charles dickens a life by claire tomalin

He married her 'because he wanted to be married,' Tomalin writes. The Old Curiosity Shop, his novel-in-progress at the time.ĭickens's Quilpish side erupted in his notorious treatment of Catherine, his passive and perpetually pregnant wife: 10 children and two miscarriages in 15 years. He pulled her hair, ruined her bonnets under a waterfall, and holding her fast at the end of a jetty, threatened to drown her – 'Quilpish' behaviour, Tomalin observes, meaning he was acting out the malevolent dwarf from The first modern biographer of Dickens who is a woman, Tomalin is curious about what women thought about him – for instance, 19-year-old Eleanor Picken, who 'left the only written account of the impression he made on a young woman while he was still young himself.' Picken found him moody, even scary. With so much now known, biography becomes a matter of tone, accent and point of view. Expect to find both scenarios repeated in her new biography, which coincides with the upcoming bicentenary of Dickens' birth on Feb. Another bombshell: Dickens might have spent the day before he died in London with his mistress, who had him driven back home to Gad's Hill in Kent, unconscious, in a two-horse carriage. As she wrote Nelly back into Dickens's life, Tomalin became convinced Ternan had given birth to son who died in infancy. They met when Dickens was 45 and Ternan just 18 their nearly 13-year affair was hidden from all but Dickens's closest circle. The Invisible Woman, her triple award-winning account of actress Ellen (Nelly) Ternan, Dickens's mistress. Of his tastes and habits, what's left to learn?Ĭlaire Tomalin uncovered an entire person. Wherever he went, he made a point of visiting prisons, factories, asylums, brothels and morgues. If he didn't get his walks in, 'I should just explode and perish.' He started the day with a cold shower. He made gin punch, and served it as often as he could. Charles Dickens, according to Carlyle, had eyebrows he arched 'amazingly.' His diet included raspberries (no cream).

Charles dickens a life by claire tomalin