Dickens's Public Readings

This illustrated lecture marks 150 years since Dickens’s death by reflecting on the nature of his creative genius and his legacy.

It examines the theatrical performance of Dickens’s public readings in relation to his writing practices, and suggests how this gives us an insight into his creative processes as well as the close relationship he forged with his public – a relationship which, as he said, was ‘personally affectionate and like no other man's.