Matt Shinn on Charles Dickens's stage performances
Charles Dickens's public readings were dramatic, hypnotic and hugely popular. But they may also have been the death of him, says Matt ShinnWas Charles Dickens the first pop star? That is the comparison drawn in a new exhibition at the Charles Dickens Museum that commemorates the first of his public readings, 150 years ago. His gruelling tour itineraries read like Madonna's or Eminem's. People sometimes fainted at his…