Dickens’ America: alternative readings

When Dickens visited North America in 1842 he complained that everyone talked about ‘politics, banks and cotton’. He didn’t like America and didn’t like the Americans. When he stayed at Niagara, which did impress him, he was unaware of a 21 year old Englishman in the hotel, Alfred Morrison, son of the self-made millionaire textile merchant, investment banker and MP James Morrison. This paper uses the letters of the Morrisons to present an alternative reading of the America Dickens depicted in his novel 'Martin Chuzzlewit' and his 'American Notes'.