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Charles Dickens' Journeys Across Great Britain with Sue King
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Charles Dickens was an enthusiastic traveler and his journeys around Great Britain inspired his writing. Join expert Sue King to trace the routes of Charles Dickens around the British Isles and learn about his life as a writer and as a tourist in the Victorian era.
This literary legend traveled on foot, as well as by train and boat, and horse. He traveled as a tourist, for research, family holidays, and to perform dramatic readings of his works. In a lecture of 1859, he told his audience:
“I am both a town traveler and a country traveler and am always on the road. Figuratively speaking, I travel for the great house of Human Interest Brothers and have rather a large connection in the fancy goods way. Literally speaking, I am always wandering here and there from my rooms in Covent-garden, London – now about the city streets: now, about the country by-roads – seeing many little things, and some great things, which, because they interest me, I think may interest others.”
Led by an expert guide for London and beyond, Sue King, this conversation will range far and wide, including the Victorian landscape of Dickens’ beloved rural Kent, shocking secrets discovered in Yorkshire, and the smoky factory towns of northern England. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with a clearer picture of England that inspired the novels of Charles Dickens which he considered as ‘sledgehammers’ to motivate social reform.
For more on this topic, we invite you to explore Charles Dickens’ London with Sue King.
Sue King was born a Londoner and has lived in several other cities including Seoul, Berlin, and Washington DC. Since returning to London, she has spent the last three years studying its art, architecture, literature, and history. Sue holds a research MPhil in History of Art from the Barber Institute, Birmingham University and has specialist knowledge of Victorian Britain through her study of its painting and literature. Her thesis, on symbolism in Victorian Art, focused on the work of the Pre-Raphaelites and she has also made studies in 20th Century American art. Sue is fascinated by London's history and is most interested in the artists and writers who have helped to define it. She loves to recount stories of their lives and works, and their connections with each other and the city.
This conversation is suitable for all ages.
90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.