February 22 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
As part of the Poe Beyond Baltimore series, a guest lecture at the Charles Dickens Museum in London, England. Visiting from the United States, Enrica Jang, Director of the Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum, presents a talk exploring the brief but intriguing relationship between Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe.
In 1842, Poe sought out Dickens during the novelist’s American tour, hoping for conversation, connection, and perhaps professional support. Though their direct contact was short-lived, it would echo through the rest of Poe’s career. Drawing on surviving correspondence, sharp literary exchanges, and shared frustrations over international copyright, the lecture traces a transatlantic dialogue shaped by admiration, ambition, and creative rivalry.
Jang also examines Poe’s famously perceptive critique of Dickens’s serialized fiction, the possible influence of Dickens’s pet raven, Grip, on Poe’s most iconic poem, and Dickens’s quiet decision to assist Poe’s surviving family years after his death. While Poe’s admiration for Dickens is well documented, Dickens’s view of Poe remains uncertain, leaving behind a literary connection with a wisp of mystery.
This lecture is included with paid admission to the Charles Dickens Museum.
After museum close, continue the conversation with Enrica and actor, Stephen Smith, at Poe & a Pint, a ticketed evening discussion and performance devoted to Edgar Allan Poe, held at a nearby pub within walking distance of the museum in Bloomsbury. Details for the evening event are available here.
