Chapter 2

The role of analogy in Charles Dickens’ Pictures from Italy

Pictures from Italy (1846) is one of Charles Dickens’ lesser known works. There has been very little critical interest in this travelogue, and no linguistic analysis. In this chapter, I focus on the significant role of analogy in this text: broadly covering similes (like, as); quasi-similes (as if) and comparisons; and defined in cognitive terms as overt “mapping” across conceptual domains. I argue for four kinds of analogies at work, each group having different functions, effects and, most importantly, degrees of reader-helpfulness. The overall result is the creation of an Italy that is a rich composition of possible worlds and sub-worlds, corresponding as much to Dickens’ beliefs and fantasies as to actual experience. The analogies are therefore a necessary and important part of the linguistic “texture” of the work overall. They raise interesting possibilities for the further exploration of related travelogues and the discourse of tourism more generally.