Charles Dickens and three sisters, three rivals, three loves

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The life and career of the great Charles Dickens is inextricably linked with the names of the three Hogarth sisters, each of whom at different periods of time was a muse, a guardian angel and his guiding star. True, considering himself a unique person, Dickens always blamed his life companion for his misfortunes, in which he did not differ from the overwhelming majority. Yes, and he did not act like a gentleman, becoming for posterity a shining example of how one should not break marital ties.

Charles Dickens and the Hogarth family

The up-and-coming young reporter Charles met the family of George Hogarth, editor of the Evening Chronicle, at a time when Dickens himself was still unknown. The head of the Hogarth family, in the past not a very brilliant lawyer, was connected by friendly ties with Walter Scott himself, and until the end of the days of the novelist, he was in charge of his affairs. Charles Dickens also met the Hogarth sisters: nineteen-year-old Katherine, sixteen-year-old Mary and crumbs Georgina and Helen.

The adorable, spontaneous Kat was able to make Dickens forget his past bad experiences with women. She became his friend, advisor, companion and great love. One glance at her would be enough to understand why young Charles is so gentle and affectionate in his treatment of her. Charles and Kat's wedding marked the hugely successful launch of Dickens's first novel, The Pickwick Papers.

Katherine Dickens

Three rooms in Holborn, which served as a refuge for a bachelor, from April 2, 1836, became the first nest of the Dickens family. However, Mr. Pickwick, who triumphantly walked through all the book fairs and shops, allowed Charles very soon to acquire a spacious house on Doughty Street, in the very center of London.

Young Kat, undoubtedly happy and in love, looked in those blessed times like a real embodiment of a romantic dream: a dark-haired beauty with aristocratic pale skin and huge, dark and very lively eyes. All the more surprising are the descriptions of the biographers of the great writer, who agree that Kat was plump, irritable, constantly unhappy with everything.

However, it was with this woman that Dickens connected his life, he fell in love with her and brought her to the altar. Addressing his young wife, he affectionately called her his dear mouse and beloved pig. The letters to this woman were touching, sincere, filled with a vivid interest on the part of the young writer for everything that happens to his wife while he is away.

Yes, sometimes Charles reprimanded Kat for being too cold at a time when he himself wanted ardor and passion. Do not forget also that on the altar of the family Kat put the most precious thing that she had: her own personality, the indisputable talent of an actress and a writer, becoming the organizer and keeper of their big house.

Mary Hogarth

A separate line in the life of the writer is the younger sister of his wife, young Mary Hogarth. It is difficult to understand what kind of relationship Charles and Mary actually had, but the sister-in-law of the great writer lived in Dickens' house practically from the day of his wedding. Mary looked at her sister's husband with rapturous respect. Everything he said was the ultimate truth for the girl.

The young relative reacted very vividly to the remarks and jokes of the young writer, bringing her spontaneity and youthful enthusiasm into quiet family evenings. Whether Katherine Dickens guessed about the feelings that her own husband and younger sister had for each other, remained a mystery. However, Mary's sudden death from heart failure and the subsequent insatiable sadness of Charles left no doubt that for Dickens, a sister-in-law was more than a relative.

Having removed her ring from the finger of the deceased, the writer put it on his finger and did not remove it until the end of his life. Dazed by the loss, for the first and last time in his entire writing career, Dickens missed the publication dates of two of his novels, and Catherine suffered a miscarriage, as a result of which she lost her child.

Charles himself never made a secret of how inconsolable his grief, how irreparable for him the loss of a man who became the soul of his house, how hard it is to get used to living without a girl beloved and dear to his heart. The image of Mary Hogarth in the future will find its embodiment in many female characters in Dickens's books: Rose Maylie from The Adventures of Oliver Twist, little Nell Trent from the Old Curiosity Store, Agnes from David Copperfield and others.

Life goes on

No matter how grievous the loss was, life still went on as usual. In the Dickens family, children were born one after another, and Katherine, exhausted by the endless births, looked less and less like a young energetic girl who fell in love with Charles. She did not have enough strength or time to take an interest in her husband's affairs or take part in his creative research.

Kat has long ceased to accompany her husband to his performances, did not go out with him to dinners and parties of the literary beau monde. Dickens was clearly annoyed by her limitations and indifference, he began to ridicule any mistakes of his wife, forgetting that it was she who was once his dear Aunt.

Georgina Hogarth

At this time, another sister of Catherine, Georgina, settles in the Dickens' house. She was so blinded by the fame and charm of the master of the word that she gave up the prospect of marriage, deciding to live with her older sister, helping Kat raise children and cope with the household.

The scandal that broke out in high society, linking the name of Dickens with the young beauty Helene Ternan, was the final blow that finally destroyed the writer's many years of marriage. Insulted in her feelings, Katherine and Charles, who had long cooled to his wife, decided to divorce, remaining to live in the same house, now divided into two halves.

Georgina, surprisingly, sided with her brother-in-law. It was this fragile girl who became a good fairy who tried to preserve the well-being of the children of the great writer and his personal peace. The children very quickly became attached to their adorable aunt. And Charles himself involuntarily compared Georgina to Mary.

Georgina turned out to be the woman who remained faithful to her idol until the end of his days. She stopped communicating with her sister, fully serving the writer. She looked after his house, raised his children, was his personal secretary and assistant. It was in her arms that the great novelist died.

BONUS

Three Hogarth sisters, three loves of Charles Dickens, three his muses. It is impossible now to find the answer to the question which of the sisters he loved more. But he could not fully understand any of them.

An example of the longevity of marriage can be Winston Churchill and Clementine Hozier … They have 57 years of marriage behind them, which has not been given for six months.