The Literary Encyclopedia
By OAR FM Dunedin - Community Access Media | Posted: Wednesday Feb 04, 2026
An occasional roundtable from non-profit The Literary Encyclopedia, edited by Associate Professor Grace Moore, who leads discussions about authors, books and literary events with expert guests – listen to the very first fascinating episode!
This inaugural episode of the Literary Encyclopedia’s occasional podcast examines the life and reputation of Charles Dickens. In a wide-ranging conversation, five scholars from around the world discuss the decadent side to Dickens’s writing. Topics range from Dickens’s engagement with the British empire and global trade, to his international celebrity, fan fiction, and literary afterlives.
Guest Host, John Plotz, Brandeis University
Participants, Jonathan Foster, Stockholm University; Holly Furneaux, Cardiff University; Grace Moore, University of Otago/The Literary Encyclopedia, Giles Whiteley, Stockholm University
Works Discussed in this Episode
Archive of Our Own
Peter Carey, Jack Maggs, Faber & Faber, 1997.
Wilkie Collins, The Frozen Deep, 1856.
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1838.
Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 1853.
Charles Dickens, “The Seven Poor Travellers,” 1854.
Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 1865.
Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 1870.
Joanna Hofer-Robinson & Pete Orford (eds), The Plays of Charles Dickens. Edinburgh
University Press, 2025.
Lloyd Jones, Mister Pip. Penguin, 2006.
Susan K. Martin & Kylie Mirmohamadi. Colonial Dickens: What Australians Made of
the World’s Favourite Writer. Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2012.
Edward Shanks, The Old Indispensables: A Romance of Whitehall, 1919.
Ali Smith, Spring, Hamish Hamilton, 2019.
Giles Whiteley & Jonathan Foster (eds), Dickens and Decadence. Edinburgh
University Press, 2025.
Giles Whiteley, The Aesthetics of Space in Nineteenth-Century British Literature, 1843-
1907. Edinburgh University Press, 2020.