Dickens

In 1857 a middle-aged Charles Dickens began an adulterous affair with a teenager, Ellen “Nelly” Ternan, that would end only with his death 13 years later. These days he would have been “papped”within days of the romance's start. But 150 years ago, the world's most famous author was able to hide the story so effectively that when a 1939 biography of his daughter, Katey Dickens, mentioned theaffair and the birth of a child as a result, there was public outcry and Katey branded “mad”.

For many this will be the first time they learn of Dickens's Secret Lover, even if Dickens aficionadoswill have been aware of Ternan's role in Dickens's life, thanks to biographer Claire Tomalin's piece of detective work, The Invisible Woman. Dickens took enormous risks embarking on this “passion”. Hewas a literary superstar who had set himself up as a paragon of family virtue: a father of nine whose novels erected domestic bliss as the moral ideal. And he was loved for it. When Dickens fell forTernan, a poor, not particularly talented actress, he threw this public image of himself into mortal jeopardy – and had to resort to Machiavellian subterfuge to keep it secret. Indeed, the trauma of theaffair affected every aspect of Dickens's existence.

When he keeled over from a stroke in 1870 at the age of only 58 it was arguably the effort of maintaining his double life that had killed him.The seeds of disaster were there from the beginning. By the mid-1850s, when his marriage was already 20 years old, Dickens was no longer attracted to his wife, Catherine. There were even rumours he'dhad an affair with his sister-in-law (which Dickens would later disprove by going to the unpleasant extreme of having her virginity tested).

When he hired Nelly for a semi-professional productionhe was involved in, most commentators agree he was in the midst of a midlife crisis.
“He was a man trying to recapture his youth,” explains his descendant Lucinda Hawksley. “He was desperate to...