What does a country devoted to liberty reveal in its prisons, factories and crowded inns?

In American Notes, Charles Dickens travels through the United States and Canada in 1842 with his wife, Catherine. He comes to see a republic he has long admired. From a miserable Atlantic crossing to Boston’s warm welcome, his journey brings comedy, kindness and sharp surprises.

But Dickens looks beyond the welcome. In Lowell’s cotton mills, New York’s damp prison cells and Washington’s unfinished streets, he asks what daily life reveals about national ideals. Trains, canal boats and river steamers carry him onward, while slavery gives his questions about liberty a troubling urgency.

이 책에서 발견할 것들

• A visitor with sharp eyes See America through Dickens’s mix of admiration, comic irritation and concern for people who suffer.
• Life beyond the landmarks Enter crowded inns, schools and factories where ordinary details become a revealing portrait of national habits.
• Liberty put to the test Follow a reformer’s questions about prisons and slavery in a country that praises freedom.
• Comedy on the road Share his astonishment at tobacco spitting, bad food and manners that test a visitor’s patience.
• Westward and toward Niagara Travel by canal boat and river steamer toward western landscapes, Niagara Falls and Canada.

이런 분들이 좋아할 거예요

생동감 있는 목소리로 들려주는 여행기를 좋아하는 독자, 소설가가 아닌 디킨스 자신의 이야기를 듣고 싶은 팬, 1840년대 초 미국의 모습이 궁금한 분에게 어울리는 책이에요.