Synopses & Reviews
Review
"The most interesting fact about Nelly Ternan was that she was Dickens' mistress when he was at the height of his fame. How the well-loved novelist managed to dump his wife, with whom he'd had ten children, and to conceal his secret life for 13 years, was 'documented' by Dickens himself. Inadvertently he had failed to destroy his 1867 appointment diary. The chapter decoding his cryptic entries, and describing his masterful evasions, serves as a manual for those planning a clandestine affair: the use of aliases, coded telegrams, disembarking from trains at the wrong station, etc. Nelly, who was half his age, remained in the shadows, and Tomalin's careful research hasn't made her more visible than Dickens intended. Early chapters describe her theatrical family and the trials of early 19th-century women in the theatre. Final chapters tell how, after Dickens's death in 1870, Nelly, at age 36, buried her past, reduced her age by 14 years, married, and had two children with a husband who never learned her secret. Dickens was obsessed by Nelly, who enjoyed the flattery and financial support. How she felt about him may be inferred from the most revealing sentence in the book: 'Long after his death she said she loathed the memory of his attentions.'" Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-305) and index.