Charles Dickens and other Victorians

A lively series of university lectures brings the great Victorian novelists into clear focus. The speaker moves from the grand arches of Westminster Hall to the bustling streets that inspired Dickens, drawing vivid connections between architecture, history and the stories that shaped an era. His assessments of Dickens and Thackeray treat them as full‑blown novelists, while the talks on Disraeli and Mrs. Gaskell explore how a single theme can twist through very different minds.

The collection also offers a passionate case for the often‑overlooked Anthony Trollope, arguing that his prolific output is inseparable from his literary worth. Interwoven with vivid anecdotes and occasional repetition, the essays retain the immediacy of being spoken to a Cambridge audience. Listeners will come away with a richer sense of Victorian culture, its political undercurrents, and why these writers continue to echo through modern literature.