検索キーワード： "Charles Dickens" 南北アメリカ大陸

Based on a trip taken just short of his thirtieth birthday, American Notes for General Circulation is a dazzling travelogue of Charles Dickens’s adventures in North America in 1842. Travelling from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, St. Louis, Quebec and more, Dickens writes candidly about his time in America.

In 1842, Charles Dickens visited America. His reception was somewhat colder than that which usually greeted him - already a successful author in both Britain and the United States. This lack of enthusiasm from the Americans was partly due to his criticism of the pirating of English books in that country and partly due to his outspoken distaste for the custom of slavery in the southern states.

The story is told from the point of view of Pip, an orphan of humble origins who dreams of being a gentleman. From a chilling encounter with a convict when he was seven, through his coming of age and early adulthood, he tells of his "memorable days" and the "great changes" they wrought in him. Pip is apprenticed to kind-hearted Joe Gargery, the blacksmith, husband to his ill-tempered sister. On meeting the eccentric and reclusive Miss Havisham and her proud and haughty ward, the beautiful Estella, Pip becomes ashamed of his origins and hopes to one day better himself.