Girl in a Blue Dress`

Book Review

Gaynor Arnold

Under the guise of telling the story of fictional Victorian author Alfred Gibson and his wife Dorothea, in Girl in a Blue Dress, Gaynor Arnold relates the life of Charles Dickens's wife Catherine.

This is not a novel that is sympathetic to the great novelist. The story begins upon Alfred Gibson's death. His wife Dorothea has been cruelly excluded from the funeral, and while her daughter and other family members attend it, she begins to reflect on her life with her “One and Only.” The cruelty extends beyond the funeral, and echoes her life with her husband – she is left a meagre sum while her sister, Sissy, becomes executor of Gibson's estate, reflective of the love he had for his own wife's sister. Another love, a Mrs. Ricketts, is also in attendance at the funeral and reading of the will, while Dorothea remains alone with her thoughts.

The novel closely follows the details of the lives of the Dickens. Charles married Catherine Thompson Hogarth in 1836, and she bore him ten children. Catherine's sister Mary moved in with the Dickens soon after Catherine became pregnant with her first child. Dickens was besotted with her, and immortalized her in many of his novels, and when she died at a young age, he paid homage to her by writing the death of Little Nell.

It has been theorized, most popularly by the author Claire Tomalin (incidentally a former Booker Prize judge), that Dickens led a double life with one of his actresses, a woman named Ellen Ternan. By 1858, Dickens had separated from Catherine, keeping her in a house until she died.

As great a novelist as he was, it is astonishing that a man who treated women so callously could end up so beloved by so many, and interred in Westminster Abbey.

Arnold writes with a distinct homage to the Victorian era. The style and pacing of Victorian writing is evoked, but with a light hand. It is an interesting and accomplished novel that lends insight into the possible mindset of Catherine Dickens, but somehow does not have the sparkle or the level of excellence that would set it apart as Booker Shortlist material.