Dominic is joined by Gage Mcweeny, who is Professor of English at Williams College, Massachusetts. Gage is an alumni of both Columbia and Princeton, with a specialism in nineteenth-century literature; sociology; and culture. His book The Comfort of Strangers: Social Life and Literary Form  (OUP) examines that Victorian phenomenon of new people emerging everywhere in the Great Cities as Industrialisation takes its hold in the 19th Century and how authors such as George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, Henry James and of course  Dickens respond to it. He also wrote the introduction to the Longman edition of Hard Times.

Reading extracts from Hard Times is the actor Ben Eagle and The Bookshop Band also appear in the episode with their song The Tumbling Girl ...

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Host: Dominic Gerrard
Series Artwork: Léna Gibert
Original Music: Dominic Gerrard

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