Description

First printing of the cheap edition, for Dickens first complete works, with a new preface penned by the author and dated June 22, 1850. Olive green blindstamped cloth with elaborately gilt spine. Frontispiece by C Stanfield. Printed in double column format. Fronitispiece badly foxed, else interior quite clean. No name or book plate. Green cloth toned to light brown at edges and backstrip; spine slightly cocked. Overall a nice copy of Dickens recollections of his first American sojourn. First published in 1842, AMERICAN NOTES was a harsh travel narrative, condemning much that Dicken’s found wanting in the New World, from the state of rail travel to the rather uncouth habit of spitting. Its reception by American critics was quite unfavorable and it gave rise to many parodies by American author’s who took umbrage to its tone and content.