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California

Annual Dickens Universe: A Conference of 19th Century Literature

Program No. 4650RJ
Immerse yourself in the world of 19th-Century literature and learn about the authors through lectures, group discussions, and Victorian events at the annual Dickens Universe.

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Prefer to enroll or inquire by phone? 800-454-5768
climate
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itinerary
Please Note:
The itinerary for this program is different on certain dates.
Select your type of room
Price will update based on selection
Prices displayed below are based on per person,doubleoccupancy.
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Jul 23 - Jul 29, 2023
Starting at
1,299
Itinerary Note

42nd Annual Dickens Universe will feature 'A Tale of Two Cities'.

DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Jul 23 - Jul 29, 2023
Starting at
1,399
Itinerary Note

42nd Annual Dickens Universe will feature 'A Tale of Two Cities'.

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. The festive week-long program includes lectures by distinguished scholars, small seminars, films, teas, and Victorian dancing. Enrollment is limited. Register early!
Activity Level
On Your Feet
Walking up to a mile or more each day on a hilly terrain between apartment, dining facilities and lecture rooms. Classrooms, dining and lecture halls are all accessible via ramps or elevators. The apartments are not equipped with elevators.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Explore the novel in small discussion groups and lectures by distinguished international faculty.
  • Enjoy afternoon tea served by the Friends of the Dickens Project.
  • Immerse yourself in the world of Dickens at a grand party and an evening of Victorian dancing.
Featured Expert
All Experts
Profile Image
Mark Gordon
Mark Gordon, a retired children’s librarian from New York City Public Schools, moved to Santa Cruz in 1992. He has been active in educational work his whole adult life and earned a graduate degree from Pratt Institute in Library Science. In Santa Cruz, in addition to being on the board of the Friends of the Dickens Project, Mark is also a very active board member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UC Santa Cruz. He is married with two daughters and three grandchildren.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Profile Image of John Jordan
John O. Jordan View biography
John Jordan is a research professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the director of The Dickens Project. His primary research interests include Victorian literature and culture, Charles Dickens and narrative theory. John is the author of "Supposing Bleak House" and co-editor, with Robert Patten and Catherine Waters, of the "Oxford Handbook of Charles Dickens."
Profile Image of Jason Rudy
Jason Rudy View biography
Jason Rudy is an associate professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. A member of the Historical Poets Working Group, Jason’s research focuses on English nineteenth-century literature and its circulation around the world, particularly in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Most recently, Jason has authored “Imagined Homelands: British Poetry in the Colonies" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017) which studies poetry written in colonial spaces by British emigrants.
Profile Image of Mark Gordon
Mark Gordon View biography
Mark Gordon, a retired children’s librarian from New York City Public Schools, moved to Santa Cruz in 1992. He has been active in educational work his whole adult life and earned a graduate degree from Pratt Institute in Library Science. In Santa Cruz, in addition to being on the board of the Friends of the Dickens Project, Mark is also a very active board member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UC Santa Cruz. He is married with two daughters and three grandchildren.
Profile Image of Tricia Lootens
Tricia Lootens View biography
Tricia Lootens is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of English. The author of 'Political Poetess: Victorian Femininity, Race, and the Legacy of Separate Spheres,' (Princeton, 2017), Lootens strongly supports current moves toward "undisciplining Victorian Studies." Transatlantic explorations of nineteenth-century poetry's racialized relations to larger cultural fantasies of patriotism, nationalism, femininity, and race, have shaped her work and have more recently expanded to encompass trans-imperial studies.
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens, edited by Richard Maxwell
We recommend the most recent Penguin Classics edition so that everyone can be “on the same page,” but if you already have an edition you enjoy, please bring that.





Important registration tip:
If you want to attend the live lecture, please do not wait until the last minute to enroll.
If you enroll after a lecture is complete, we’ll send you a recording of the event.