The Dickens Society, founded at the MLA Convention in New York in 1970, exists in the words of the organization, “to conduct, encourage, foster and further support research, publication, instruction and general interest in the life, times, and literature of Charles Dickens.” To this end, the society publishes Dickens Quarterly and holds an annual symposium normally alternating between Europe and North America. In this bicentennial year, the society is looking forward to welcoming delegates to Kent. South-east of London and the Thames, the county maintains distinctive connections with the novelist and his work. Kent was Dickens’s childhood home for a short but intensive period, a retreat and then his home later in life, and the setting for episodes in several of his novels.
For more information on the symposium please see the Dickens Society website and for more information on how to book please click here.