Georgina Hogarth
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
novelist Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
and the editor of two volumes of his collected letters after his death.
Biography
'Georgy' Hogarth was the daughter of music critic George HogarthGeorge Hogarth
George Hogarth was a Scottish newspaper editor, music critic, and musicologist. He authored several books on opera and Victorian musical life in addition to contributing articles to various publications....
and his wife Georgina. Born in Scotland, in 1834 she and her family moved to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
where her father had taken a job as a music critic for the Morning Chronicle
Morning Chronicle
The Morning Chronicle was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London, England, and published under various owners until 1862. It was most notable for having been the first employer of Charles Dickens, and for publishing the articles by Henry Mayhew which were collected and published in book format in...
.
In 1842, aged 15, Georgina Hogarth joined the Dickens family
Dickens family
The Dickens family are the descendants of John Dickens, the father of the English novelist Charles Dickens. The descendants of Charles Dickens include the novelist Monica Dickens, the writer Lucinda Dickens Hawksley and the actors Harry Lloyd and Brian Forster....
household when Dickens and his wife Catherine
Catherine Dickens
Catherine 'Kate' Thomson Dickens was the wife of English novelist Charles Dickens, with whom he fathered 10 children.-Marriage:...
(née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Hogarth), sailed to America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, caring for the young family they had left behind. She remained with them as housekeeper, organiser, adviser and friend until her brother-in-law's death in 1870, after which she stayed in regular contact with the surviving members of the Dickens family
Dickens family
The Dickens family are the descendants of John Dickens, the father of the English novelist Charles Dickens. The descendants of Charles Dickens include the novelist Monica Dickens, the writer Lucinda Dickens Hawksley and the actors Harry Lloyd and Brian Forster....
.
Discord
Charles Dickens, Jr
Charles Dickens, Jr, born Charles Culliford Boz Dickens , was the first child of the novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. A failed businessman, he became the editor of his father's magazine All the Year Round, and a successful writer of dictionaries...
. remained in their home at Tavistock House
Tavistock House
Tavistock House was the London home of the noted British author Charles Dickens and his family from 1851 to 1860. At Tavistock House Dickens wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities. He also put on amateur theatricals there which are described in John Forster's Life of...
, while Catherine and Charles Jr. moved out. Georgina Hogarth ran his household. On 12 June 1858 he published a self-justifying and cruel article in his journal, Household Words
Household Words
Household Words was an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850s which took its name from the line from Shakespeare "Familiar in his mouth as household words" — Henry V.-History:...
, explaining the situation.
"Some domestic trouble of mine, of long-standing, on which I will make no further remark than that it claims to be respected, as being of a sacredly private nature, has lately been brought to an arrangement, which involves no anger or ill-will of any kind, and the whole origin, progress, and surrounding circumstances of which have been, throughout, within the knowledge of my children. It is amicably composed, and its details have now but to be forgotten by those concerned in it....By some means, arising out of wickedness, or out of folly, or out of inconceivable wild chance, or out of all three, this trouble has been made the occasion of misrepresentations, most grossly false, most monstrous, and most cruel - involving, not only me, but innocent persons dear to my heart.... I most solemnly declare, then -- and this I do both in my own name and in my wife's name -- that all the lately whispered rumours touching the trouble, at which I have glanced, are abominably false. And whosoever repeats one of them after this denial, will lie as wilfully and as foully as it is possible for any false witness to lie, before heaven and earth".
He sent this statement to the newspapers, including The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, and many reprinted it. He fell out with Bradbury and Evans, his publishers, because they refused to publish his statement in Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
as they thought it unsuitable for a humorous periodical. An even more tactless public statement appeared in the New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
, which later found its way into several British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
newspapers. In this statement Dickens declared that it had been only Georgina Hogarth who had held the family together for some time:
".... I will merely remark of [my wife] that some peculiarity of her character has thrown all the children on someone else. I do not know -- I cannot by any stretch of fancy imagine -- what would have become of them but for this aunt, who has grown up with them, to whom they are devoted, and who has sacrificed the best part of her youth and life to them. She has remonstrated, reasoned, suffered, and toiled, again and again, to prevent a separation between Mrs. Dickens and me. Mrs. Dickens has often expressed to her sense of affectionate care and devotion in her home -- never more strongly than within the last twelve months.
