The Dickens Country — Text and Context

A Posthumous Pilgrimage

The book's introduction reveals that Kitton died on September 10, 1904, before seeing his work in print. The writer recalls a conversation in Covent Garden about a year earlier, in which Kitton mentioned 'a book rather on the same lines on the stocks myself, but I don't know when it will get finished.' The introduction praises Kitton's freedom from 'literary jealousy' and his modesty, noting that 'no one in England was so well qualified' for the task. This framing positions the volume as both a scholarly resource and a memorial to its author's lifelong dedication to Dickensian research.

Liverpool Through Dickens's Eyes

Kitton devotes several pages to Liverpool, where Dickens performed readings and stayed at the Adelphi Hotel. The text quotes Dickens's description of St. George's Hall as 'brilliant to see when lighted up, and for a reading simply perfect.' Kitton also reproduces a long passage from Martin Chuzzlewit depicting the Mersey, noting that Dickens 'doubtless records his own impressions' from his 1842 return from America. A second excerpt from The Uncommercial Traveller describes Liverpool's slums as 'a labyrinth of dismal courts and blind alleys, called "entries"' and remarks on sailors' fondness for ornamental crockery. These examples show Kitton weaving together biography, fiction, and topography.

The Photographic Record

The volume contains forty-eight full-page illustrations, 'mostly from photographs by T. W. Tyrrell.' The frontispiece reproduces a previously unpublished photograph of Dickens from 1857. The illustrations are not merely decorative; they serve as visual evidence of the places Kitton describes. The book's subtitle and series branding emphasize the 'country' as a landscape to be toured, and Tyrrell's images ground the literary references in specific, contemporary views. This combination of text and photography aligns with the early twentieth-century vogue for illustrated topographical guides.

Readers should note that the excerpts represent only a fraction of the book's 72,000 words. The catalog subjects—'Literary landmarks,' 'Homes and haunts'—accurately reflect Kitton's method, but the work is more than a gazetteer: it integrates Dickens's own language with biographical anecdote and local history. The illustrations by Tyrrell are integral to the experience, offering a visual counterpart to Kitton's prose. Approach the book as a period piece of Dickens scholarship, valuable for its specific observations and its place in the Pilgrimage Series.