Mamie Dickens (1838–1896)

This wholly laudatory memoir by Dickens's elder daughter is a good example of the mythologisation of the great author's life and the expunging of any aspect which would contradict the public image he and his family wished to preserve, as detailed by Claire Tomalin in her book on Nelly Ternan that I have just read. The memoir centres on uncontroversial, homely aspects such as celebration of Christmas at Gad's Hill and the family's many pets (including the raven Grip that features in Barnaby Rudge). Read with the knowledge of the much murkier reality taken as read, though, it is nevertheless a good and quite moving piece of writing.… (mer)