The Long Voyage by Charles Dickens. Short summary

5 seconds

The author states that during the cold season he likes to sit by the fireplace and remember reading books about long voyages and travels to exotic countries as a child.

1 minute

Dickens writes that during those periods of time when there is a strong wind and a downpour outside the window, he likes to sit near the fireplace and recall the contents of the books he read as a child. The compilers of the latter sought to convey to their readers information about various adventures. The English creative writer doesn’t understand how it is that he has never circumnavigated the globe during his entire life.

One day the author was engaged in his favorite activity just before New Year’s Eve — he was sitting near the fireplace. His head was filled with thoughts of what various explorers of our planet were doing in their time.

Dickens imagined Columbus sailing in the middle of the ocean with his band of adventurers and noticing from the captain’s cabin that in the distance was a land that had not previously been seen by the inhabitants of the Old World. The writer thought of how Bruce, caught in Ethiopia, was put in a cage, which he would be reminded of in his dreams when he returned home.