General interest

The exhibition - 'Genoa and Christmas through Dickens's Eyes' opened on 9th December and will run until the 9^th January at the Villa della Duchessa di Galliera, Genoa. The exhibition celebrates Dickens stay in that city in 1844 when he wrote his second Christmas book – The Chimes. The exhibition has been supported by the Carrara Branch of the DF and by some material loaned by the CD Museum in London.

A link to the exhibition can be found here.

A recent visit by Paul Graham can be seen here

When Dickens lived in Italy in 1844, it was Genoa he chose as his home. Dickens found the famous Bay of Naples to be “immeasurably inferior to the Bay of Genoa, which is the most lovely thing I have ever seen. The city, in like manner, will bear no comparison with Genoa. But there is none in Italy that will, except Venice.” This exhibition takes its cue from that fact, and during his stay Dickens wrote his second Christmas book, The Chimes, in Genoa in 1844.

The way Dickens perceived Genoa and its neighbourhood was different from that of many foreign artists and writers who visited it in the XIX century. Dickens was not only interested in the city, its monuments, harbour and in the glorious time when Genoa was a Maritime Republic, but also in its inhabitants and old traditions. Old views of Genoa painted when Dickens stayed there first at Albaro and then at Villa delle Peschiere, by famous painters Domenico Cambiaso and Luigi Caribbo, together with a first edition of The Chimes, portraits of some of Dickens's friends and copies of some letters that the Charles Dickens Museum have loaned, are displayed. The exhibition, which takes place in the little theatre of the XVII century Villa Duchessa di Galliera, shows a portrait of Dickens's recently bought in the US and restored for the exhibition.

A section is dedicated to Charles Dickens and the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini who was born in Genoa and lived in exile in London. Marzia Dati, President of the Carrara Branch of the Dickens Fellowship, is the guest curator of one of the  panels in which she describes the relationship between Dickens and Mazzini in London.

The curators are Matteo Frulio and Marco Cazzulo, the exhibition is patronized by the Commune of Genoa, The Charles Dickens Museum, The Carrara Branch of the Dickens Fellowship, and the Consulate of the United Kingdom in Genoa.

On Saturday 3^rd September at 11.00 the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames will conduct a guided tour of Dickensian Petersham. The cost is £5. Dickens first stayed in Petersham in August 1836 and described it in a letter to J.P. Hullah as a “Beautiful place – meadow for exercise – horses for your riding – boat for your rowing’. In April 1839 he rented Elm Cottage (pictured) in the village for four months and the pleasures he enjoyed included swimming in the nearby river Thames. Further details can be accessed via the link below.