In the same year Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
were members of the Garrick Club
Garrick Club
The Garrick Club is a gentlemen's club in London.-History:The Garrick Club was founded at a meeting in the Committee Room at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on Wednesday 17 August 1831...
. On going into the club one day Thackeray remarked that Dickens's separation from Catherine was due to a liaison with an actress, Ellen Ternan
Ellen Ternan
Ellen Lawless Ternan , also known as Nelly Ternan or Nelly Robinson, was an English actress who is mainly known as the woman for whom Charles Dickens separated from his wife Catherine.-Life:...
, rather than with Georgina Hogarth. Dickens was so infuriated with this remark that it almost put an end to the Dickens-Thackeray friendship.
In an attempt to dispel the rumours that he and Hogarth had been having an affair, Dickens had her examined by doctors who verified that she was still a virgin.
Later years
On the death of Dickens on June 9, 1870, Georgina Hogarth and Ellen Ternan were at his bedside. In his will Dickens left Hogarth the then huge sum of £8,000, and "...all my private papers whatsoever and wheresoever". Among these papers was the manuscript of The Life of Our LordThe Life of Our Lord
The Life of Our Lord was written by English novelist Charles Dickens for his young children between 1846 and 1849, at about the time that he was writing David Copperfield. It was published in 1934, sixty-four years after Dickens's death....
, written in 1849 by Dickens exclusively for his children, to whom he read it aloud every Christmas. On her death in 1917 it came into the possession of Sir Henry Fielding Dickens
Henry Fielding Dickens
Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, KC was the eighth of ten children born to British author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. The most successful of all of Dickens's children, he was a barrister, a KC and Common Serjeant of London, a senior legal office which he held for over 15 years.-Early...
, Dicken's last surviving son.
Using the private letters Dickens left to her in his will, and working with Dickens's eldest daughter, Mary 'Mamie' Angela Dickens
Mary Dickens
Mary 'Mamie' Angela Dickens was the oldest daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine...
, and using Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...
as an adviser, Hogarth edited three editions of 'The Letters Of Charles Dickens From 1833 To 1870'. This included a two-volume edition published in 1880, with a third volume appearing in 1882, a new and shorter edition in two volumes, also in 1882, and a one-volume edition in 1893. Typically in a family selection, all letters on private family matters were omitted. No mention was made of the money-troubles of John Dickens
John Dickens
John Dickens was the father of English novelist Charles Dickens and was the model for Mr Micawber in his son's semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield.-Biography:...
, Charles's father, the marital troubles of Fred
Frederick Dickens
Frederick William Dickens was the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens and was Charles Dickens' younger brother, who lived with Charles when he moved on to Furnival's Inn in 1834...
and Augustus Dickens
Augustus Dickens
Augustus Newnham Dickens was the youngest brother of English novelist Charles Dickens, and the inspiration for his pen name 'Boz'...
, Dickens's brothers, Dickens's own separation from Catherine or his worries over his sons Alfred Dickens
Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens
Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens was the sixth child and fourth son of British novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine...
and Edward Dickens
Edward Dickens
Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens was the youngest son of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine and was an Australian politician....
. What was unusual, however, was the editors' methods: if cuts were made in one letter leaving passages stranded, these passages were inserted in letters of a later date.
In the Preface Georgina Hogarth and Mary Dickens stated:
"We intend this Collection of Letters to be a Supplement to the "Life of Charles Dickens," by John Forster. That work, perfect and exhaustive as a biography, is only incomplete as regards correspondence; the scheme of the book having made it impossible to include in its space any letters, or hardly any, besides those addressed to Mr. Forster. As no man ever expressed himself more in his letters than Charles Dickens, we believe that in publishing this careful selection from his general correspondence we shall be supplying a want which has been universally felt."
Georgina Hogarth died in 1917 and was buried at the Old Mortlake
Mortlake
Mortlake is a district of London, England and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes with East Sheen inland to the south. Mortlake was part of Surrey until 1965.-History:...
Burial Ground in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is a London borough in South West London, UK, which forms part of Outer London. It is unique because it is the only London borough situated both north and south of the River Thames.-Settlement:...
