In PICTURES FROM ITALY, Charles Dickens brings his quirky perspective to a tour of the country in the mid-1840s, looking askance at the domination of the Catholic church, but always alive to the beauty of the place and to the rich traditions of Italian culture. He did not, however, fail to be outrag ...
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In 1837, the twenty-five-year-old Charles Dickens was asked to "tidy up" the autobiography of Joseph Grimaldi, one of the greatest English clowns and pantomimes of all time. The task was so laborious that he ended up redrafting and rewriting most of it.