Arts & Culture
This year’s Dickens Universe will explore a neglected Victorian melodrama
This summer’s edition of The Dickens Universe – a unique cultural event that brings together scholars, teachers, students, and members of the general public for a week of stimulating discussion and festive social activity – will give Dickens admirers a chance to rediscover The Old Curiosity Shop.
Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop became an instant bestseller when it was published in serial form between 1841 and 1842. Queen Victoria was a fan.
Since then, the book’s reputation and fervent readership have faded, while perennial favorites like A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, and Oliver Twist still find large audiences.
The Old Curiosity Shop’s neglected status might have something to do with its polarizing reputation. Some Dickens admirers praise its engaging melodrama and explorations of deformity, while others think the book is pure schmaltz.
But this summer’s edition of The Dickens Universe – a unique cultural event that brings together scholars, teachers, students, and members of the general public for a week of stimulating discussion and festive social activity – will give Dickens admirers a chance to rediscover this now-controversial former favorite.
“It’s been more than 20 years since the Dickens Universe featured The Old Curiosity Shop, and since our last few years have focused on blockbusters like Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and David Copperfield, we decided it was time to take a fresh look at a Dickens novel that everyone has heard of but not actually read,” said Associate Professor of Literature Renée Fox, who teaches classes in Victorian Studies, Irish Studies, the gothic, and popular culture. Fox, with Emeritus Professor of Literature John Jordan, is co-director of the Dickens Project, an international consortium based at UC Santa Cruz.
Fox noted that the book, if it’s remembered at all these days, is noted for its famous death scene involving one of Dickens’s most beloved or loathed female heroines, Little Nell. It is also known for its gallery of hideous characters, who are drawn in obvious contrast to the beautiful and angelic Nell, who has been a divisive figure for readers over the years. Oscar Wilde famously observed that “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing.”
But that enduring split among readers could add to the liveliness of this year’s book talks at the Dickens Universe.
“Our lectures this year span an amazing array of topics: the question of old age, photography and popular culture, realism, the uncanny, melodrama, sound, and others,” Fox said. “Whether we’re reading a beloved Dickens novel or a less popular one, spending a week thinking about a book together always transforms it, complicates it, and makes it meaningful to our contemporary world.”
“I have no doubt that even the Curiosity Shop haters will emerge from this year’s Universe understanding it more deeply and appreciating its ambitious scope,” Fox said.
The literary landscape is crammed with writing conferences and scholarly convocations. But the Dickens Universe, now in its 45th year of operation, sets itself apart with its focus on camaraderie, indulgent and enjoyable rituals, and its summer-camp-evoking setting.
Participants include people of all ages and walks of life—noted scholars, graduate students, undergraduates, retirees, young professionals, high school teachers, and anyone who loves reading and enjoys long Victorian novels.
This is a joyful example of a truly immersive conference. Participants live on campus, dine together in a student dining hall, and have time to get to know each other in get-togethers throughout the festival.
Besides, everyone who shows up to the conference has explored the same book. And festival-goers will see a familiar mascot greeting them every day – the famous “purple man” canvas display of Charles Dickens’s bushy-eyebrowed, pensive face.
The activities include formal lectures, small discussion groups, films, daily Victorian teas, performances, and, this year, a celebratory costume gala with Victorian dancing, casino tables, and an auction.
The Universe offers a week of total immersion in the world of Victorian fiction with friendly, like-minded colleagues in a beautiful setting.
“Whether we’re returning to a Dickens novel that everyone knows and loves, or branching out into a Victorian novel by another author who might be less familiar, during the Universe we build a community out of our passion for reading, talking with one another, and bringing Victorian culture to life,” Fox said. Visit this website for more information about the Dickens Universe.