The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens

by Claire Tomalin

Overview

Charles 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307822390
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/29/2012
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	947,452
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Claire Tomalin is the author of eight highly acclaimed biographies including Thomas Hardy and Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, which won the 2002 Whitbread Book of the Year Award. She has previously won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography, the Whitbread First Book Award, the Hawthornden Prize, the NCR Book Award for Non-Fiction, and the Whitbread Biography Award.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Captivating. . . . An absorbing book about . . . a character who helps to illuminate the life of a great artist and the life of her times." —-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Editorial Reviews

In a remarkable feat of biographical sleuthing, Tomalin offers the fullest account to date of Charles Dickens's secret 13-year romance with actress Ellen ``Nelly'' Ternan. Photos. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Captivating. . . . An absorbing book about…a character who helps to illuminate the life of a great artist and the life of her times.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“As social history, literary criticism, and, not least, an absorbing detective story, The Invisible Woman is a wonderful book.” —Newsday

“Groundbreaking.” —The Guardian (UK)
 
“This is feminist biography at its best.” —Leon Edel
 
“Part social history, part detective story, wholly enthralling.” —John Carey, The Sunday Times (London)

From the Publisher

Dickens was a revered author in his own time, and his decade-long extramarital affair did not fit into his public image. The fact that his paramour, Nelly Ternan, was a former actress, a profession that was considered low class, was also a problem, so the relationship was kept out of the public eye. Wanda McCaddon gives an engaging narration as author Tomalin pieces together the story of the relationship through references in letters and other sources. A particular challenge—which McCaddon meets admirably—are the cryptic entries in Dickens’s diary. It’s disappointing that listeners don’t have access to the helpful maps of London, illustrations, and notes that appear in the print edition. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2013 - AudioFile