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Dickens and Massachusetts: The Lasting Legacy of the Commonwealth Visits
Charles Dickens traveled to North America twice, in 1842 and twenty-five years later in 1867–68, and on both trips Massachusetts was part of his itinerary. Although many aspects of his U.S. travels disappointed him, Massachusetts was the one state that met and even exceeded Dickens's expectations for "the republic of [his] imagination." From the mills of Lowell to the Perkins School for the Blind, it offered an alternate vision of America that influenced his future writings, while the deep and lasting friendships he formed with Bostonians gave him enduring ties to the commonwealth.
This volume provides insight from leading scholars who have begun to reassess the significance of Massachusetts in the author's life and work. The collection begins with a broad biographical and historical overview taken from the full-length narrative of the award-winning exhibition Dickens and A Tale of Power and Transformation, which attracted thousands of visitors while on display in Lowell. Abundant images from the exhibition, many of them difficult to find elsewhere, enhance the story of Dickens's relationship with the vibrant cultural and intellectual life of Massachusetts. The second section includes essays that consider the importance of Dickens's many connections to the commonwealth.
In addition to the volume editors, contributors include Chelsea Bray, Iain Crawford, Andre DeCuir, Natalie McKnight, Lillian Nayder, and Kit Polga.
This volume provides insight from leading scholars who have begun to reassess the significance of Massachusetts in the author's life and work. The collection begins with a broad biographical and historical overview taken from the full-length narrative of the award-winning exhibition Dickens and A Tale of Power and Transformation, which attracted thousands of visitors while on display in Lowell. Abundant images from the exhibition, many of them difficult to find elsewhere, enhance the story of Dickens's relationship with the vibrant cultural and intellectual life of Massachusetts. The second section includes essays that consider the importance of Dickens's many connections to the commonwealth.
In addition to the volume editors, contributors include Chelsea Bray, Iain Crawford, Andre DeCuir, Natalie McKnight, Lillian Nayder, and Kit Polga.
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 22, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 9, 2021
If you really like Charles Dickens or Massachusetts you should consider reading this book, if you absolutely love both then you should definitely read at least the first half which is a mini-bio of Dickens and his two visits to Massachusetts. Fanatics, of which I number myself, should read much or all of the scholarly essays in the second half that concern aspects of Dickens' trip and its role in his works. (One essay laments "Dickens' visits to Springfield have been almost universally ignored.")
Charles Dickens made two trips to the United States, both of which played a major role towards the beginning and end of his professional life, and in both cases he arrived in Massachusetts first and his trips went downhill from there.
Dickens first trip was in 1842. He was the incredibly famous author of The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, and Barnaby Rudge. A few years earlier, legendarily, Americans had crammed the docks when the ships came in bringing the latest installment of The Old Curiosity Shop to find out the fate of Little Nell. Barnaby Rudge was not as popular as the previous books and there were some concerns Dickens was losing his mojo, part of the reason he agreed to make the uncomfortable, long and somewhat dangerous journey to America (he took an early steamship so make the trip in a relatively rapid 18 days).
He arrived in Massachusetts, met with all of the writers and luminaries of the time, gave lectures, was celebrated at dinners, etc. Everywhere Dickens went he was mobbed with admirers, letters, callers walked into his hotel room unannounced, people tried to take bits of his coat and hair as souvenirs.
Dickens made a visit to Lowell and then on his way to his way out of the state he went through Worcester and Springfield before crossing the border to get to Hartford. His trip went downhill from there when he started complaining about the new republic's lax copyright rules and in response got lambasted in the press. The result was a travelogue American Notes For General Circulation a lot of which got recycled into an extended interlude in America in Martin Chuzzlewit, an interlude that goes beyond humor and insight into more petty vindictiveness and lifeless mockery that is one of the only failed segments of a Dickens novel.
Dickens' second visit to America was in 1867-68. This time he was even more famous having produced all of his complete novels (the incomplete The Mystery of Edwin Drood was the only one left). Looking at it now we think of this as Dickens towards the end of his life, a valedictory trip, but he was only 55 and although he had some weaknesses and infirmity it must have seemed more like the middle. This time his motives were less curiosity and more profit--he had become a fabulously successful reader/performer of his own works and had an incredibly demanding tour of dozens of cities scheduled. The Massachusetts part went well but he got sicker as the tour went on and ended up having to cut it short. People treat it as contributing to his death two years later but I don't know how much that is narrative arc or actual scientific causation.
The first half of Dickens and Massachusetts tells the story of these two visits in some detail along with a brief biography of what came before, in between and after the trips. It was written as a guide to a museum exposition in Lowell Massachusetts for the two-hundredth anniversary of Dickens' birth. It does not aim for originality or depth, it has a lot of pictures, but it is easy writing and fills in some depth in some places.
The essays that follow are more scholarly with lots of footnotes, but relatively light on literary theory, with most of the authors publishing in places like Dickens Quarterly. Briefly on some of them:
"Dickens, the Lowell Mill Girls, and the Making of A Christmas Carol" argues that a publication Dickens read on his visit to Lowell helped inspire A Christmas Carol (which he wrote a year later). It is a fun thesis, I was not fully persuaded given some of the relatively high-level connections.
