The Uncommercial Traveller - Hardcover

Dickens, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199686653 ISBN 13: 9780199686650

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2015

Synopsis

At the height of his career, around the time he was working on Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens wrote a series of sketches, mostly set in London, which he collected as The Uncommercial Traveller. In the persona of "the Uncommercial," Dickens wanders the city streets and brings London, its inhabitants, commerce, and entertainment vividly to life. Sometimes autobiographical, as childhood experiences are interwoven with adult memories, the sketches include visits to the Paris Morgue, the Liverpool docks, a workhouse, a school for poor children, and the theater. They also describe the perils of travel, including seasickness, shipwreck, the coming of the railways, and the wretchedness of dining in English hotels and restaurants.

The work is quintessential Dickens, with each piece showcasing his imaginative writing style, his keen observational powers, and his characteristic wit. In this edition Daniel Tyler explores Dickens's fascination with the city and the book's connections with concerns evident in his fiction: social injustice, human mortality, a fascination with death and the passing of time. Often funny, sometimes indignant, always exuberant, The Uncommercial Traveller is a revelatory encounter with Dickens and the Victorian city he knew so well.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Dickens

Daniel Tyler has researched Dickens's creative processes through the manuscript drafts of his fiction. He is the author of A Guide to Dickens's London and editor of Dickens's Style. He is a frequent reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement.

Review:

fascinating * Methodist Recorder * beautiful volume * The National * Tyler's introduction is substantial, thorough and stimulating. * Dickens Quarterly * ... .there is plenty here and fans will enjoy spotting his nascent characters and books in these sketches. * The Times *

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0199686653
• ISBN 13: 9780199686650
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432
• Editor: Tyler Daniel