Editing Charles Dickens (section)

==Middle years==
[[File:David reaches Canterbury, from David Copperfield art by Frank Reynolds.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[David Copperfield (character)|David]] reaches Canterbury, from ''David Copperfield''. The character incorporates many elements of Dickens's own life. Artwork by [[Frank Reynolds (artist)|Frank Reynolds]].]]
In December 1845, Dickens took up the editorship of the London-based ''[[The Daily News (UK)|Daily News]]'', a liberal paper through which Dickens hoped to advocate, in his own words, "the Principles of Progress and Improvement, of Education and Civil and Religious Liberty and Equal Legislation."<ref name="Roberts">{{cite journal |last=Roberts |first=David |title=Charles Dickens and the "Daily News": Editorials and Editorial Writers |journal=Victorian Periodicals Review |date=1989 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=51–63 |jstor=20082378}}</ref> Among the other contributors Dickens chose to write for the paper were the radical economist [[Thomas Hodgskin]] and the social reformer [[Douglas William Jerrold]], who frequently attacked the [[Corn Laws]].<ref name="Roberts"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Slater |first=Michael |title=Douglas Jerrold |date=2015 |publisher=Gerald Duckworth & Co |pages=197–204 |isbn=978-0715646588}}</ref> Dickens lasted only ten weeks on the job before resigning due to a combination of exhaustion and frustration with one of the paper's co-owners.<ref name="Roberts"/>

A [[Francophile]], Dickens often holidayed in France and, in a speech delivered in Paris in 1846 in French, called the French "the first people in the universe".<ref name="Soubigou pages 154-167">Soubigou, Gilles "Dickens's Illustrations: France and other countries" pp. 154–167 from ''The Reception of Charles Dickens in Europe'' edited by Michael Hollington London: A&C Black 2013 p. 159.</ref> During his visit to Paris, Dickens met the French literati [[Alexandre Dumas]], [[Victor Hugo]], [[Eugène Scribe]], [[Théophile Gautier]], [[François-René de Chateaubriand]] and [[Eugène Sue]].<ref name="Soubigou pages 154-167"/> In early 1849, Dickens started to write ''[[David Copperfield]]''. It was published between 1849 and 1850. In Dickens's biography, ''Life of Charles Dickens'' (1872), [[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]] wrote of ''David Copperfield'', "underneath the fiction lay something of the author's life".<ref>{{cite book |last=Hiu Yen Lee |first=Klaudia |title=Charles Dickens and China, 1895–1915: Cross-Cultural Encounters |date=2015 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=56}}</ref> It was Dickens's personal favourite among his novels, as he wrote in the preface to the 1867 edition.<ref>{{cite book |first=Charles |last=Dickens |title=David Copperfield |chapter=Preface |edition=1867 |location=London |publisher=Wordsworth Classics |page=4}}</ref> His [[Letters of Charles Dickens|collection of letters]], of which more than 14,000 are known, covered a wide range of subject-matter. Letters during this period included a correspondence with Mary Tyler, dated 6 November 1849, on the comedic merits of [[Punch and Judy]], a puppet show dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch, and his review of the [[Great Exhibition]], the first in a series of world's fairs, which he attended at [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], London in 1851.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hartley |first=Jenny |title=The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |page=204}}</ref>

[[File:Chesney Wold (Frontispiece), Bleak House (1852-3) plate.png|thumb|left|upright|Illustration by [[Phiz]] of Chesney Wold, the Lincolnshire estate in ''Bleak House'']]
In November 1851, Dickens moved into [[Tavistock House]] where he wrote ''[[Bleak House]]'' (1852–53), ''[[Hard Times (novel)|Hard Times]]'' (1854) and ''[[Little Dorrit]]'' (1855–57).<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=628; 634–638}}.</ref> A work of Gothic fiction depicting London as a murky city swathed in [[Smog|fog]], ''Bleak House'' is credited with introducing urban fog to the novel, which would become a frequent characteristic of urban Gothic literature and film.<ref>Mighall, Robert (2007), "Gothic Cities", in C. Spooner and E. McEvoy, eds, ''The Routledge Companion to Gothic'', London: Routledge, pp.&nbsp;54–72</ref> Reflecting the public enthusiasm for [[dinosaur]]s that first developed in Victorian England, the opening of ''Bleak House'' contains an early mention of dinosaurs in literature: "it would not be wonderful to meet a [[Megalosaurus]], forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up [[Holborn]] Hill".<ref>{{cite journal |title=Dickens, Dinosaurs and Design |journal=Victorian Literature and Culture |date=December 2016 |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=761–778 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/victorian-literature-and-culture/article/abs/dickens-dinosaurs-and-design/16A1E204619F0E339E2A3200A5F4B5B2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S1060150316000358 |last1=Dawson |first1=Gowan |hdl=2381/33176 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

