In 1842, Charles Dickens published American Notes, a somewhat critical account of his travels in the United States. Unfortunately, I was "out of town" when he passed through Columbus, Ohio, missing my opportunity to make his acquaintance. Too bad. I would have liked to have shown him around. |
We reached Columbus shortly before seven o'clock, and stayed there, to refresh, that day and night: having excellent apartments in a very large unfinished hotel called the Neil House, which were richly fitted with the polished wood of the black walnut, and opened on a handsome portico and stone verandah, like rooms in some Italian mansion. The town is clean and pretty, and of course is 'going to be' much larger. It is the seat of the State legislature of Ohio, and lays claim, in consequence, to some consideration and importance. |
Although Dickens apparently didn't do much sight- seeing during his brief stopover in Columbus, he was to return to it more than a decade later -- in his thoughts, anyway -- when he wrote Bleak House. In his preface to the novel, he defends his description of a case of "spontaneous combustion" by refering to some 30 documented cases, but then adds this note: |
Another case, very clearly described by a dentist, occurred at the town of Columbus, in the United States of America, quite recently. The subject was a German who kept a liquor-shop and was an inveterate drunkard. |
DICKENS IN COLUMBUS |
