'That Magic Lantern': Dickens and London

“London,” Dickens wrote to fellow-novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton in February 1851,“is a vile place”. He also acknowledged how important it was to his creative processes. On 30 August 1846, he wrote to his friend John Forster about the difficulties he was experiencing with his writing of Dombey and Son, in “the absence of streets… A day in London sets me up again and starts me. But the toil and labour of writing, day after day, without that magic lantern, is IMMENSE!!”

In this talk Tony Williams will explore some of the ways in which this greatest writer of the city found his inspiration in the metropolis.

Dr Tony Williams is Associate Editor of The International Dickens Fellowship’s journal, The Dickensian, and is Senior Honorary Research Fellow in Humanities at the University of Buckingham.