Tired Feet

So...after seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting and touching London, a good deal of its Dickensian and Victorian history, and walking down most of its central streets, what will I pass on to my students?

Why was Dickens such an important writer?

How was he influenced by London, the city in which he lived, and how did he, in turn, influence it?

What is his legacy?

How did he come to be the beloved figure that he is?

Good questions! I've been struggling to answer them since I began reading Dickens myself, twenty years ago, and after this trip, I have a much better idea. However, instead of dishing out a deluge of my thoughts, I'd rather refer to the experts. Read on to learn more about all I heard and saw from the Londoners I met. For a chronological look at my travels, scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page and click on "older posts", then navigate to my first entry on July 18th.