"Dickens, Longfellow, and the Village Blacksmith" is a fascinating account of Dickens and his friendship with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow along with another fun thesis that links Longfellow's poem to Joe Gargery in Great Expectations.
"Dickens's Visits to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1842 and 1868" is the sort of piece that makes you happy that there are people in the world who really dig into the archives to shed light on some mostly forgotten and not very important moment in Dickens's life without claiming any particularly great importance for it but just using it as a window into the life and time. Was enjoyable.
Finally, if you are looking for a regular Dickens biography, I would recommend Peter Ackroyd's Dickens as the most novelistic and Dickensian biography (in fact it has italicized parts between chapters which are actually fictional), Michael Slater's Charles Dickens is an all-around excellent biography with particularly vivid and detailed descriptions of the publication process, and Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life is also excellent, particularly on Dickens' relationship with his wife and Nellie Ternen.
Charles Dickens made two trips to the United States, both of which played a major role towards the beginning and end of his professional life, and in both cases he arrived in Massachusetts first and his trips went downhill from there.
Dickens first trip was in 1842. He was the incredibly famous author of The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, and Barnaby Rudge. A few years earlier, legendarily, Americans had crammed the docks when the ships came in bringing the latest installment of The Old Curiosity Shop to find out the fate of Little Nell. Barnaby Rudge was not as popular as the previous books and there were some concerns Dickens was losing his mojo, part of the reason he agreed to make the uncomfortable, long and somewhat dangerous journey to America (he took an early steamship so make the trip in a relatively rapid 18 days).
He arrived in Massachusetts, met with all of the writers and luminaries of the time, gave lectures, was celebrated at dinners, etc. Everywhere Dickens went he was mobbed with admirers, letters, callers walked into his hotel room unannounced, people tried to take bits of his coat and hair as souvenirs.
Dickens made a visit to Lowell and then on his way to his way out of the state he went through Worcester and Springfield before crossing the border to get to Hartford. His trip went downhill from there when he started complaining about the new republic's lax copyright rules and in response got lambasted in the press. The result was a travelogue American Notes For General Circulation a lot of which got recycled into an extended interlude in America in Martin Chuzzlewit, an interlude that goes beyond humor and insight into more petty vindictiveness and lifeless mockery that is one of the only failed segments of a Dickens novel.
Dickens' second visit to America was in 1867-68. This time he was even more famous having produced all of his complete novels (the incomplete The Mystery of Edwin Drood was the only one left). Looking at it now we think of this as Dickens towards the end of his life, a valedictory trip, but he was only 55 and although he had some weaknesses and infirmity it must have seemed more like the middle. This time his motives were less curiosity and more profit--he had become a fabulously successful reader/performer of his own works and had an incredibly demanding tour of dozens of cities scheduled. The Massachusetts part went well but he got sicker as the tour went on and ended up having to cut it short. People treat it as contributing to his death two years later but I don't know how much that is narrative arc or actual scientific causation.
The first half of Dickens and Massachusetts tells the story of these two visits in some detail along with a brief biography of what came before, in between and after the trips. It was written as a guide to a museum exposition in Lowell Massachusetts for the two-hundredth anniversary of Dickens' birth. It does not aim for originality or depth, it has a lot of pictures, but it is easy writing and fills in some depth in some places.
The essays that follow are more scholarly with lots of footnotes, but relatively light on literary theory, with most of the authors publishing in places like Dickens Quarterly. Briefly on some of them:
"Dickens, the Lowell Mill Girls, and the Making of A Christmas Carol" argues that a publication Dickens read on his visit to Lowell helped inspire A Christmas Carol (which he wrote a year later). It is a fun thesis, I was not fully persuaded given some of the relatively high-level connections.
"Dickens, Longfellow, and the Village Blacksmith" is a fascinating account of Dickens and his friendship with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow along with another fun thesis that links Longfellow's poem to Joe Gargery in Great Expectations.
"Dickens's Visits to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1842 and 1868" is the sort of piece that makes you happy that there are people in the world who really dig into the archives to shed light on some mostly forgotten and not very important moment in Dickens's life without claiming any particularly great importance for it but just using it as a window into the life and time. Was enjoyable.
Finally, if you are looking for a regular Dickens biography, I would recommend Peter Ackroyd's Dickens as the most novelistic and Dickensian biography (in fact it has italicized parts between chapters which are actually fictional), Michael Slater's Charles Dickens is an all-around excellent biography with particularly vivid and detailed descriptions of the publication process, and Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life is also excellent, particularly on Dickens' relationship with his wife and Nellie Ternen.
June 22, 2017
I had been sad to miss the Dickens in Massachusetts exhibit in Lowell, and this was a great way to fix that. The text of the exhibit was interesting, if sometimes not as academic or thorough as I would have liked. The essays are mixed in quality but overall I felt like the book whetted my appetite for learning more about Dicken's trips to MA.
May 1, 2017
Full review forthcoming.
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