Charles Dickens 
Pictures from Italy 

‘Pictures from Italy’, first published in 1846, is an account of a journey by Charles Dickens and his family through Italy in 1844. 



Dickens is best known for his literary descriptions of the social conditions in Victorian England, particularly the great social inequalities created by rapid industrialisation and capitalist exploitation of workers. However Dickens also applied his skills of social criticism and his keen observation of human behaviour, to describing the social life and customs of Italy. In some ways this work parallels his first book, ‘Sketches by Boz’, which described the social life and customs of England.



In 1844, Charles Dickens and his family undertook a European journey through France and Italy. They travelled by coach through France and then spent several months visiting the great cities of Italy: Rome, Venice, Florence and others. During the course of his travels, Dickens turned his novelist’s eye for observing the human condition to analysing the soul and character of Italy.