Excerpt

Excerpt from Reprinted Pieces, by Charles Dickens

THE LONG VOYAGE

WHEN the wind is blowing and the sleet or rain is driving against the
dark windows, I love to sit by the fire, thinking of what I have read in
books of voyage and travel. Such books have had a strong fascination for
my mind from my earliest childhood; and I wonder it should have come to
pass that I never have been round the world, never have been shipwrecked,
ice-environed, tomahawked, or eaten.

Sitting on my ruddy hearth in the twilight of New Year’s Eve, I find
incidents of travel rise around me from all the latitudes and longitudes
of the globe. They observe no order or sequence, but appear and vanish
as they will—‘come like shadows, so depart.’ Columbus, alone upon the
sea with his disaffected crew, looks over the waste of waters from his
high station on the poop of his ship, and sees the first uncertain
glimmer of the light, ‘rising and falling with the waves, like a torch in
the bark of some fisherman,’ which is the shining star of a new world.
Bruce is caged in Abyssinia, surrounded by the gory horrors which shall
often startle him out of his sleep at home when years have passed away.
Franklin, come to the end of his unhappy overland journey—would that it
had been his last!—lies perishing of hunger with his brave companions:
each emaciated figure stretched upon its miserable bed without the power
to rise: all, dividing the weary days between their prayers, their
remembrances of the dear ones at home, and conversation on the pleasures
of eating; the last-named topic being ever present to them, likewise, in
their dreams. All the African travellers, wayworn, solitary and sad,
submit themselves again to drunken, murderous, man-selling despots, of
the lowest order of humanity; and Mungo Park, fainting under a tree and
succoured by a woman, gratefully remembers how his Good Samaritan has
always come to him in woman’s shape, the wide world over.

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Explanation

Detailed Explanation of Charles Dickens’ The Long Voyage (from Reprinted Pieces)

Context of the Excerpt

Charles Dickens’ The Long Voyage (1861) is a reflective essay from his collection Reprinted Pieces, which gathers various sketches, articles, and speeches originally published in periodicals. This particular piece blends personal musings with vivid imaginings of historical explorers, blending Dickens’ love for storytelling with his fascination for travel literature.

Dickens was deeply influenced by adventure narratives—books about shipwrecks, polar expeditions, and colonial explorations were popular in the 19th century, and he often incorporated their themes into his fiction (e.g., David Copperfield’s emigration scenes, Great Expectations’ convicts and distant colonies). Here, he indulges in a fireside reverie, conjuring dramatic moments from exploration history while contrasting them with his own sedentary life.

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Themes in the Excerpt

1. The Allure of Adventure vs. Domestic Comfort

   • Dickens opens with a cozy domestic scene: a firelit hearth on New Year’s Eve, a storm outside, and the speaker immersed in books of "voyage and travel." This sets up a contrast between the safety of home and the perilous, romanticized world of exploration.
   • His humorous lament—"I wonder it should have come to pass that I never have been round the world, never have been shipwrecked, ice-environed, tomahawked, or eaten"—highlights the tension between the thrill of imagined adventure and the reality of his uneventful life. The list of dangers ("shipwrecked, ice-environed, tomahawked, or eaten") is both dramatic and darkly comedic, emphasizing how travel literature glorifies suffering.

2. The Power of Imagination and Memory

   • The passage is a meditation on how stories shape perception. The speaker’s mind becomes a theater where historical figures appear "like shadows"—ephemeral, disordered, yet vivid.
   • The phrase "come like shadows, so depart" (a possible allusion to Macbeth’s "Life’s but a walking shadow") underscores the fleeting, dreamlike quality of these visions. They are not linear history but fragmented, emotional snapshots.

3. Human Suffering and Endurance

   • The explorers Dickens invokes—Columbus, Bruce, Franklin, Mungo Park—are all figures who endured extreme hardship. Their stories are not just about discovery but about isolation, betrayal, starvation, and resilience.
   • Columbus: His crew is "disaffected" (mutinous), and the "first uncertain glimmer" of land is a fragile hope—a "torch in the bark of some fisherman," a simile that makes the New World seem both miraculous and precarious.
   • Bruce (James Bruce of Kinnaird): The Scottish explorer, imprisoned in Abyssinia (Ethiopia), is haunted by "gory horrors" that will later torment his sleep. This suggests the psychological toll of trauma.
   • Franklin’s Expedition: The doomed Arctic explorers, starving and immobilized, divide their days between "prayers, remembrances of the dear ones at home, and conversation on the pleasures of eating." The mundane fixation on food amid existential despair is tragically humanizing.
   • Mungo Park: The Scottish explorer, near death in Africa, is saved by a woman—a recurring motif in Dickens’ work (e.g., women as moral saviors in Oliver Twist). The phrase "Good Samaritan has always come to him in woman’s shape" reflects Dickens’ idealization of female compassion.

