Passage to America
Subtitle: celebrated European visitors in search of the American adventure
By: Gloria Deák
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9781780760759
Subjects: Description and travel; Travelers' writings, European; Travel; History and criticism; English Authors; Sources; European Foreign public opinion; Travel in literature; History
Description: America was a source of fascination to Europeans arriving there during the course of the nineteenth century. At first glance, the New World was very similar to the societies they left behind in their native countries, but in many aspects of politics, culture and society, the American experience was vastly different - almost unrecognizable so - from Old World Europe. Europeans were astounded that America could survive without a monarch, a standing army and the hierarchical society which still dominated Europe. Some travellers, such as the actress Fanny Kemble, were truly convinced America would eventually revert to a monarchy; others, such as Frances Wright and even Oscar Wilde, took their opinions further, and attempted to fix aspects of America - described in 1827 by the young Scottish captain Basil Hall, as 'one of England's "occasional failures"'. Many prominent visitors to the United States recorded their responses to this emerging society in their diaries, letters and journals; and many of them, like the fulminating Frances Trollope, were brutally and offensively honest in their accounts of the New World. They provide an insight into an America which is barely recognizable today whilst their writings set down a diverse and lively assortment of personal travel accounts. This book compares the impressions of a group of discerning and prominent Europeans from the cultural sphere - from the writers Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Oscar Wilde to luminaries of music and theatre such as Tchaikovsky and Fanny Kemble. Their reactions to the New World are as revealing of the European and American worlds as they are colourful and varied, providing a unique insight into the experiences of nineteenth century travelers to America -- Publishers website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages [263]-270) and index.
Table of contents: title: 1. The new world sojourn of Baron and Baroness Hyde de Neuville; title: 2. Frances Wright brings reform to America; title: 3. The American pereginations of Captain Bail Hall; title: 4. The new world enterprise of Frances Trollope; title: 5. The political mission of Thomas Hamilton; title: 6. The American debut of Fanny Kemble; title: 7. The American odyssey of Harriet Martineau; title: 8. The daring adventures of Charles Augustus Murray; title: 9. The clairvoyance of Thomas Colley Grattan; title: 10. The first visit of Charles Dickens to the new world; title: 11. William Makepeace Thackeray lectures in America; title: 12. Edward Dicey, reporter extraordinaire; title: 13. Oscar Wilde brings the new aesthetics to America; title: 14. Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and the birth of Carnegie Hall; title: 15. Henry James revisits the new world.