Friends to host Dickens expert Dr. Elliot Engel

It’s the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, and who better to celebrate it than scholar, performer and lively lecturer Dr. Elliot Engel?

The popular Dickens expert will keynote the Friends of the Library annual meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 10, in the second-floor meeting room of the 1909 Historic Courthouse at 145 Worth Street in Asheboro. Engel’s talk is free and the public is invited.

Using anecdote, analysis and large doses of humor, Engel will bring Dickens to life in an imaginative, delightful presentation filled with infectious enthusiasm and radiant wit.

Engel, who lives in Raleigh, has taught at UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, Duke and UCLA. He is author of ten books, and his lecture series on Dickens ran on PBS stations across the country.

Proceeds from the sale of his books, CDs and DVDs have raised funds for the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London, which Dickens helped found in 1852.