.
Controversy
In January 2009 The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
and other newspapers reported on a diamond ring which it was claimed was once owned by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
and which was cited as evidence that he had an illegitimate child with Georgina Hogarth. At that time a sexual relationship with a sister-in-law was classed as incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
under the law and was a criminal offence. The previously undocumented gold ring, set with a single 0.9 carats (180 mg) diamond, was auctioned in February 2009 realising a hammer price of £26,000. It sold to an anonymous collector from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. According to an inscription, the ring was presented to Dickens by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
, the Poet Laureate
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
and a close personal friend, in 1854.
The article reports that the ring later became the proud possession of Hector Charles Bulwer Lytton Dickens, who had always claimed to be the novelist's illegitimate son through a relationship with Georgina Hogarth. The ring was being sold by Hector Dickens's descendants, along with letters, two wills and various newspaper reports which they state support his claim. His family claim that in 1890 Hector Dickens bought the ring from one of Dickens's legitimate sons, Alfred Dickens
Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens
Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens was the sixth child and fourth son of British novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine...
, who lived in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
for 45 years and who is said to have fallen on hard times.
Florian Schweizer, the curator of the Charles Dickens Museum in London's Doughty Street
Doughty Street
Doughty Street is a broad tree lined street in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden. The southern part is a continuation of the short John Street, which comes off Theobalds Road. The northern part crosses Guilford Street and ends at Mecklenburgh Square.The street contains mainly...
is recorded as saying that if genuine the ring could turn Dickens history "...on its head... There have been rumours of them having an affair but it has never been substantiated because there has never been any reliable evidence emerge. They lived together for the last 13 years with Georgina as a friend and companion, but Dickens also had a mistress at the time."
However, Claire Tomalin
Claire Tomalin
Claire Tomalin is an English biographer and journalist. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge.She was literary editor of the New Statesman and of the Sunday Times, and has written several noted biographies...
, who wrote a biography of Ellen Ternan
Ellen Ternan
Ellen Lawless Ternan , also known as Nelly Ternan or Nelly Robinson, was an English actress who is mainly known as the woman for whom Charles Dickens separated from his wife Catherine.-Life:...
, allegedly another of Dickens's mistresses, questioned the claim. In her book The Invisible Woman she stated that 'Hector Dickens' was probably an Australian conman called Charly Peters who used the then current rumours of Dickens's infidelities to trick people out of money.
Portrayals
In the 1976 Yorkshire TelevisionYorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
miniseries Dickens of London
Dickens of London
Dickens of London is a 1976 television miniseries from Yorkshire Television based on the life of English novelist Charles Dickens. Both Dickens and his father John were played by British actor Roy Dotrice. The series was written by Wolf Mankowitz and Marc Miller...
, starring Roy Dotrice
Roy Dotrice
Roy Dotrice, OBE is a British actor known for his Tony Award-winning Broadway performance in the revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten.-Life and career:...
as Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, the actresses Patsy Kensit
Patsy Kensit
Patricia Jude Francis "Patsy" Kensit is an English actress, singer, model and former child star, known for her television and film appearances. Her films include Lethal Weapon 2 and she has been married to rock stars Jim Kerr and Liam Gallagher, as well as herself fronting the band Eighth Wonder...
played a young Georgina Hogarth, while Christine McKenna
Christine McKenna
Christine McKenna was a British actress during the 1970s and 1980s and best known for playing "Christina" in the television series, Flambards....
played her as an adult.
Publications
- 'Georgina Dickens and the Dickens Circle' By Arthur A. Adria. Published by Oxford University Press (1957)
- 'The Letters Of Charles Dickens From 1833 To 1870' 2 Vols. Editor: Georgina Hogarth and Mary DickensMary DickensMary 'Mamie' Angela Dickens was the oldest daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine...
(1880)
External links
- The Extraordinary Life of Charles Dickens
- Hogarth in The Family Records Centre
- Hogarth on Charles Dickens Online
- http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/archive/Wilkie/20021200WCSJ.htmHogarth and 'The letters of Charles Dickens to Wilkie CollinsWilkie CollinsWilliam Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...
'] - Full text of 'Georgina Hogarth and the Dickens Circle'