Celebrating the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens

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A Hankering after Ghosts: Charles Dickens and the Supernatural

Folio Society Gallery, British Library, London (UK)
Until March 2012

This free exhibition explores the many ways in which Dickens uses supernatural phenomena in his works, while placing them in the context of scientific, technological and philosophical debates of his time. Dickens’s interest in the macabre was apparent from an early age. As an adult he was caught up in ‘mesmeric mania’ that swept Britain and developed an interest in the ‘power of the human mind’. He believed that all supernatural manifestations must have rational explanations, but his investigations into animal magnetism and psychology showed him that science could be as chilling as any ghost story.

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