The Uncommercial Traveller

'And O, Angelica, what has become of you, this present Sunday morning when I can't attend to the sermon; and, more difficult question than that, what has become of Me as I was when I sat by your side?'

At the height of his career, around the time he was working on Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens wrote a series of sketches, mostly set in London, which he collected as The Uncommercial Traveller. In the persona of 'the Uncommercial', Dickens wanders the city streets and
brings London, its inhabitants, commerce and entertainment vividly to life. Sometimes autobiographical, as childhood experiences are interwoven with adult memories, the sketches include visits to the Paris Morgue, the Liverpool docks, a workhouse, a school for poor children, and the theatre. They
also describe the perils of travel, including seasickness, shipwreck, the coming of the railways, and the wretchedness of dining in English hotels and restaurants.

The work is quintessential Dickens, with each piece showcasing his imaginative writing style, his keen observational powers, and his characteristic wit. In this edition Daniel Tyler explores Dickens's fascination with the city and the book's connections with concerns evident in his fiction: social
injustice, human mortality, a fascination with death and the passing of time. Often funny, sometimes indignant, always exuberant, The Uncommercial Traveller is a revelatory encounter with Dickens, and the Victorian city he knew so well.


Author: Charles Dickens
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 02/01/2022
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 7.40h x 4.90w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780199686667
ISBN10: 0199686661
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Collections | General
- Literary Criticism | General

About the Author

Charles Dickens

Daniel Tyler is a Fellow and Lecturer in English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He specialises in British literature of the nineteenth century. His publications include A Guide to Dickens's London (2012), Dickens's Style (2013), and Poetry in the Making (2020).