Dickens was not only a great novelist but also a first rate journalist. This travel book deals with his impressions of America and it is fascinating to read about the chaos of the early days of the New World from the pen of a major satirist and sharp observer. Dickens portrait of the country is at times savage (though always hilarious) but it offers great insight, not only in to the characters that were forging the new country but also in to Dickens own personality.