The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles DickensCharles Dickens and Nelly Ternan met in 1857; she was 18, a hard-working actress performing in his production of The Frozen Deep, and he was 45, the most lionized writer in England. Out of their meeting came a love affair that lasted thirteen years and destroyed Dickens’s marriage while effacing Nelly Ternan from the public record. In this remarkable work of biography and scholarly reconstruction, the acclaimed biographer of Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys and Jane Austen rescues Nelly from the shadows of history, not only returning the neglected actress to her rightful place, but also providing a compelling portrait of the great Victorian novelist himself. The result is a thrilling literary detective story and a deeply compassionate work that encompasses all those women who were exiled from the warm, well-lighted parlors of Victorian England. |
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The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens Claire Tomalin Limited preview - 2004 |
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actor actress Ada Nisbet Annie Fields Anthony Trollope appeared became Bice career Catherine Charles Dickens child Collins courtesy daughter death diary Dickens and Ellen Dickens House Dickens’s Dickensian Doncaster Ellen Ternan England Fanny Fanny Kemble Fanny Trollope Fanny’s father Felix Aylmer Florence Forster Frances Frozen Deep Gad’s Hill gave Geoffrey George Georgina Hogarth girl Gladys Storey Henry husband illustration credit Jarman June Katey Kemble knew ladies later Letters of Charles Library lived London Macready Mamey manager Margate Maria marriage married Miss Coutts Miss K. M. Longley Mornington Crescent mother Nelly Nelly’s never Newcastle Nonesuch Edition Park Cottage Peckham performance Pilgrim Edition played quoted seemed sisters Slough stage story Thackeray theatre theatrical Thomas told took tour travelled Tringham Trollope Victorian Wellington Street Wharton Robinson wife Wilkie Collins William Charles Macready Windsor Lodge woman women writing wrote young