American Notes and Pictures from Italy. With Eighteen Illustrations by A. B. Frost and Gordon Thomson

London: Chapman and Hall, 1870. Tall 8vo.  245 x 190 mm., [9 ¾ x 7 ½ inches].  iv, 210 pp.  Publisher’s green cloth, decorated in gilt and black ink on front board, title in gilt on spine; some minor discoloration to the binding, corners lightly bumped.
Very good copy of two of Dickens’ most successful travel books, focusing on his visits to the United States and Italy.  His travels in America (1842) took him from Boston, to New York, Philadelphia and Washington.  Dickens travels further south to Richmond and then back north to Baltimore and west to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, north again to Niagara Falls and into Canada to (truncated) Toronto, Montreal and Quebec.  On the passage home he contemplates issues that disturb him about American and devotes a long essay on slavery and its corrosive impact on the South and American Society as a whole. His depiction of the American character is at time severe and his view of rugged individualism and the proclivity for violence overshadowed the positive aspect of Americans and their vibrant democracy and strong sense of community. 
In 1844-45 Dickens traveled to Italy through France to Genoa and on to Parma, Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, Rome and Naples.  His revulsion for the Papacy and the Catholic Church was apparent in his descriptions of the condition of the people he encountered as he traveled through the country.  .
“Ariosto’s house, Tasso’s prison, a rare old Gothic cathedral and more churches of course, are the sights of Ferrara.  But the long-silent streets, and the dismantled palaces, where ivy waves in lieu of Banners, and where rank weeds are slowly creeping up the long-untrodden stairs, are the best sights of all.”
A very nice copy of this well-illustrated edition. (Inventory #: 1349)