, American Notes for General Circulation, which was published in October 1842. Throughout the narrative he finds much to admire about the Americans he met and their way of life but also notes what he sees as their faults, sometimes jocularly, presenting in conclusion what he considers the major flaws in US society. Dickens's American journey was also the inspiration for his novel Martin Chuzzlewit which was serialised from 1842-44 and published in book form in 1844. While writing it Dickens thought it his best work, but it was one of his least popular novels. Early sales of the monthly parts were disappointing compared to his previous works and so he changed the plot to send the characters to America, drawing on his recent observations of that country.
language: English
title: American Notes for General Circulation
titlecomplete: American Notes for General Circulation
genres: 19th Century, Humor, Classics, History, British Literature, American History, Nonfiction, Travel, Literature, Memoir
ratings_count: 994
publisher: Echo Library