American Notes by Charles Dickens, with an introduction by Diana C. Archibald (Universitas Press, 2018), forthcoming May 22 2018.

This is a scholar­ly edi­tion, an­notated and il­lustrated, address­ing the modern rea­d­er.

Di­ckens fans and students will find the most balan­ced approach to an­notate and con­tex­tual­ize the writer’s travel im­press­ions, as well as a chronology fol­low­ing Di­ckens’s itinera­ry chapt­er by chapt­er.

American Notes for Gener­al Cir­cula­tion was pub­lished short­ly after Di­ckens’s re­turn from his six-month trip to North America. While his in­ten­tion to pub­lish a travel nar­rative was not pub­lic­ly dis­closed be­fore or dur­ing his trip, it was wide­ly as­sumed that he would write a travel book. After all, many European visitors, es­pecial­ly aut­hors, had writt­en such books in the past. In 1842 Di­ckens was ar­guab­ly the most fam­ous novel­ist in the world, so, natural­ly, En­glish and American rea­d­ers eager­ly anti­cipated a book based on his visit. Howev­er, Di­ckens’s un­ex­pected critique of the young re­pub­lic in this lit­tle travel nar­rative caused shockwaves among his de­voted rea­dership. The fact that he would risk of­fend­ing his audi­ence by pub­lish­ing the book ought to pique modern rea­d­ers’ in­terest. What did he say that so upset the pub­lic? What motivated his choice of con­tent and approach? And what does this neg­lected text re­ve­al to modern rea­d­ers about life and lit­era­ture in the Anglo-American world of the nineteenth cen­tu­ry? (from the in­troduc­tion by Diana C. Archibald)

Order it here.

Re­tail price: 35 CAD

From the pub­lish­er: 31 CAD

Pro­motion­al pre-order price: 22 CAD

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