While at Tavistock Dickens indulged in amateur theatricals, and he worked closely with the novelist and playwright [[Wilkie Collins]].<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=648; 686–687; 772–773}}</ref> In 1856, his income from writing allowed him to buy [[Gads Hill Place]] in [[Higham, Kent]]. As a child, Dickens had walked past the house and dreamed of living in it. The area was also the scene of some of the events of [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Henry IV, Part 1]]'' and this literary connection pleased him.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=32:723:750}}.</ref>

During this time Dickens was also the publisher, editor and a major contributor to the journals ''[[Household Words]]'' (1850–1859) and ''[[All the Year Round]]'' (1858–1870), with both titles deriving from a Shakespearean quotation.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=589–95; 848–852}}.</ref> The journals contained a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and dealt with aspects in the culture. For example, the latter included Dickens' assessment of [[Madame Tussauds]], a wax museum established in Baker Street in 1835, which he called "something more than an exhibition, it is an institution."<ref>{{cite book |title=All the Year Round Volume 2 |date=1860 |publisher=Charles Dickens |page=250}}</ref> In 1854, at the behest of [[Sir John Franklin]]'s widow [[Jane Franklin|Lady Jane]], Dickens viciously attacked Arctic explorer [[John Rae (explorer)|John Rae]] in ''Household Words'' for his report to the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]], based on interviews with local [[Inuit]], that the members of [[Franklin's lost expedition]] had resorted to [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]]. These attacks would later be expanded on his 1856 play ''[[The Frozen Deep]]'', which satirises Rae and the Inuit. Twentieth-century [[archaeology]] work in [[King William Island]] later confirmed that the members of the Franklin expedition resorted to cannibalism.<ref name = "Roobol">Roobol, M.J. (2019) ''Franklin's Fate: An investigation into what happened to the lost 1845 expedition of Sir John Frankin.'' Conrad Press, 368 pages.</ref>

[[File:Dickens-plaque-tavistock.jpg|thumb|upright|Commemorative [[blue plaque]] in [[Tavistock Square]], London where Dickens lived between 1851 and 1860]]
In 1855, when Dickens's good friend and Liberal MP [[Austen Henry Layard]] formed an Administrative Reform Association to demand significant reforms of Parliament, Dickens joined and volunteered his resources in support of Layard's cause.<ref name="Slater 2009 389–390">{{harvnb|Slater|2009|pp=389–390}}</ref> With the exception of [[Lord John Russell]], who was the only leading politician in whom Dickens had any faith and to whom he later dedicated ''A Tale of Two Cities'', Dickens believed that the political aristocracy and their incompetence were the death of England.<ref name="Slater 2009 389–390"/><ref name="Cotsell">{{cite journal |last=Cotsell |first=Michael |title=Politics and Peeling Frescoes: Layard of Nineveh and "Little Dorrit" |journal=Dickens Studies Annual |date=1986 |volume=15 |pages=181–200}}</ref> When he and Layard were accused of fomenting class conflict, Dickens replied that the classes were already in opposition and the fault was with the aristocratic class. Dickens used his pulpit in ''Household Words'' to champion the Reform Association.<ref name="Cotsell"/> He also commented on foreign affairs, declaring his support for [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] and [[Giuseppe Mazzini]], helping raise funds for their campaigns and stating that "a united Italy would be of vast importance to the peace of the world, and would be a rock in [[Louis Napoleon]]'s way," and that "I feel for Italy almost as if I were an Italian born."<ref>{{cite book |last=Schlicke |first=Paul |title=The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens: Anniversary Edition |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=10}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Dickens |first=Charles |title=The Letters of Charles Dickens, Volume 2 |date=1880 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |page=140}}</ref><ref name="Ledger">{{cite book |last=Ledger |first=Sally |title=Charles Dickens in Context |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=43–44}}</ref> Dickens also published dozens of writings in ''Household Words'' supporting [[vaccination]], including multiple laudations for vaccine pioneer [[Edward Jenner]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Johnson (author) |title=Extra Life |publisher=[[Riverhead Books]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-525-53885-1 |edition=1st |pages=54}}</ref>

