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DR JOHNSON AND 'DOMESTICK PRIVACIES'

A talk by Dr Jane Darcy
Wednesday, March 19th (7pm, doors open 6.15pm)

Dr Johnson famously enjoyed biographical works: the ‘part of literature’, he told Boswell, ‘I love most’.

He championed biographies that focused not on ‘incidents which produce vulgar greatness’ but those that ‘lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life’. This talk will examine the profound appeal to Johnson of accounts of other people’s lives, and in particular, to lives of suffering.

To Book:
Tickets: £5

Tickets include the talk and a glass of wine served in the Withdrawing Room.

'They only who live with a man can write his life with any genuine exactness and discrimination; and few people who have lived with a man know what to remark about him.'
Boswell, 'Life'

Dr Jane Darcy is a teaching fellow in the English Department at University College London, with a particular interest in the literature and culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She has written on melancholy throughout this period with a focus on life-writing, resulting in her recent publication Melancholy and Literary Biography, 1640-1816 (Palgrave, 2013). 

HEDDA by Palimpsest

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

WE FAINTED ALTERNATELY on the SOFA

A Presentation by Karin Fernald
Thursday April 10th (door open 6.30pm)

Welcome to a one-hour presentation of Jane Austen’s ‘Juvenile Works’ by actor and speaker Karin Fernald. Based on the rumbustious short works of the teenage Austen from the 1790s, when she was much influenced by family theatricals, we explore the imagination of the young woman and encounter for the first time themes which would later recur in her adult writings.

"At all other assemblies, he that comes to receive delight will be expected to give it; but in the theatre nothing is necessary to the amusement of two hours, but to sit down and be willing to be pleased."
Johnson: Idler #25 (October 7, 1758)

For further info: Jane Austen by Karin Fernald

To Book:
Tickets £10

To purchase tickets please visit:

Tickets include the talk and a glass of wine served in the Withdrawing Room.

About Karin Fernald
Karin Fernald, actor, writer and speaker, is known for her solo show on diarist Fanny Burney, which has been performed all over the world and at Dr Johnson’s House on several occasions.  She is also  known for her entertaining lectures  on  writers, correspondents and  diarists from the l8th- and l9th- centuries, connected with the arts. Subjects include Hester Thrale and Dr Samuel Johnson. She was invited to put together this evening’s presentation by the North Kent Jane Austen Society and the Sevenoaks Festival.

DR JOHNSON WALKS

Follow in Johnson's footsteps and explore the courts and alleys off Fleet Street with an experienced City Guide.

1st Wednesday of each month, 3pm
Next walks:

January 8
February 5
March 5

Groups may also book walks at alternative times. For any enquiries please contact us.

Dr Johnson's Fleet Street - Discover Johnson's life and work in and around Fleet Street and his acquaintances in the area.
Dr Johnson's City - Explore the Fleet Valley, Ludgate Hill and St Paul's Churchyard areas as Johnson knew them.

£5/£4 concessions. No booking required. Meet outside Dr Johnson's House.

This is a joint venture between Dr Johnson's House and the City Guides.