When this year started, a book came into my hands. It was The Last Dickens, by Matthew Pearl.
The novel caught my attention right away when I first saw it at the book store. Of course, I couldn’t pass by the shelf without taking this book into my shopping basket.
Then, when I read the first pages I didn’t want to stop reading it. The passages describing the old Boston, took my mind immidiately to this wonderful city of which I’m totally fond of.
The mystery of what it would happen once the publishers in America undertook the task of publishing the last work ever written by Charles Dickens, and the sober taste of England, kept me going, creating all sort of images in my mind as the novel advanced.
Throughout the passages of the book I could almost feel that I was right there, side by side with the great Dickens, which I’ve always admired, but who I mainly knew through his work and some biographies, but it was this novel which gave me the chance to see a very lively Dickens, in the times when he was a celebrity and traveled around some American cities, while trying to keep up with his writing.
Suspense, adventure and literature accompany the English author along this novel that recreates in an amazing way those old times in the 19th century, when the publishing houses had to wait for the ships to come to the harbour to get their manuscripts, and the authors got into the teathers to read their work among frenetic fans who could do anything in order to be a part, even if for a short moment, of their favorite author’s world.
From the begining to the end, I absolutely loved this book! 😀
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