Dickens After Dark: In the Steps of the Night Walker
As night falls, the cool, dark City of London takes on a completely different yet fascinating character. Whilst the gas lamps may have long gone, the City at night still has the same brooding character that inspired 19th-century writer Charles Dickens.
Afflicted by bouts of “sleeplessness”, Dickens would take to epic night walks intended to create a selfafflicted state of “houselessness” in an attempt to share the experiences of some of his greatest characters, who often lived in the slums of London, and to turn his gimlet-eyed observation on the slumbering City in his search for inspiration.
Join Mark Rowland on this virtual tour of Dickens’ London where we’ll trace some of his steps along these night walks and explore the extent to which the ups and downs of life in the greatest city in the world inspired and appalled him in equal measure.
Print, lithograph, A Leaf out of Nicholas Nickleby with slight variations (after Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens), by John Doyle (H.B.) (Dublin 1797 ? London 1868). Victorian political print. Men in top hats fighting.
