Dickensians! discussion
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Dickens and Travel
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"All Around Dickens" side read
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The very first female president of the Dickens Fellowship was Kate Perugini who was (as you may know) Charles Dickens's third child, and therefore Lucinda Hawksley's great great great aunt. I think we'll be seeing a quite a bit more of Lucinda Hawksley in the journals, and she also gives talks at Doughty St. For those who cannot visit "The Charles Dickens Museum" in London, their talks are often available on zoom.
But apart from all this, Lucinda Hawksley writes engagingly, and well. Dickens and Travel: The Start of Modern Travel Writing is available in accessible formats (e.g. kindle) for those who need it.
I look forward to everyone's comments!
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I read it 2 or 3 years ago. I thought it was an entertaining and informative. I put this quote in the ‘Dickens Literary Friends’ chat from a letter about his visit to Victor Hugo:
“We were at his house last Sunday week. A most extraordinary place, looking like an old curiosity shop, or the Property Room of some gloomy vast old theatre. I was struck by Hugo himself, who looks like a Genius, as he certainly is very interesting from head to foot. His wife is a handsome woman with flashing black eyes, who looks as if she might poison his breakfast any morning when the humour seized her. There is also a ditto daughter of fifteen or sixteen, with ditto eyes, and hardly any drapery above the waist, whom I should suspect of carrying a sharp poignard in her stays but for her not appearing to wear any. Sitting among old armour, and old tapestry, and old coffers, and grim old chairs and tables, and old canopies of state from old places, and old golden lions going to play at skittles with ponderous old golden balls, they made a most romantic show, and looked like a chapter out of one of his own books.”
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I've just remembered Janelle, that you told us about the "model prison" in Port Arthur in Van Diemens Land (i.e. Tasmania) that was based on the one in Pennsylvania, (and also Point Puer the boys' prison just across a narrow bay from Port Arthur). Since we are on to the part about prisons and penitentiaries in American Notes for General Circulation, maybe you could add a bit there, please (if you have time)?
I enjoyed this book and will participate in our side read. Below is the link to my review.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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I have bought the book on kindle this last week, as there was a deal 😊 I'm not sure when I'll get to it in the upcoming months, as I only just finished reviewing Dickens and Christmas yesterday, which is also by Lucinda Hawksley. I will be doing though!
I found myself wondering if it was illustrated when in book form. Are there illustrations (or diagrams or maps) to Dickens and Travel: The Start of Modern Travel Writing?
Bionic Jean wrote: "Thanks very much John. Wow, 5 stars? That's a great recommendation for us all!I have bought the book on kindle this last week, as there was a deal 😊 I'm not sure when I'll get to it in the upcomi..."
Jean, I have the Nook version of this book. The last chapter is entitled Plates and it has various printed images and photos, etc.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Thanks very much John. Wow, 5 stars? That's a great recommendation for us all!I have bought the book on kindle this last week, as there was a deal 😊 I'm not sure when I'll get to it in the upcomi..."
Jean, it is interesting about the star system. Generally I think this book would have fallen four stars for me. I decided to give it five stars because the author basically took the theme of travel writing and made it a thesis. I remember the Norton Anthology of Travel Writing that came out years ago, edited by Paul Fussell. Dickens was included. It is like an art form unto itself and I thought the extra star was deserved for appreciating it as an art form.
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I hadn't heard of that particular Norton book, but every critical edition I have read by that publisher has been well above average.
I just spotted this thread and must say I'm definitely going to dip into this at some point this year. I love reading travel essays and memoirs. It really is an art form in and of itself as you see if you read good ones and really bad ones. Over the years I've acquired quite a bit of travel writings by different classic authors. I also am not familiar with the Norton Anthology - though I still have and treasure a couple purchased back in my college days, which were long ago. I'll add that to my 'shopping list' next time I'm at a local bookstore near Columbia University that carries a lot of used books - bought back from students.
I'm sorry to have missed a Kindle deal for it but on the other hand, it is likely to turn up again as a deal of the day.
Here is the Norton Book of Travel.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
I have always liked Norton anthologies, and I also think highly of Paul Fussell.
Mod
Teresa, I'm English so use kindle.uk. I've noticed that deals for the different kindles sometimes come out within a short while of each other though. I recommend joining ereader.iq (it's free) to get notified for what you want.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Thanks John. Gosh, what a whopper!Teresa, I'm English so use kindle.uk. I've noticed that deals for the different kindles sometimes come out within a short while of each other though. I recommend..."
Yes, a whopper. That is where Norton made a mistake. The book should have had less selections in order to cut it in half. It is just too daunting and I could see readers being interested in a purchase, but finding something akin to a block of concrete a non-starter.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Thanks John. Gosh, what a whopper!Teresa, I'm English so use kindle.uk. I've noticed that deals for the different kindles sometimes come out within a short while of each other though. I recommend..."
That's a great tip, thanks!
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Theresa - you're welcome! I submitted a list of maybe 30 authors/works I'm interested in, and it saves me a lot of time.
Bionic Jean - I just signed up and entered a few authors, Charles Dickens first, LOL. I'll gradually add a few more. Hopefully I will actually LOOK at the emails that come. I have a way of ignoring emails like that because I'm just so busy with work which is heavy on the email of course. A lawyer's life is all about endless and eternal and lengthy communication.
Mod
So I follow new authors I'm interested in - or sometimes a specific book e.g. Dickens and Travel: The Start of Modern Travel Writing - and they let me know every time one on my list drops in price. It's worth it for me, as that one was about £12 and then it dropped to 99p for just a couple of days. And anything in Penguin is vastly overpriced on kindle unless you get a deal. But yes, you could get inundated with emails, so I edit my list frequently.