4. Colonialism and Exploitation

   • The mention of "African travellers" submitting to "drunken, murderous, man-selling despots" critiques the brutality of colonial encounters. Dickens’ phrasing—"the lowest order of humanity"—reveals a Victorian racial hierarchy, but it also condemns the cruelty of slave traders and tyrants.
   • The passage acknowledges the violence underlying "adventure," complicating the romanticized narratives of exploration.

5. Mortality and the Passage of Time

   • The essay is set on New Year’s Eve, a liminal moment between years, inviting reflection on time’s passage. The explorers’ stories are ghosts of the past, yet their suffering feels immediate.
   • Franklin’s men, "without the power to rise," symbolize the inevitability of death, while Columbus’ "new world" represents fragile hope in the face of the unknown.

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Literary Devices

1. Imagery and Sensory Detail

   • Visual: Columbus’ "uncertain glimmer of the light" rising and falling like a torch; Franklin’s "emaciated figures" on "miserable beds."
   • Tactile: The "ruddy hearth" contrasts with the cold, hungry suffering of the explorers.
   • Auditory: The "wind blowing" and "sleet driving against the dark windows" create a soundscape of isolation, mirroring the explorers’ plight.

2. Juxtaposition

   • The cozy fireside vs. the "waste of waters" and "gory horrors" of exploration.
   • The speaker’s safe, imaginative voyage vs. the real peril of the figures he conjures.

3. Allusion and Intertextuality

   • "Come like shadows, so depart" echoes Macbeth (Act V, Scene 5), reinforcing the theme of life’s transience.
   • References to historical explorers (Columbus, Bruce, Franklin, Mungo Park) assume the reader’s familiarity with their stories, blending history and myth.

4. Personification and Metaphor

   • The explorers’ memories "rise around me from all the latitudes and longitudes," as if they are spectral presences.
   • The "shining star of a new world" (Columbus’ light) is a metaphor for hope and discovery.

5. Irony and Dark Humor

   • The speaker’s mock-regret at never having been "tomahawked, or eaten" undercuts the romanticism of adventure.
   • Franklin’s men dreaming of food while starving is a grim irony.

6. Stream of Consciousness

   • The passage mimics the associative nature of memory, with figures appearing "without order or sequence," as in a dream.

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Significance of the Passage

1. Dickens’ Relationship with Travel Literature

   • The essay reveals Dickens’ lifelong fascination with exploration narratives, which influenced his fiction (e.g., Dombey and Son’s shipwreck, Little Dorrit’s global settings).
   • It also reflects the Victorian era’s obsession with empire, discovery, and the "heroic" sufferings of explorers—even as it subtly critiques the darker sides of colonialism.

2. The Romanticization of Suffering

   • Dickens’ era glorified the "noble savage" and the stoic explorer, but this passage complicates that by focusing on the physical and psychological toll of adventure. Franklin’s men, for example, are not heroic but pitiable.

3. The Power of Storytelling

   • The essay is a meta-commentary on how stories transport us. The speaker’s hearth becomes a portal to other worlds, demonstrating literature’s ability to collapse time and space.

4. Dickens’ Personal Reflection

   • The piece blends public history with private introspection. Dickens, who traveled extensively in later life, here confesses a paradox: his love for adventure stories coexisting with his contentment at home. This tension mirrors his own life—famous for his restless energy yet often writing about domestic stability.

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Close Reading of Key Lines

1. "I love to sit by the fire, thinking of what I have read in books of voyage and travel."

   • Establishes the essay’s frame: a quiet, reflective moment that becomes a gateway to imagined adventures. The fire is both literal warmth and a metaphor for the mind’s illumination.

2. "come like shadows, so depart."

   • The explorers are not solid historical figures but fleeting, spectral visions, emphasizing how memory and imagination distort reality.

3. "the shining star of a new world."

   • Columbus’ light is both literal (a possible land sighting) and symbolic (the dawn of colonialism, with all its consequences). The simile "like a torch in the bark of some fisherman" makes the moment intimate yet uncertain—is it salvation or a mirage?

4. "dividing the weary days between their prayers, their remembrances of the dear ones at home, and conversation on the pleasures of eating."

   • A devastating triptych of human needs: spirituality, love, and basic survival. The mundane focus on food amid starvation is heartbreakingly real.

5. "the Good Samaritan has always come to him in woman’s shape."

   • Reinforces Dickens’ recurring theme of women as moral redeemers (e.g., Nancy in Oliver Twist, Lucy in A Tale of Two Cities). It also reflects Victorian gender ideals, where women were seen as innate caregivers.

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Conclusion: Why This Passage Matters

The Long Voyage is more than a nostalgic reverie—it’s a meditation on the human hunger for stories, the allure of the unknown, and the cost of discovery. Dickens blends historical grandeur with intimate suffering, reminding readers that behind every "heroic" expedition lies real pain. The passage also reflects Dickens’ own duality: a master storyteller who, despite his vivid imagination, remained an observer of life’s dramas rather than a participant in its extremes.

In its quiet way, the essay asks: What is adventure but a story we tell ourselves? And in doing so, it becomes a meta-narrative about the power of literature to transport, haunt, and humanize.