{"id":13084,"date":"2012-02-09T17:39:21","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T21:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=13084"},"modified":"2012-02-09T17:41:31","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T21:41:31","slug":"charles-dickens-in-cincinnati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2012\/02\/charles-dickens-in-cincinnati\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Dickens in Cincinnati"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Grace<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dicken's<\/a>As we continue to celebrate Dickens\u2019 birth (he turned 200 this past Tuesday, and still seems robust), we should note his visit to Cincinnati in 1842.\u00a0 The visit was part of Dickens\u2019 itinerary on his first\u00a0journey to America, with initial stops in Boston, New York, Washington, and Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by his wife, Catherine, Dickens thoroughly enjoyed Boston, was not so enthralled by the nation\u2019s capitol with all the necessary politics, and had quite a negative impression of Pittsburgh.\u00a0 Cincinnati in springtime, however, he found to be \u201ca beautiful city, cheerful, thriving, and animated.\u201d\u00a0 Dickens documented his trip to the United States in American Notes for General Circulation<\/em>, published in October after his return to England.\u00a0 In Cincinnati, he was very complimentary about the orderly streets and houses, so it is apparent that he wasn\u2019t walking about during one of the regular hog-drives to the slaughterhouses!\u00a0 He enjoyed the view from Mt. Auburn, complimented the city\u2019s system of free schools, and sat in on a nuisance trial in the courts.\u00a0 In American Notes<\/em>, he stated: \u201cThe society with which I mingled was intelligent, courteous, and agreeable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cincinnati<\/a>\"Charles<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Father<\/a>

Father Theobald Mathew<\/p><\/div>\n

One occasion that really caught his fancy was an Irish temperance parade through downtown, organized by local followers of the Irish temperance leader, Father Theobald Mathew, who at the time was in his abstinence glory across the ocean in Cork. \u00a0\u00a0Dickens noted, \u201cI was particularly pleased to see the Irishmen, who formed a distinct society among themselves, and mustered very strong with their green scarfs carrying their national harp and their Portrait of Father Mathew high above the people\u2019s heads.\u00a0 They looked as jolly and good-humoured as ever; and, working (here) the hardest for their living, and doing any kind of sturdy labor that came in their way, were the most independent fellows there, I thought.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After Cincinnati, Dickens continued his travels west, to Louisville and St. Louis.\u00a0 But the more he traveled, the more disaffected he became with America.\u00a0 The journey was wearing on him, and he was tiring of the people and the frontier.\u00a0 On his return to Cincinnati to head east and then to sail for London, the rough coach ride on the corduroy road from Cincinnati to Lake Erie nearly did him in, along with sleeping in insect-infested \"Charles<\/a>cabins.\u00a0 When it was published, American Notes<\/em> came under criticism from some American readers who felt Dickens maligned their fair country.\u00a0 And even though the book waxed enthusiastically about Cincinnati, in a private letter to a friend, Dickens confessed that at a party, a judge introduced him to \u201cat least one hundred and fifty first-rate bores\u201d and that he thought his face \u201chas acquired a fixed expression of sadness from the constant and unmitigated boring I endure.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps he should have joined the Irishmen who were not <\/em>in the temperance march!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Grace As we continue to celebrate Dickens\u2019 birth (he turned 200 this past Tuesday, and still seems robust), we should note his visit to Cincinnati in 1842.\u00a0 The visit was part of Dickens\u2019 itinerary on his first\u00a0journey to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[53,67],"class_list":["post-13084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-uclibraries","tag-cincinnati-history","tag-rare-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}