Bionic Jean wrote: "I haven't put Dickens on my list, as most of his books are free on kindle - unless you want a particular edition and then it's usually quite cheap anyway. A lot of our shorter reads we can find in ..."I actually own a lot of Dickens both in print and in ebook. True of a number of classics. But some of the ebooks I own are early ebooks which were far less well 'produced' or perhaps proofed is a better expression so are filled with irritating problems.
Even when I own them in print, I'm finding with aging vision even if they are trade paperback size, I prefer reading in ebook. LOL.
Most of the authors I put down are modern authors I'm currently reading. I'll likely edit frequently.
Hi, friends! Thank you, John, for finding this book (and for your recommendation of the Norton Travel Anthology! It sounds exciting)! And, of course, thanks to Jean for organizing this side-read for us, and for her notes on Lucinda :)
I've read the first three chapters and I think the members of the group are well aware of most of the facts mentioned there :) It is a good recap, nevertheless, and several things have caught my attention so far...
'Dickens gave himself and Phiz a little cameo in Nicholas’s journey, as the two wise ‘outside passengers’..."
I didn't know that and I enjoyed this fact immensely :)
Here's the quote from 'NN':
'Twenty miles further on, two of the front outside passengers, wisely availing themselves of their arrival at one of the best inns in England, turned in, for the night, at the George at Grantham.'
And I've found this fact hilarious:
'Charles and Catherine visited Brighton for the first time in the autumn of 1837 and the visit was recorded in the Sussex Express: ‘The talented author of the “Pickwick” Magazines has been staying at the Old Ship Hotel, Brighton; he returned to town on Tuesday. He is a young man, but he does not exhibit in his person any appearance denoting such a lively imagination as his writings would seem to justify.’
What did they expect to see, I wonder?! And what a weird thing to write in a newspaper.
'Among the famous Victorians who lived on the [Isle of White], or had second homes there, were the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, the scandalous poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, and the Poet Laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson.'
For anybody who's interested in a Victorian lady photographer, here is a fascinating Wiki link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_M...
Mod
Oddly enough I too had just read the first 3 chapters over a couple of days, before needing to read other things. I found it entertaining, and agree that as you say, probably "the members of the group are well aware of most of the facts mentioned there :) [but] It is a good recap". I do enjoy this sort of light factual reading, jogging my memory and including bits I didn't know (or have forgotten! 😁)
Because Lucinda Hawksley is "family" I think she has a slightly different take from that of most scholars. She writes for the general public. Much of her writing is anecdotal; a little disorganised but easy to read. It feels as if some of what she says might have been passed down through their reminiscences, as well as parts we know from biographies.
The extract you include from the "Sussex Express" really brings it home to us, how the young author's reputation went before him. Great choice! Nowadays, unless the author is a recluse, we have carefully crafted publicity photos and films of authors, and their own recorded words outside their writings. The public then just had the newspapers, and Charles Dickens's public appearances ... they must have been consumed by curiosity and gossip in 1837! Especially since for the first few years he had gone by various aliases, and seemed to just shoot to fame around now, because of the popularity of Mr. Pickwick.
Oh yes, the George Inn - I remember writing a post about that during our read of Nicholas Nickleby - how he and Hablot Knight Browne stayed there and found it the best in England. Charles Dickens was determined to put it in the book. (I think that was where he met the original for John Browdie, too, and wanted to honour him by including him.) What a wonderful recommendation for them, as the readers knew; I think he put it in one of the Prefaces. The building still exists I think, and I posted a picture.
Thank you so much for these snippets - and the link to Julia Margaret Cameron, who lived on the Isle of Wight. Quite a few celebrities still live there I believe, and as Lucinda Hawksley points out, it was often Charles Dickens himself who was responsible for making seaside towns holiday destinations! (Was it Broadstairs which suddenly became a sought after holiday place, and thus rather spoilt the quietness for himself and Catherine?)
The Isle of Wight is an island off the South Coast of England. We learned that Charles Dickens went to the Isle of Wight, as well as towns on and near the South Coast, while he was writing Nicholas Nickleby (and he included it in the book via a couple of newly weds).
Quite a lot of the information in these first 3 chapters matches what we learned then, as the book is roughly chronological, and "travels" through Charles Dickens's works in order.
Jean, I think Lucinda's personality shines through her notes, although she seems to make no effort to show it; and she seems to be a nice person :)
I enjoyed the chapters about Scotland and Ireland! I imagine how exciting this was for Dickens, despite the many discomforts, and maybe partly even owing to the dangers.
Huh, the American chapters must seem like a nice recap of what you've just finished discussing in the 'American Notes', aren't they?
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Dickensians!
Books mentioned in this topic
Nicholas Nickleby (other topics)Dickens and Travel: The Start of Modern Travel Writing (other topics)
Dickens and Christmas (other topics)
Dickens and Travel: The Start of Modern Travel Writing (other topics)
American Notes for General Circulation (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Lucinda Hawksley (other topics)Hablot Knight Browne (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
Lucinda Hawksley (other topics)
Lucinda Hawksley (other topics)
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Please add to this thread whenever you like, since our side reads are not specifically timetabled, and non-fiction books do not contain the same type of spoilers!
With thanks to John, who has recommended this book to us all, and is leading our first group read of "All Around Dickens" American Notes For General Circulation, when it is Charles Dickens himself who is all around ... in America.