Pictures from Italy

by Charles Dickens

Overview

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789387488328
Publisher:	Maven Books
Publication date:	10/01/2023
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.43(d)
Age Range:	11 Years

About the Author

After a childhood blighted by poverty, commercial success came early to Charles Dickens (1812–70). By the age of 24, he was an international sensation whose new novels were eagerly anticipated. Two centuries later, Dickens' popularity endures as readers revel in the warm humanity and rollicking humor of his tales of self-discovery.

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

The 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—
To Naples
Naples
Pompeii—Herculaneum
Paestum
Vesuvius
Return to Naples
Monte Cassino
Florence

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