Postscript explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• American vs. British Society

  Dickens contrasts his earlier critical views of America with his later appreciation, highlighting national generosity and moral and physical changes.

• Redemption and Self-Discovery

  Dickens admits his own changes and corrections of extreme impressions, framing his testimony as an act of justice and honor.

Key passages

• “So much of my voice has lately been heard in the land, that I might have been contented with troubling you no further from my present standing-point, were it not a duty with which I henceforth charge myself, not only here but on every suitable occasion, whatsoever and wheresoever, to express my high and grateful sense of my second reception in America, and to bear my honest testimony to the national generosity and magnanimity.”

  I have spoken so often lately that I could stop now, but I feel it my duty to express my deep gratitude for my second welcome in America and to honestly praise the nation's generosity and greatness.

  Dickens emphasizes his obligation to publicly thank America for its hospitality.

• “Also, to declare how astounded I have been by the amazing changes I have seen around me on every side⁠—changes moral, changes physical, changes in the amount of land subdued and peopled, changes in the rise of vast new cities, changes in the growth of older cities almost out of recognition, changes in the graces and amenities of life, changes in the Press, without whose advancement no advancement can take place anywhere.”

  I am amazed by the tremendous changes everywhere—in morals, in the landscape, in the expansion of cities, in the comforts of life, and in the press, which is essential for all progress.

  Dickens catalogues the sweeping transformations he observed in America over 25 years.

• “Nor am I, believe me, so arrogant as to suppose that in five-and-twenty years there have been no changes in me, and that I had nothing to learn and no extreme impressions to correct when I was here first.”

  I am not so proud as to think I haven't changed in 25 years or that I had nothing to learn or correct from my first visit.

  Dickens humbly acknowledges his own evolution and the need to revise earlier harsh judgments.

• “Thus, the vigour and perseverance with which I have for some months past been collecting materials for, and hammering away at, a new book on America has much astonished me; seeing that all that time my declaration has been perfectly well known to my publishers on both sides of the Atlantic, that no consideration on earth would induce me to write one.”

  I have been surprised by rumors that I was working on a new book about America, since I have clearly told my publishers I would never write one.

  Dickens dismisses false reports that he was writing another book on America.

• “But what I have intended, what I have resolved upon (and this is the confidence I seek to place in you), is, on my return to England, in my own person, in my own Journal, to bear, for the behoof of my countrymen, such testimony to the gigantic changes in this country as I have hinted at tonight.”

  What I have decided to do is, when I return to England, to personally write in my own journal a testimony for my countrymen about the enormous changes in America that I have mentioned tonight.

  Dickens announces his plan to publish a positive account of America's progress.

• “Also, to record that wherever I have been, in the smallest places equally with the largest, I have been received with unsurpassable politeness, delicacy, sweet temper, hospitality, consideration, and with unsurpassable respect for the privacy daily enforced upon me by the nature of my avocation here and the state of my health.”

  Dickens praises the consistent politeness and consideration he received across America.