Dickens & Mesmerism: How Dickens became mesmerised by hypnotism

On 4 January 1838, Charles Dickens made the short walk from his house in Doughty Street to University College Hospital in Gower Street. There he witnessed a spectacle which changed his ideas, his fiction and his life. On ward three, Dickens watched a patient being mesmerised – hypnotised – by John Elliotson, an eminent doctor and professor of medicine. From that moment, Dickens became convinced that mesmerism was a powerful force. He learned the technique himself, practised on his wife and others, wove mesmerism into his fiction, and became firm friends with Elliotson.

Wendy Moore, best-selling author of The Mesmerist, tells the story of Dickens’s lifelong fascination with mesmerism and how mesmerism captivated the Victorian world.