Dickens and Italy

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give a brief account of some aspects of Dickens's relationship to Italian culture, politics, and society. It proposes a modest originality of scope, consisting in the inclusion of at least partial consideration of articles on Italian subjects written between 1850 and 1870 for two periodicals edited by Dickens, Household Words and All the Year Round. Though few of these are by Dickens himself, several of them are collaborations, and all of them, most particularly the Household Words articles, bear the marks of Dickens's editing. That this was thorough and interventionist, especially in the early years, and that most of the views expressed in these journals may be assumed by and large to have tallied with his own, can be gauged by the fact that the sole name mentioned in either periodical was that of Dickens himself. Each page bearing the inscription 'Conducted by Charles Dickens', all other contributors remaining anonymous, it seems reasonable to give more attention to these writings, as providing at least supporting evidence of Dickens's views on Italian social, cultural and political issues, than they have hitherto been accorded.