Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Book Review: Dickens and Travel

 



Dickens and Travel

The Start of Modern Travel Writing

by Lucinda Hawksley

Pub Date 30 Aug 2022

 Pen & Sword,  Pen & Sword History

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  History  |  Nonfiction (Adult) 



I am reviewing a copy of Dickens and Travel through Pen &Sword and Netgalley:




From the time he was a child, Charles Dickens was fascinated by tales other countries and other cultures, and he longed to see the world. In Dickens and Travel, Lucinda Hawksley looks at the journeys made by the author.   Lucinda shared the journeys of Dickens who happens to be her great-great grandfather.



Between 1830-1831 Charles Dickens began working as a freelance journalist.  Though his overriding ambition was not to be a novelist, or a journalist, what he really wanted to be was a playwright and actor like Shakespeare.





Dickens was often thought of as a London author but in the 1840’s he whisked his family away to live in Italy for year, and spent several months in Switzerland.  Years later he would move to Paris and Boulogne (where he lived in secret with his lover). In addition to travelling widely in Europe, he also toured America twice, performed onstage in Canada and, before his untimely death, was planning a tour of Australia.




Written by a descendant of Charles Dickens, his Great Great granddaughter Lucinda Hawksley,  Dickens and Travels gives us a unique glimpse not only of his travels, but how Dickens helped to shape the modern age of travel writing.




I give Dickens and Travel five out of five stars!




Happy Reading!

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