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Community Corner

Behind America's Favorite Christmas Story with Joel Brattin

About The Talk: At the end of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge, having glimpsed the dismal effect of his cold-hearted nature on the world – courtesy of the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future – pledges to change his ways, saying “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.”  Unlike his most famous literary character, Charles Dickens himself didn’t need to be scared straight by specters.  According to Joel Brattin, professor of literature at WPI and a noted Dickens scholar, the Victorian author lived the message of A Christmas Carol throughout his life, generously supporting charitable causes in London and promoting social awareness and change through his actions and his fiction.  Come learn about the origins and importance of this masterpiece from one of the country’s leading Dickens expert.

About The Speaker: Joel Brattin, English Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, has been studying the life and fiction of Charles Dickens for 30 years. He has published a range of articles and reviews treating Dickens in such journals as The Dickensian, Dickens Quarterly, and Dickens Studies Annual, and has contributed articles to the Oxford Companion to Dickens. He has served as trustee, secretary/treasurer, vice president, and president of the Dickens Society and is curator for the Robert Fellman Dickens Collection at WPI, considered one of the finest such archives in New England.

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