Chris Louttit
Victorianist, Dickensian, adaptation scholar. Teaches at Radboud University in NL. Edits English Studies @englishstudies.bsky.social. He/him
- Reposted by Chris LouttitApply for our PhD placement scheme to get involved in extraordinary research at the Library. There are eight available placements exploring a variety of themes including war poetry, 21st-century digital tools, illustrated newspapers and decarbonisation. Find out more: link.bl.uk/PhDPlacements
- Reposted by Chris LouttitMy brain is mush. I need to secure permissions for two famous C19 paintings to appear in my book. My recollection is there’s a database (or two, or…?) where you can get images of many C19 paintings for free or a small fee. Any tips? With thx from a person who deals mostly in words.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitTeaching Biltcliffe & Driver on the imperial map, and remembering that Walter Crane invented the Distracted Boyfriend meme in 1901 in 'Socialism and the Imperialistic Will o' the Wisp'
- Reposted by Chris LouttitJoin us on on Saturday, February 7th, for our free virtual birthday conference! ✍️🏻📅 You can read about it on our blog, The Cricket: www.dickenssociety.org/the-cricket/... Please register via Eventbrite to receive a zoom link the week of the conference: www.eventbrite.com/e/novel-begi...
- Reposted by Chris LouttitJoin @gothicstudies.bsky.social as our new Assistant Editor! Deadline Monday 9th March. Annual honorarium of £200. More information in attached image, via the @igagoths.bsky.social newsletter or you can message me and I can send you the text if preferred.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitThe next special issue of Victorian Popular Fictions Journal is “Human–Animal Relations in Victorian Popular Literature and Culture” and will be guest-edited by Dr Bethany Dahlstrom & Dr Helena Esser. For full CFP and submission guidelines, please see: victorianpopularfiction.org/wp-content/u...
- Giggling here in the office as just received an email from a major academic publisher with the salutation Dear NULL. I'm so glad they value my thoughts! (That was the subject line.)
- Achieved peak academic earlier - during an office move discovered I have 2 copies of the same, unread book.
- (I'm being haunted by Peter Keating's The Haunted Study.)
- Reposted by Chris LouttitLooking for some unusual neo-Victorian reads? The @vpfa.bsky.social blog's got you: victorianpopularfiction.org/is-neo-victo...
- Reposted by Chris LouttitVery excited that our Ann Radcliffe edition for CUP is about to make its first appearance in the form of Michael Gamer’s wonderful edition of The Italian! The first of eight volumes in the Radcliffe edition …
- Reposted by Chris LouttitOUT TODAY: My monograph, The Book Unbound, is printed in hardback today @universitypress.cambridge.org: www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...
- Reposted by Chris LouttitNew Year, New-ish Call for Papers Calling all #Bronte scholars, #poetry specialists, #Romantic & #Victorian -ists: please consider submitting to our Brontës and Poetry special issue of Brontë Studies - #creative approaches encouraged 🖤 Abstracts: 1 April Manuscripts: 15 December Please RT
- Reposted by Chris LouttitMy article “‘In Just Seven Days, I Can Make You a Man’: Queerness and Masculinity in Frankenstein (1818) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)” has been published in the Keats Shelley Review! 👇🏼 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by Chris LouttitThe deadline for our upcoming symposium 'Thinking Dickens' (Aarhus University, Denmark - 13-16th July 2026) is approaching! Don't forget to send your proposals to dickens2026@cc.au.dk by 4th January 📝 & read the Call for Papers here: www.dickenssociety.org/symposium
- Reposted by Chris LouttitNew end of the year update to At the Circulating Library: just passed 26,000 titles (third of the way through English Catalogue volume 4), plus hundreds of new author biographies. Enjoy!
- Reposted by Chris LouttitOut in February from @livunipress.bsky.social: The Corpse in Modern Irish Literature. The book started as a lockdown tweet. Delighted that it’s finally done! With Bridget English and @drreznicek.bsky.social
- Reposted by Chris LouttitI have a new piece out in @smithsonianmag.bsky.social for Christmas Eve: Louisa May Alcott wrote to survive for much of her life. What became of her love affair with words later, when she was rich and adapted Dickens' A Christmas Carol for children? tinyurl.com/4ypdyyah #christmas #writers #books
- Off to spend my Christmas Eve with Muppet Christmas Carol & One Battle After Another, & then taking a bit of time away from this place. Have a great festive season all!
- Oh my, just seen there's a Muppet Christmas Carol Soft Toy Advent Calendar...
- "Christmas Morning". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 7 of 7).
- As far as I know, Green is one of the few illustrators to depict the "What's to-day, my fine fellow?" scene in the Carol. More recently, influenced by numerous film & TV versions, this has become a popular Dickens meme, with endless variations on the "You there, boy! What day is it?" theme.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitIn London a time comes every day where the ghosts get their own back. It's often subtle but always undeniable, and it's strongest in autumn & winter. If you're ever at loose ends on Christmas Eve, pay respects at St Michael's Cornhill. Because here, down the alley, was Scrooge's counting house.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitAs the year draws to an end, I've been reflecting on the loss of my friend and former supervisor, Simon James, a truly wonderful man. It feels like an especially appropriate time to share this public lecture from 2015, in which Simon discusses the importance of memorial rituals in A Christmas Carol.
