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Discover Dickens through his work, his home and the things that mattered to him most
The Christmas Sports by Lucinda Dickens Hawksley
Where did Dickens go to the toilet?
Dickens's Dream with Dr Leon Litvack
Dickens's reading desk with Dr Leon Litvack
A Woodblock Illustration
Audio: Mamie Dickens on Dickens’s Studies
In this extract, we hear Dickens’s eldest daughter Mary, affectionately known as Mamie, sharing her memories of Dickens’s studies from several family homes.
Interactive Tour: Mary Hogarth Room
Search the Collections: Mary Hogarth Room
Audio: Mamie Dickens’s memories of Dickens at work in his study
In this extract we hear Dickens’s eldest daughter, Mamie, recall her memories of watching Dickens at work in his study channelling his characters.
Audio: 'The Bastille Prisoner'
Search the Collections: Dining Room
The Ill Fated Binding of ‘The Rubaiyat’ by Sangorski & Sutcliffe
Circulating Libraries and the Beginnings of Maggs. Bros
The Beautifully Bound Books of Sangorski and Sutcliffe
Reading by Tallow Candles and Rushlight
The First Cloth Bound Books
Dickens experiments with colour in A Christmas Carol
Interactive Tour: Servant's Bedroom
Search the Collections: Study
Audio: The Small Servant from 'The Old Curiosity Shop'
In this excerpt from 'The Old Curiosity Shop', Dick Swiveller observes the Brasses’s badly treated young servant girl having a meagre meal.
Audio: Mamie Dickens on Dickens’s Tidy Nature
Interactive Tour: The Dickenses' Bedroom
Interactive Tour: Kitchen
A Flattering Caricature
Object in focus: print of Dickens being received by the Edinburgh literati
The Amazing Conjuring of Characters
Object in focus: ‘Dickens the Great Magician’ by Kyd (Joseph Clayton Clarke)
The All-Important Prop
Object in focus: Ivory paper knife owned by Dickens
The Difficulty of Capturing Dickens
Object in focus: Manuscript letter from William Powell Frith
Drawn by new technologies
Object in focus: Drawing of Dickens by Mr Maskelyne's Automaton ZOE
Search the Collections: Drawing Room
Search the Collections: Morning Room
Audio: A letter from Catherine Dickens
Listen to this extract to hear Catherine describing their family holiday to her good friend Mrs Felton.
Audio: Sam Weller from 'The Pickwick Papers'
In this excerpt from Dickens’s first novel, The Pickwick Papers, the popular character Sam Weller shares a meal in the servants’ quarters.
Audio: Dickens’s Dreams of Mary Hogarth
In this excerpt from a letter to his mother-in-law, we hear Dickens reflect on the death of Mary Hogarth and the impact that it had on him.
Audio: ‘Personal’ from 'Household Words'
Audio: Dickens’s autobiographical fragment
Hear in Dickens’s own words, his recollection of the loneliness and hardship of working as a child.
Audio: A Letter to a Chimney Sweep
Audio: The Earliest Known Letter by Dickens
Hear in this audio track the earliest known letter by Dickens written as a 13-year-old schoolboy in 1825.
Audio: An Invitation to Dickens’s Birthday Dinner
Audio: ‘Gin Palaces’ from 'Sketches by Boz'
In this audio excerpt, hear Dickens’s beautifully atmospheric depiction of a gin palace from Sketches by Boz.
Audio: ‘Drooping Buds’ from 'Household Words'
In this excerpt, Dickens describes a visit to the newly founded Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street.