Find a copy in the library
Finding libraries that hold this item...
Details
| Genre/Form: | [récit de voyage] |
|---|---|
| Named Person: | Richard Gooch |
| Material Type: | Biography |
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Richard Gooch; Toby Widdicombe |
| ISBN: | 0823215946 9780823215942 0823215954 9780823215959 |
| OCLC Number: | 31295313 |
| Description: | xlviii, 237 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. |
| Responsibility: | Richard Gooch ; edited, with an introduction and notes, by Richard Toby Widdicombe. |
| More information: |
Abstract:
America and the Americans - in 1833-4 is a polemical, satirical account of Gooch's purported travels in America, focusing primarily on New York City and its environs. Never previously published, this work adds an original voice to the nineteenth-century debate over the status of the United States as an emerging cultural power. A large part of Widdicombe's achievement is his bringing to light this unjustly neglected author - a storyteller, poet, and perceptive observer who spent his most productive years on the edges of power and public recognition in Georgian and early Victorian England. Widdicombe frames this unique "travelogue" with a short biography of Gooch, extensive textual and historical notes, an essay on Anglo-American travel literature, and a coda: "On the Perils of Oblivion." A key to the value of Gooch's account is its unique arrangement by subject matter: Gooch examines the American legal system, banks, labor; American policy toward Indians and blacks; New York City government and its electoral system, among other topics. The arrangement makes Gooch's satire far more entertaining, substantial, and informative than most travelogues written in the same period. It also allows Gooch to sustain his polemic - an effort to re-orient the British attitude toward the United States and stem the tide of expatriates to its shores. Gooch's remarkable analysis of American life, studded with relevant facts taken from daily headlines, is heightened by mystery: How much, if any, did Gooch actually observe firsthand, and how much, if any, did he shape with the powers of his narrative talent? Widdicombe provides some clues; the reader will be challenged to render the verdict.
Reviews
User-contributed reviews
Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers.
Be the first.
Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers.
Be the first.
Tags
Add tags for "America and the Americans--in 1833-4, by an emigrant".
Be the first.
Similar Items
Related Subjects:(6)
- United States -- Social life and customs -- 1783-1865.
- New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century.
- United States -- Description and travel.
- New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel.
- Gooch, Richard, -- 1791-1849 -- Travel -- United States.
- Etats-Unis -- 1833 / 1834 -- [récit de voyage]

