Trieste's Early Role in the Italian Reception of Charles Dickens

This article presents new material which allows us to modify substantially the chronology and mode of the Italian reception of Charles Dickens, pushing back the first recorded translations by half a century. This material is contained in the Triestine periodical "La favilla", a cultural magazine founded in 1836, which struggled for survival against Austrian censorship till 1846. "La favilla" published two Dickens short stories in 1845: though not mentioned so far in any account of Dickens's popularity in Italy, Un vizio ("The Drunkard's Death") and "La scampanata del Capo d'Anno" ("The Chimes") are to be classed as two of the very earliest Italian translations of Dickens to be published.