\u2018\u201cThe Devil\u2019s Handwriting\u201d: Solving the Mysteries of Dickens\u2019s Shorthand\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n
Dr Claire Wood<\/b><\/p>\n
University of Leicester<\/b><\/p>\n
Wednesday, 19th October<\/b>\u00a05pm \u2013 7pm<\/b><\/p>\n
Arts Lecture Room 4<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the 150 years since his death, Charles Dickens\u2019s works have never been out of print. Yet, incredibly, several texts in Dickens\u2019s hand remain unknown because they are written in his personal shorthand. Dickens used a complex system called Gurney\u2019s Brachygraphy<\/em> \u2013 but adapted the rules and invented new symbols of his own.<\/p>\n This paper explores the work of the AHRC-funded Dickens Code project <https:\/\/dickenscode.org\/<\/a>>, led by Dr Claire Wood (University of Leicester) and Professor Hugo Bowles (University of Foggia), which seeks solutions to these mysterious shorthand texts. It will cover how and why Dickens learned shorthand, what makes Brachygraphy<\/em> so difficult to decipher, how we\u2019ve approached these challenges with the assistance of the Dickens Decoders, and what we\u2019ve discovered so far.<\/p>\n Dr Claire Wood<\/strong> is a Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Leicester and the author of Dickens and the Business of Death<\/em>. Her research centres on Victorian fiction and death culture with a particular focus upon the contradictions and complexities inherent in the Victorian ‘celebration of death’. She has published on epitaphs, material culture, and Dickens\u2019s ghost stories, and, together with Professor Hugo Bowles, currently leads the Dickens Code project, which seeks solutions to Dickens\u2019s undeciphered shorthand writing.<\/p>\n For queries, and to RSVP, please contact 19cc@contacts.bham.ac.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018\u201cThe Devil\u2019s Handwriting\u201d: Solving the Mysteries of Dickens\u2019s Shorthand\u2019 Dr Claire Wood University of Leicester Wednesday, 19th October\u00a05pm \u2013 7pm Arts Lecture Room 4 In the 150 years since his death, Charles Dickens\u2019s works have never been out of print. Yet, incredibly, several texts in Dickens\u2019s hand remain unknown because they are written in his … Continue reading “Claire Wood (Leicester): \u2018The Devil\u2019s Handwriting\u201d: Solving the Mysteries of Dickens\u2019s Shorthand\u2019”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[27,32,29,24,14,30,28,31,33],"class_list":["post-1145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","tag-19cc","tag-claire-wood","tag-dickens","tag-literature","tag-seminar-series","tag-shorthand","tag-uob","tag-victorian-literature","tag-victorian-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1145"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1149,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions\/1149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/19cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}