Dickensland, Lee Jackson
Dickensland, Lee Jackson
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Dickensland
The Curious History of Dickens's London

Author: Lee Jackson

Narrator: Hannah Curtis

Unabridged: 9 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/21/2023


Synopsis

The intriguing history of Dickens's London, showing how tourists have reimagined and reinvented the Dickensian metropolis for more than 150 years

Tourists have sought out the landmarks, streets, and alleys of Charles Dickens's London ever since the death of the world-renowned author. Late Victorians and Edwardians were obsessed with tracking down the locations—dubbed "Dickensland"—that famously featured in his novels. But his fans were faced with a city that was undergoing rapid redevelopment, where literary shrines were far from sacred. Over the following century, sites connected with Dickens were demolished, relocated, and reimagined.

Lee Jackson traces the fascinating history of Dickensian tourism, exploring both real Victorian London and a fictional city shaped by fandom, tourism, and heritage entrepreneurs. Beginning with the late nineteenth century, Jackson investigates key sites of literary pilgrimage and their relationship with Dickens and his work, revealing hidden, reinvented, and even faked locations. From vanishing coaching inns to submerged riverside stairs, hidden burial grounds to apocryphal shops, Dickensland charts the curious history of an imaginary world.

About Lee Jackson

Lee Jackson is a well-known Victorianist and creator of the preeminent website on Victorian London (victorianlondon.org). He is the author of Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth and Walking Dickens' London. He lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Janelle on March 12, 2024

An interesting and enjoyable read about the history of literary tourism to Dickens’ London. From the buildings that Dickens lived and worked in, to locations written about within his books and also some of the films and television series. Full of interesting bits and pieces (for instance one of the......more

Goodreads review by Anne (In Search of Wonder) on October 28, 2024

2.5 ⭐ My expectations were not met here... and I venture to say it's not that my expectations were faulty. The blurb ends with this paragraph: "From vanishing coaching inns to submered riverside stairs, hidden burial grounds to apocryphal shops, Dickensland charts the curious history of an endlessly......more

Goodreads review by Moonkiszt on December 29, 2024

Through the maze of time and space occupied by the fictional characters that sprang Athena-like from Charles Dickens' grey cells, author Lee Jackson has provided readers a tasty treat in Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens's London. Interestingly much of the perspective of this piece is i......more

Goodreads review by Jade aka MrsTosh on January 10, 2024

Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I grew up on Dickens, my Mum was a huge fan, and as a child I was always transported to the atmospheric back street of London when she read Little Dorrit or A Christmas Carol aloud to me. As an adult I have been lucky......more

Goodreads review by Muaz on May 12, 2024

For a dickens lover, this is an awesome book. Did not know Blue placque started with Lord Byron's resident in Holles St. In 1867. Too bad David Copperfield Library disappeared. Cannot believe that LSE's Old Curiosity Shop may not be the original inspiration !......more