Following the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Indian Mutiny of 1857]], Dickens joined in the widespread criticism of the [[East India Company]] for its role in the event, but reserved his fury for Indians, wishing that he was the commander-in-chief in India so that he would be able to "do my utmost to exterminate the Race upon whom the stain of the late cruelties rested."<ref>{{citation |last=Robins |first=Nick |title=A Skulking Power |date=2012 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183pcr6.16 |work=The Corporation That Changed the World |pages=171–198 |series=How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational |publisher=Pluto Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctt183pcr6.16 |jstor=j.ctt183pcr6.16 |isbn=978-0-7453-3195-9 |access-date=30 January 2021 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203145408/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183pcr6.16 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Ellen Ternan.jpeg|thumb|right|upright|Actress [[Ellen Ternan]] (pictured in 1858) drew the attention of Dickens after he saw her on stage in 1857.]]

In 1857, Dickens hired professional actresses for ''The Frozen Deep'', which he and his [[Mentorship|protégé]] [[Wilkie Collins]] had written. Dickens fell in love with one of the actresses, [[Ellen Ternan]], and this passion was to last the rest of his life.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=788–799}}.</ref> In 1858, when Dickens was 45 and Ternan 18, divorce would have been scandalous for someone of his fame. After publicly accusing Catherine of not loving their children and suffering from "a mental disorder"—statements that disgusted his contemporaries, including [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]]<ref>{{harvnb|Bowen|2019|pp=6–7}}.</ref>—Dickens attempted to have Catherine [[Lunatic asylum|institutionalised]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bowen|2019|p=9}}.</ref> When his scheme failed, they separated. Catherine left, never to see her husband again, taking with her one child. Her sister Georgina, who stayed at Gads Hill, raised the other children.<ref name="Smith10ff">{{harvnb|Smith|2001|pp=10–11}}.</ref>

During this period, whilst pondering a project to give public readings for his own profit, Dickens was approached through a charitable appeal by [[Great Ormond Street Hospital]] to help it survive its first major financial crisis. His "Drooping Buds" essay in ''[[Household Words]]'' earlier on 3 April 1852 was considered by the hospital's founders to have been the catalyst for the hospital's success.<ref>{{harvnb|Furneaux|2011|pp=190–191}}.</ref> Dickens, whose philanthropy was well-known, was asked by his friend, the hospital's founder [[Charles West (physician)|Charles West]], to preside over the appeal, and he threw himself into the task, heart and soul.<ref>{{harvnb|Page|1999|p=261}}.</ref> Dickens's public readings secured sufficient funds for an endowment to put the hospital on a sound financial footing; one reading on 9 February 1858 alone raised £3,000.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|2004|pp=80–81}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=801, 804}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Page|1999|pp=260–263}} for excerpts from the speech.</ref>

[[File:Dickens by Watkins 1858.png|thumb|left|upright|Dickens at his desk, 1858]]
After separating from Catherine,<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=809–814}}.</ref> Dickens undertook a series of popular and remunerative reading tours which, together with his journalism, were to absorb most of his creative energies for the next decade, in which he was to write only two novels.<ref>{{harvnb|Sutherland|1990|p=185}}.</ref> His first reading tour, lasting from April 1858 to February 1859, consisted of 129 appearances in 49 towns throughout England, Scotland and Ireland.<ref>{{harvnb|Hobsbaum|1998|p=270}}.</ref> Dickens's continued fascination with the theatrical world was written into the theatre scenes in ''Nicholas Nickleby'', and he found an outlet in public readings. In 1866, he undertook a series of public readings in England and Scotland, with more the following year in England and Ireland.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schlicke |first=Paul |title=The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens: Anniversary Edition |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=302}}</ref>

