29. Charles Dickens’ Awkward Relationship With His Sister in Law
In 1836, after they had been engaged for a year, Charles Dickens married Catherine Thomson Hogarth, the daughter of a newspaper editor. In 1837, Catherine’s younger sister, Mary Scott Hogarth, moved into the Dickens household, and her brother-in-law grew quite fond of her. Just how fond has long been caused for speculation and gossip. Dickens’ behavior after Mary suddenly died at age seventeen of a heart attack or stroke lent credence to allegation of an affair with his wife’s sister. He wrote of her as “a very dear young relative” and described her as “the chief solace” of his labors. The great author secured a lock of Mary’s hair and wore her ring for the rest of his life.
Things must have gotten awkward in the Dickens household, as the author seemed to cherish his dead sister-in-law far more than he did his live wife. After Catherine gave him ten children, Dickens fell out of love with her and fell head over heels in love with a teenager. In 1857, a forty-five-year Dickens began an affair with Ellen Ternan, an eighteen-year-old actress in a play he produced. It lasted for the rest of his life, and was carried out in a house he bought her in the outskirts of London. When his marriage fell apart, Dickens publicly aired his private laundry and turned his wife’s other sister – with whom he also apparently had an affair – against her.
