American Notes for General Circulation

Leather backed illustrated boards, spine label. Slip case with decorated spine label. No. 482 of 2000 copies signed by illustrator. Color plates. 272 pages. 6 3/4" x 10". From the Introduction: "American Notes is the account of a love affair that went badly wrong. Charles Dickens traveled to America in January, 1842, with a romantic dream of what he would find in that Land of Liberty; he left six months later a disillusioned, hostile critic of most of what he had seen". In the author's Preface, Dickens notes: "To represent me as viewing America with ill-nature, coldness, or animosity, is merely to do a very foolish thing: which is always a very easy one". Contents include: The Passage Out; Boston; An American Railroad. Lowell and its Factory System; New York; Philadelphia and its Solitary Prison; A Night Steamer on the Potomac River. A Virginia Road, and a Black Driver. Richmond. Baltimore. The Harrisburg Mail, and a Glimpse of the City. A Canal Boat; A Jaunt to the Looking-Glass Prairie and Back; etc.…