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A review by librarianonparade
The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin
5.0
What a fascinating, intriguing story that was almost lost to history! This is biography of the very best kind, reconstructing Nelly Ternan's life from just snippets and fragments, portraying a life that was lived almost entirely in the shadows. It would have been a great loss to posterity had this aspect of Dickens' life being entirely obliterated, as so much effort was put into attempting.
Dickens has never been one of my favourite authors, for a multitude of reasons - so I came to this book with no real preconceived notions of the man or his work. Dickens' life itself was almost a complete blank to me, but in his day he was very much held up as the model Victorian gentlemen - honest, hardworking, industrious, generous to the poor, a paragon of domesticity. That in many respects he was no such thing should come as no surprise - these days it seems rare to come across any Victorian without some kind of dark murky secret. Such are the perils, no doubt, of an era that extolled uprightness, righteous, honour and domestic chivalry - who could ever live up to such things?
It is hard to know what to make of Dickens' relationship with Nelly Ternan, not just because there is so little real evidence and so much conjecture involved. It all smacks very much of the typical midlife crisis - a middle-aged man tiring of his middle-aged wife and family, lusting after a woman young enough to be his daughter. Indeed, there was something immensely Freudian about the relationship, on both sides. I had very little sympathy with Dickens in reading this, and an immense amount of sympathy for Nelly. It is hard to see what other options Nelly had in life, with her situtation, family and background; and Dickens' treatment of his wife and the sheer mental contortions and complexities of his double life do not leave him emerging from this story with much dignity or honour.
Dickens has never been one of my favourite authors, for a multitude of reasons - so I came to this book with no real preconceived notions of the man or his work. Dickens' life itself was almost a complete blank to me, but in his day he was very much held up as the model Victorian gentlemen - honest, hardworking, industrious, generous to the poor, a paragon of domesticity. That in many respects he was no such thing should come as no surprise - these days it seems rare to come across any Victorian without some kind of dark murky secret. Such are the perils, no doubt, of an era that extolled uprightness, righteous, honour and domestic chivalry - who could ever live up to such things?
It is hard to know what to make of Dickens' relationship with Nelly Ternan, not just because there is so little real evidence and so much conjecture involved. It all smacks very much of the typical midlife crisis - a middle-aged man tiring of his middle-aged wife and family, lusting after a woman young enough to be his daughter. Indeed, there was something immensely Freudian about the relationship, on both sides. I had very little sympathy with Dickens in reading this, and an immense amount of sympathy for Nelly. It is hard to see what other options Nelly had in life, with her situtation, family and background; and Dickens' treatment of his wife and the sheer mental contortions and complexities of his double life do not leave him emerging from this story with much dignity or honour.