Is Dickens’s London a place, or a state of mind, or a bit of both? I used to ask myself the question all the time when I was literary editor of this periodical and our office in Doughty Street was a few doors down from the Dickens Museum, at no. 48, the house where he
Charles Dickens Museum opens new display, which will encourage visitors to follow in the author’s footsteps around the nearby sites that inspired the novel
A previously unseen pair of highly personal and private lockets exchanged between Charles Dickens and his sister-in-law are set to go on display in London next month.
The author was 23 when he met his future wife Catherine Hogarth, then 19, in Fulham, west London in 1835.
At the same time, he was also introduced to her two sisters, Mary, who was 14, and Georgina, who was six.
Some speculate Mary became the true love of his life and the inspiration behind some of his most famous characters, with Charles giving Mary a locket containing a stand of his own hair.
She tragically died just three years later, and Georgina gave Dickens a similar pendant with Mary s hair inside in 1837. Both are set to go on display at the Charles Dickens Museum next month.
Tokens of affection were exchanged with sister-in-law whose early death influenced the authorâs work
A heart-shaped locket owned by Mary Hogarth, containing a lock of her brother-in-law Charles Dickensâs hair, and a silver locket, with moss agate stone, containing a lock of Hogarthâs hair given to Dickens by his mother-in-law in 1837. Photograph: Charles Dickens Museum collection
A heart-shaped locket owned by Mary Hogarth, containing a lock of her brother-in-law Charles Dickensâs hair, and a silver locket, with moss agate stone, containing a lock of Hogarthâs hair given to Dickens by his mother-in-law in 1837. Photograph: Charles Dickens Museum collection