"Since the voyages of Columbus in search of the New World, and of Raleigh in quest of El Dorado, no visit to America has exacted so much interest and conjecture as that of the author of Oliver Twist."—Thomas Hood
Charles Dickens was greeted by a frenzied crowd of Yankees when he arrived on the shores of America in January 1842. A vocal social critic, Dickens was curious about life in the new nation and eager to find the promise of democracy fulfilled in a place that was unfettered by English Toryism and the antiquated customs of the old order. His whirlwind five-month tour through America would provide the raw material for American Notes for General Circulation, Dickens first travel book, published just four months after his return to England.