Charles Dickens as I Knew Him: The Story of the Reading Tours in Great Britain and America 1866–1870 (Cambridge Library Collection - Literary Studies) - Softcover

Dolby, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108039790 ISBN 13: 9781108039796

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2011

Synopsis

George Dolby (?-1900) was the manager of Charles Dickens' highly successful reading tours in England and America between 1866 and 1870. He published this memoir of Dickens in 1885. Dickens was a keen amateur actor and had many friends involved with the theatre. He had begun public readings from his works in 1853 for charity, but in 1858 his first for-profit tour, lasting three months, covered much of England, Scotland and Ireland, and netted over £10,000. Without props or costumes, he brought his most popular characters to life, and continued to undertake lengthy and exhausting tours until shortly before his death (which some believed had been hastened by his exertions on stage). Dolby's account covers only the period of his own connection with Dickens, but he describes in detail the constant travel which the tours entailed, the people they encountered, and the enthusiastic response with which Dickens was everywhere received.

About this title

Book Description:

This fascinating account of Charles Dickens' phenomenally successful reading tours in Britain and America between 1866 and 1870 was published by his manager George Dolby in 1885. The first author tours to be organised by a publisher, they were lucrative for both parties, but evidently exhausting.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1108039790
• ISBN 13: 9781108039796
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 486