At a Glance
The Dickens Universe is an annual gathering of scholars, teachers and members of the general public who share a love of Dickens’s novels and his era. In 2020, the Dickens Universe will pair one of the best-known novels of Dickens, 'David Copperfield,' with the most famous of all nineteenth-century African-American novels, Frances E. W. Harper’s 'Iola Leroy'. Reflections on how personal histories of coming of age play out through and against the mysteries and brutalities of history; confrontations with the claims of familial and community loyalties, as these come to be fractured, exposed, and reconfigured: through these and other ways of reading, Universe participants will explore what happens when the novels of these two extraordinary novelists, reformers, orators, poets, and journalists are brought into conversation. The festive week-long program includes lectures by distinguished scholars, small seminars, films, teas, and Victorian dancing. Enrollment is limited. Register early!