[[File:Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, Fleet Street, EC4 (8032557646).jpg|thumb|upright|Dickens was a regular patron at [[Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese]] pub in [[Fleet Street]], London. He included the venue in ''A Tale of Two Cities''.]]
Other works soon followed, including ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' (1859) and ''[[Great Expectations]]'' (1861), which were resounding successes. Set in London and Paris, ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is his best-known work of historical fiction and includes the famous opening sentence "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." It is regularly touted as one of the best-selling novels of all time.<ref>{{cite news |title=Charles Dickens novel inscribed to George Eliot up for sale |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/21/charles-dickens-george-eliot-a-tale-of-two-cities |access-date=7 September 2019 |newspaper=The Guardian |archive-date=26 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026175742/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/21/charles-dickens-george-eliot-a-tale-of-two-cities |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=A Tale of Two Cities, King's Head, review |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/10340407/A-Tale-of-Two-Cities-Kings-Head-review.html |access-date=7 September 2019 |newspaper=The Telegraph |archive-date=8 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708082104/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/10340407/A-Tale-of-Two-Cities-Kings-Head-review.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Themes in ''Great Expectations'' include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil.<ref>Charles Dickens (1993), ''Great Expectations'', p. 1, introduction. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics</ref>

In early September 1860, in a field behind Gads Hill, Dickens made a bonfire of most of his correspondence; he spared only letters on business matters. Since Ellen Ternan also destroyed all of his letters to her,<ref>{{harvnb|Tomalin|2011|pp=332}}.</ref> the extent of the affair between the two remains speculative.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=881–883}}.</ref> In the 1930s, Thomas Wright recounted that Ternan had unburdened herself to a Canon Benham and gave currency to rumours they had been lovers.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=914–917}}.</ref> Dickens's daughter, Kate Perugini, stated that the two had a son who died in infancy to biographer Gladys Storey in an interview before the former's death in 1929. Storey published her account in ''Dickens and Daughter'',<ref>{{harvnb|Nisbet|1952|p=37}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Tomalin|1992|pp=142–143}}.</ref> though no contemporary evidence was given. On his death, Dickens settled an [[Life annuity|annuity]] on Ternan which made her financially independent. [[Claire Tomalin]]'s book ''The Invisible Woman'' argues that Ternan lived with Dickens secretly for the last 13 years of his life. The book was turned into a play, ''Little Nell'', by [[Simon Gray]], and [[The Invisible Woman (2013 film)|a 2013 film]]. During the same period, Dickens furthered his interest in the [[paranormal]], becoming one of the early members of [[The Ghost Club]] in London.<ref>{{harvnb|Henson|2004|p=113}}.</ref> In Christmas Eve of 1862, a theatrical production of his novella, ''[[The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain]]'', saw the first public demonstration of "[[Pepper's ghost]]"—a method of projecting the illusion of a ghost into a theatre (named after its developer [[John Henry Pepper]])—which caused a sensation among those in attendance at the [[Regent Street]] theatre.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meehan |first1=Paul |title=The Haunted House on Film |date=2019 |publisher=McFarland |page=15}}</ref>

In June 1862, he was offered £10,000 for a reading tour of Australia.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wYNxyc-yhuwC&pg=PA66 Ashley Alexander Mallett, ''The Black Lords of Summer: The Story of the 1868 Aboriginal Tour of England''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151030055350/https://books.google.com/books?id=wYNxyc-yhuwC&pg=PA66 |date=30 October 2015}}, pp. 65–66.</ref> He was enthusiastic, and even planned a travel book, ''The Uncommercial Traveller Upside Down'', but ultimately decided against the tour.<ref>[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dickens-charles-3409 Australian Dictionary of Biography] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114011654/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dickens-charles-3409 |date=14 November 2013}}. Retrieved 29 October 2013</ref> Two of his sons, [[Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens]] and [[Edward Dickens|Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens]], migrated to Australia, Edward becoming a member of the [[Parliament of New South Wales]] as [[Electoral district of Wilcannia|Member for Wilcannia]] between 1889 and 1894.<ref>[http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/sydneypublishing/2011/05/charles_dickens_and_australia_1.html University of Sydney] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604221837/http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/sydneypublishing/2011/05/charles_dickens_and_australia_1.html |date=4 June 2011}}. Retrieved 29 October 2013</ref><ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/23/1040511009543.html ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', "Dickens of a time", 24 December 2002] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231155722/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/23/1040511009543.html |date=31 December 2013}}. Retrieved 29 October 2013</ref>