Night Walks: Charles Dickens (Penguin Great Ideas)

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Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Unos curiosos y fecundos textos, gracias a los cuales podemos ver que Dickens fue “uno de los grandes visionarios de la ciudad, en toda su diversidad y crueldad”. The stories stand alone by themselves and are indicative of a great and creative imagination based on real life events. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. This collection of essays shows Dickens as one of the greatest visionaries of the city in all its variety and cruelty.

A collection of Dickens' early short stories based on his famous night walks, some of which span a distance of 20-30 miles in a single walk.Insomnia caused Dickens to walk the streets at night, but there are also other essays about his time walking the London streets – including one where he becomes separated from his adult companion as a child and believing himself to be lost forever, determines to go off and seek his fortune. For me, it is a reflection of the past in the present, when I read "insufficient food and unwholesome living are the main causes of disease among these small patients. Above all, he treats the companions he talks to as equals and with humanity; never condescending and always interested in human nature. The area is not as sociable as in the north-west region but there are many restaurants and transport links around the area.

I had high hopes that this book, a minor work of non-fiction from a novelist who, to some extent, steps aside from his field, would be right up my alley.

Charles Dickens describes in Night Walks his time as an insomniac, when he decided to cure himself by walking through London in the small hours, and discovered homelessness, drunkenness and vice on the streets.