- "Scrooge and the Third Spirit". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 6 of 7).
- Green's image provides an intriguing reinterpretation of John Leech's original illustration, "The Last of the Spirits". Green is slightly more faithful to Dickens's text in representing Scrooge clutching at the Spirit's robe, but the miser's name is not evident on the gravestone as in Leech.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitThe Signalman. My cheery Christmas gift to you. Have a jolly peaceful one. Back after the festivities 🎅🏼👍🏻
- Reposted by Chris LouttitBuy my holly green and gay, to deck your walls on Christmas day The Met 1874
- "Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 5 of 7).
- Fred Barnard depicted the same moment in one of his Character Sketches from Dickens (1885). The differences are intriguing, though, with Bob & Tim much more exuberant (Tim with his crutch aloft!) in Barnard's version.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitThe Dickens Society is thrilled to announce: 'Novel Beginnings: The Charles Dickens Birthday Virtual Conference' on 7th February 2026. The conference is free. Please join us and register for the event using this link to receive a Zoom link for the event: www.eventbrite.com/e/novel-begi...
- "The Second of the Three Spirits". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 4 of 7).
- Reposted by Chris LouttitEXTENDED DEADLINE: AAS 2026 is now accepting proposals until 15 January 2026!
- Reposted by Chris LouttitWhen the light begins to return, and you all watch winter #solstice sunset images, the next summer solstice comes closer. Here is a 19c etching of Stonehenge's summer solstice, illuminated from behind by the rising sun; with a few sheep in foreground at left.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitIt would perhaps surprise no one that I was raised with public radio as the background noise to my daily existence, so it was a singular delight getting to go on NPR to talk about Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol omny.fm/shows/in-the...
- "Marley's Ghost Appearing to Scrooge". Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 3 of 7).
- Reposted by Chris LouttitI love a bit of literary tourism - visiting places I know from stories in books and films. So what a joy it was to talk to Lee Jackson about #Dickensland! Join us for the start of the new season of #LifeandLanguage @victorianlondon.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/0aB3...
- "Not a knocker,--but Marley's Face!" Charles Green illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Pears' Christmas Annual 1892 (Day 2 of 7).
- Reposted by Chris LouttitOn December 19, 1843, A Christmas Carol was first published. This is a 1946 edition from King Features Syndicate. With a cover & interior art by Hal Foster, the endpages show characters such as Flash Gordon, the Phantom, Prince Valiant, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Blondie, the Katzenjammer Kids & many more.
- In 1892, Charles Green contributed 28 fresh illustrations to a reprinting of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. To kick off my Christmas Carol illustration advent this year, here's his half-page title. (1/7)
- Reposted by Chris LouttitBirmingham Town Hall (UK). New! Birmingham Civic Society blue plaque commemorates Charles Dickens' first public reading of A Christmas Carol in 1853. #novella #fiction #literature #English
- Reposted by Chris LouttitAnother early Christmas gift from @angelawright1794.bsky.social and me: Jimmy Packham's splendid book on 'Coastal Gothic, 1719–2020' has just been published, and is available on open access for the next 2 weeks: www.cambridge.org/core/element...
- Reposted by Chris Louttit@sinsleyh.bsky.social offers a characteristically thoughtful, generous and appreciative assessment of Austeniana. I want to read the graphic novel!
- Reposted by Chris LouttitToday marks Jane Austen's 250th birthday! Celebrate with 30% off select books - plus, get free shipping on orders of $50 or more. Use code HJANE25 to save on in-depth biographies like "The Making of Jane Austen," essential poetry collections, and much more. tr.ee/oyFyMj
- Reading a very recent novel and feeling smug at the narrator describing another character as 'not old, only about forty-five'. (Yes, alright, I am around this 'not old' age, so am enjoying this judgement of not-oldness from a millennial novelist while it lasts & definitely not asking my students.)
- Reposted by Chris Louttit"Mr. Trump's countenance was orange, his manner coarse, accent harsh, and wig ginger. No one could ascertain his income, as the number kept changing at his own report."
- Reposted by Chris Louttit📢 We are delighted to announce that our most recent special issue "(Dis)location: The Shifting Thematics of Home" has just officially been published! 📚 This issue comprises a diversity of promising articles on home, #belonging, transcultural memory and #diaspora. More details on the entire issue👇:
- More on Fennell's "Wuthering Heights", though to be fair this is an enjoyable piece on Haworth & Brontëmania.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitIt is with deep sadness that the Institute of English Studies reports the death of Michael Slater, MBE. Michael was a world-leading authority on Charles Dickens, who generously shared his enthusiasm, knowledge, understanding, and promotion of all things Dickensian. ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
- The stirring of the pot in this article is predictable enough - and of a piece with Fennell's other work. Was probably more intrigued by Robbie's claim that the new Wuthering Heights is primarily for the demographic of women in their 30s, which seems niche even for classic literary adaptations.
