Publication Spotlight: Dr Nicholas Cambridge

10 September 2018

Introducing our highlighted publication by Dr Nicholas Cambridge.

Scholars of Dickens have shown that the author suffered from a range of illnesses throughout his life, yet the medical background to some of his ailments has often proved elusive. He carried a medicine chest with him when he went to America in 1842, Italy and Switzerland in 1853 and America in 1867. Dickens wrote over 14,000 letters, which provide a valuable insight into his medical history.

In this paper, it is proposed that some new diagnoses gleaned from his correspondence and provide more detail on other medical conditions suffered by Dickens. Unfortunately, we do not have access to the letters Dickens received as he burnt them when he was living at Gad’s Hill Place.

Bleak Health: Charles Dickens’s Medical History Revisited”, The Dickensian (Summer 2018), No.505 Vol.114 Part 2, 117-133. ISSN 0012-2240. Read the paper: Bleak Health: Charles Dickens’s Medical History Revisited