WHAT WOULD DICKENS WRITE TODAY?

	John Mullan

John Mullan is professor of English and head of the English Department at University College London. He completed his BA and PhD at the University of Cambridge where he was a Research Fellow and Lecturer before moving to UCL in 1994.

He was General Editor of the Pickering & Chatto series Lives of the Great Romantics by Their Contemporaries (1996) and Associate Editor for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He also is a specialist for 18th century literature.

In 2008 he published a new edition of Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Poetsand he is currently writing a volume of the Oxford English Literary History that will cover the period from 1709 to 1784.

His research interests also extend to the 19th century and he is writing a book on the fictional techniques and formal quirks of Jane Austen.

He has also published the books How Novels Work (2006), which examines novelistic technique, setting novels from the last 10 years against classics of the past, and Anonymity. A Secret History of English Literature, published in 2007.

A regular broadcaster and literary journalist, John Mullan hosts the Guardian Book Club, which examines a new book each month, and has appeared as guest and commentator on programmes including In Our Time (BBC Radio 4) and Newsnight Review (BBC2).

In March 2011 he hosted an episode of BBC2’s The Culture Show looking at the debut novels of 12 new British Writers and in 2009 was a judge for the Man Booker Prize.

Selected Reviews

Article by John Mullan: www.guardian.co.uk
On “Anonymity”: www.guardian.co.uk
On “Sentiment and Sociability” www.amazon.com