The first English translation, presented with pictures and a piece by De Amicis's contemporary Louis Laurent Simonin

As a first-time visitor to London, De Amicis was awestruck by the bustle and magnificence of the Victorian metropolis and wrote a number of sketches in his trademark witty, observational style, which made him one of the bestselling travel writers of his age. Originally conceived as a series of newspaper articles and later published in volume form, "Memories of London" brings back to life all the bygone charm of the capital of the British Empire. De Amicis's impressions are paired here with a piece written by the French writer Louis Laurent Simonin, which leaves the city's opulence and grandeur behind and offers an uncompromising look at the poverty and squalor of its most deprived areas.

This book first gained popular success during the 1880s when a blossoming public awareness followed upon the heels of Victorian expansionism. Coincidental with this came the spread of education amongst the English working classes, eager to discover more of the world around them. Alas, of the hundreds of such travelogues, few survive the test of time. De Amicis' work is a delightful exception to this rule, avoiding the dreary catalogue of topographical description and ignoring Victorian propensity for strict 'educational' value. Perhaps we have the author's Latin temperament to thank for a work brimming with amusing anecdote, as much devoted to gossip as to fact. Here is a work that remains fresh and enlivening despite the passage of years. For this reason, and for the numerous attractive engravings, it is a deserving subject for reprinting this fine facsimile edition.