Avoiding Scandal

[Pam]

Nelly and Dickens tried to erase evidence of their relationship, yet Tomalin ferreted out a book's-worth of information that leaves no doubt about it. For 13 years she was the woman in his life. Few people knew about it. He was the literary lion of England. She had been an actress. Dickens' wife was still alive, put away in a house Dickens moved her to. Having all this known would not do in Victorian society.
Tomalin begins the book by showing us the place of actresses in this society, not respectable and not received in respectable homes. Dickens, however, loved theater. Apparently the minute he met Nelly he was enchanted. Tomalin shows us how the two of them conducted their affair in such a world.

[Brenda]

It is nicely balanced. Was she a moneygrubbing groupie? Or was he a dirty old man, ditching his worn-out wife for a teenager?

[Pam]

I don't think Nellie was a money-grubbing groupie, but she was a mistress, some of whom were out-there, like the Prince of Wales'. Or maybe that was later. At any rate, Dickens wouldn't risk his reputation that way, so we can fault him for hypocrisy as well as for ditching his wife, who had lost her girlish figure after bearing 10 babies. Tomalin claims Catherine was never Dickens' intellectual equal, which could get boring.
Sometime, read Tomalin's biography of another mistress, not so invisible. Can't remember the title, but she had 10 children with the man who became King William IV. He dumped her.

[Brenda]

I'm reading PARALLEL LIVES by Phyllis Rose -- creative Victorian marriages! And she has harsh things to say about Dickens' treatment of his wife. She had absolutely no recourse when he took away the kids, called her insane, and banished her from his life. He got away with it because he was famous.

[Pam]

And to think he wrote about so many other injustices of his time.

[Brenda]

It shows you he was a really complex man.

[Brenda]

Consider how many of his latter books feature heroes or major characters of a dual nature. TALE OF TWO CITIES, EDWIN DROOD -- he was trying to grapple with his own character, in fictional guise. The reason why it is good for the Ellen Ternan connection to come out is that it casts so much light on Dickens' works.

[Jean]

Brenda wrote: "I'm reading PARALLEL LIVES by Phyllis Rose -- creative Victorian marriages! And she has harsh things to say about Dickens' treatment of his wife. She had absolutely no recourse when he took away th..."

Victorian era married women had no legal rights so I don't think his fame allowed him to 'get away with it' (although I'm sure it was extremely helpful) but rather the legal system which did not recognize her (or any married woman's) existence.