Genoese Washerwomen — Book 4, "London and Genoa. 1843-1845," chap. v, "Work in Genoa: Palazzo Peschieri. 1844." Extra illustration by Fred Barnard for John Forster's Life of Charles Dickens, the twenty-second volume of The Household Edition (1879). Composite woodblock engraving by Dalziels, 10.8 by 14 cm (4 ¼ by 5 ½ inches), page 157, framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Dickens and His Family at The Bagnerello, Genoa
The Religious Houses he made early and many enquiries about, and there was one that had stirred and baffled his curiosity much before he discovered what it really was. All that was visible from the street was a great high wall, apparently quite alone, no thicker than a party wall, with grated windows, to which iron screens gave farther protection. At first he supposed there had been a fire; but by degrees came to know that on the other side were galleries, one above another, one above another, and nuns always pacing them to and fro. Like the wall of a racket-ground outside, it was inside a very large nunnery; and let the poor sisters walk never so much, neither they nor the passers-by could see anything of each other. It was close upon the Acqua Sola, too; a little park with still young but very pretty trees, and fresh and cheerful fountains, which the Genoese made their Sunday promenade; and underneath which was an archway with great public tanks, where, at all ordinary times, washerwomen were washing away, thirty or forty together. At Albaro they were worse off in this matter: the clothes there being washed in a pond, beaten with gourds, and whitened with a preparation of lime: "so that," he wrote to me (24th of August), "what between the beating and the burning they fall into holes unexpectedly, and my white trowsers, after six weeks' washing, would make very good fishing-nets. It is such a serious damage that when we get into the Peschiere we mean to wash at home." [Book the Fourth — London and Genoa. 1843-1845," Chapter IV, "Idleness at Albaro: Villa Bagnerello. 1844," 157]
Related Material: Dickens and His Family in Italy, 1844
- Dickens and Family at the Villa di Bella Vista (The Bagnerello), Albaro: July-September, 1844
- "The first impressions of such a place as Albaro" (Dickens's Pictures from Italy)
- Views of Palazzo Peschiere and Genoa: A Gallery
- The Strada Nuova ("The Streets of Palaces") (Dickens's Pictures from Italy)
- Charles Dickens's Tours of Italy
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham [You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens: A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990.
Barnard, Fred, et al. Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens; being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard, Hablot K. Browne (Phiz), J. Mahoney [and others] printed from the original woodblocks engraved for "The Household Edition." London: Chapman & Hall, 1908. Page 568.
[The copy of the book from which these pictures were scanned is in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.]
Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. London: Chapman & Hall, 1872 and 1874. 3 vols.
Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 22 vols. London: Chapman & Hall, 1879. Vol. XXII.
Created 15 September 2009
Last modified 31 December 2024