- Some interesting thoughts in this column on narrative video games & Victorian fiction: 'There’s that same sense of slightly spread out storytelling that you get in those big 19th-century novels from Thackeray onwards'.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitOur latest “Document of the Week”, chosen by our Editorial Assistant, Chloe Haney, is a page of festive puzzles, riddles, and jokes published in The Illustrated London News in December 1847. Why not have a go at solving some of these puzzles yourself! Read the full article here: buff.ly/F6WzRJu
- Reposted by Chris LouttitJournal of European Periodical Studies is now on Bluesky! JEPS is a peer-reviewed online journal published by Ghent University on the study of periodicals and newspapers in Europe from the seventeenth century to the present. Follow us for news & please share! Our website: openjournals.ugent.be/jeps/
- Reposted by Chris LouttitComing soon: Disability and the Gothic: The Nineteenth Century. Cambridge Gothic Elements series. Publication date is 24 March 2026 www.cambridge.org/core/element...
- Reposted by Chris Louttit#CFP for the 27th International Thomas Hardy Conference and Festival: www.hardysociety.org/oxo/817/ths-... July 25th-August 1st 2026, Dorchester #ThomasHardy #19thC #Victorian 💙📚 #booksky
- Clearing out for an office move, and just found this pearl of a prompt in some old, scribbled teaching notes from c. 20 years ago: 'Is Willoughby a cad or a victim of circumstance?'
- Have also found some old OHP acetates & painting slides for a projector from the Walker Gallery. Yes, I'm feeling old.
- Reposted by Chris LouttitTales of Health: Illness, Disability, and Citizenship in the Romantic National Tale is now available for preorder from @livunipress.bsky.social. It revises our understanding of this political genre through medical humanities www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
- Reposted by Chris Louttit50% off books in the ADAPTATION AND VISUAL CULTURE series link.springer.com/series/14654 — all 41 books on sale! Use FLSH50 to save on books & eBooks | Until December 5, 2025 11:59 pm EST*
- Reposted by Chris LouttitCfP for VPFA's 18th Annual Conference is now live and the topic is 'Victorians and their Publics'. To read the CfP and full submission guidelines online, please head to: victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-annual-....
- Reposted by Chris Louttit‘Marie’ Christmas, Victorianists! Eleanor Dobson and I have co-edited ‘Marie Corelli Reconsidered’, a special issue of Victoriographies. It features @janetteleaf.bsky.social Adam Lewis Smith, Keiko Kiriyama, Stephen Edwards, and our own detective work into the authorship of The Twin Soul (1887) 🔍
- Reposted by Chris LouttitDickens is going to Denmark! Will you go too? CFP deadline: 4 January Conference: 13-16 July in Aarhus on ‘Thinking Dickens’ dickenssociety.org/home
- Reposted by Chris LouttitWhat happens when @bavs-uk.bsky.social and @qaqv.bsky.social join forces? This: qaqv.ia.uw.edu.pl/wlm14/ You've got almost 3 months to submit your idea and then 2 more to complete your paper! Details in the CFP ⤴️
- Reposted by Chris LouttitJob Posting: Victorian Periodicals Review Associate Editor (Application Deadline: 12/15/25) navsa.org/News/13568271
- Reposted by Chris Louttit⚠️ DEADLINE TODAY!!! ⚠️ Get your abstract in for the LFA/AAS joint conference on Adaptation & Collaboration, to be held online February 19-20 2026 🖥️
- Reposted by Chris LouttitI wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
- Reposted by Chris Louttit@lydiacooper.bsky.social’s and my special issue of @studiesinthenovel.bsky.social is out now. Such a joy to work with one of my best friends on this amazing set of articles muse.jhu.edu/issue/55993
- Another regionalised Christmas Carol, this time focusing on Victorian Leeds & the textile industry & starring Reece Dinsdale as Scrooge. Deborah McAndrew's adaptation has been staged a few times before, so not sure how radical take this Leeds Playhouse one is.
- Wondering if this is a 2025 trend, or just testament to the bewildering number of stage & screen Carols...
- Reposted by Chris LouttitIt's that time of year again for #Dickens #AChristmasCarol & the #Victorians Join me for a virtual lecture on Dec 3 for #SmithsonianAssociates & learn about plum puddings, workhouses, the Queen, and if Dickens really "invented" #Christmas Details at smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/pr...
- Reposted by Chris LouttitJames “B.V.” Thomson (1834–1882) – poet, journalist, translator, anarchist, atheist – was born #OTD, 23 Nov, in Port Glasgow. Best-known for his long poem THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, he influenced TS Eliot & is seen as a progenitor of #Modernism #poetry 1/4 psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-...
- Reposted by Chris LouttitI’m looking forward to delivering the plenary lecture at this multidisciplinary conference, which marks the tercentenary of the first publication of the world’s greatest prose satire, in 2026: www.fabula.org/actualites/1...
- Reposted by Chris LouttitNow that's a dustjacket. As other illustrators of Arthur Conan Doyle stories have recognised, you don't miss the chance to depict a seance unicorn.
