Pictures from Italy

by Charles Dickens, Livia Signorini (Artist)

Overview

"A whimsical cross between a fairy tale and a travelogue. . . This version includes beautiful illustrated collages by the Italian artist Livia Signorini." -T, The New York Times Style Magazine

"It is no wonder that Signorini was moved to assemble collages that embrace the span of time that clearly resonated with Dickens as he explored Italy. Images from antiquarian books cozy up to Photoshop embellishments like enlarged rigatoni, made even more impressive by the gatefold pages across which these compositions spread, complementing Dickens’s running theme of the moment being everything and nothing, honoring the poignancy of stone, water, light, and shadow." - "Imprint," Print Magazine

Pictures from Italy is one of Charles Dickens' earlier works, a fantastic and whimsical foray into the twin worlds of travel and the imagination. Inspired by his words, Italian artist Livia Signorini plays with Dickens' sense of place, memory, and politics. The result is a brilliant contemporary dialogue with his work — a reading of history, time, and change — that renews our sense of his enduring vision. An extraordinary work that is as much about travel writing as it is about Dickens’ journey to Italy itself, this handsome volume features 11 full-color gate folds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789380340166
Publisher:	Tara Books
Publication date:	10/16/2012
Pages:	130
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.80(h) x 2.10(d)
Lexile:	1140L (what's this?)
Age Range:	11 Years

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812–1870), one of the greatest British novelists of all time was also a journalist, an actor and a curious observer of the streets. In his novels, essays and journalism he brought to life the momentous nineteenth century, captive to commerce and greed, science and progress, conquest and colonialism. Human oddities, frailty, greed, sorrow and sentiment, the poor, meek and the laboring moved him. Acts of time and history, mortality and the compassion that may yet redeem us absorbed his attention and got written into his extraordinary fiction.

Livia Signorini is based in Italy and splits her time between Rome and Milan. She studied art at Temple University and Università la Sapienza of Rome, and has worked as an artist and picture researcher since 1988. Her work has been exhibited in different galleries in both Rome and Berlin, and includes mostly collages or the reinvention of found objects.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington

Table of Contents

One reader's passport; Going through France; Lyons, the Rhone, and the Goblin of Avignon; Avignon to Genoa; Genoa and its neighbourhood; To Parma, Modena, and Bologna; Through Bologna and Ferrara; An Italian dream; By Verona, Mantua, and Milan, across the Pass of the Simplon into Switzerland; To Rome by Pisa and Siena; Rome; A rapid diorama.