Girl in a Blue Dress: A Novel Inspired by the Life and Marriage of Charles Dickens

by Gaynor Arnold

Book Overview

At the end of her life, Catherine, the cast-off wife of Charles Dickens, gave the letters she had received from her husband to their daughter Kate, asking her to donate them to the British Museum, "so the world may know that he loved me once." The incredible vulnerability and heartache evident beneath the surface of this remark inspired Gaynor Arnold to write Girl in a Blue Dress , a dazzling debut novel inspired by the life of this tragic yet devoted...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307462269
• ISBN13: 9780307462268
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 414 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Girl in a Blue DressThis was an interesting

This was an interesting story mingling the facts of Charles Dickens with the authors imagination. Makes a believable story of Dickens England. The author has brought to life the Dickens family. Dickens seemed to live life through his characters. I enjoyed the book and am recommending to my Book Club.

This perfect book will make you smile!

Have you ever picked up a book of historical fiction only to find that the language used and the phrasing of speech is entirely wrong! Gaynor Arnold gets everything right in this book. Never much of a fan of Charles Dickens and having read "Drood" which portrays Charles as a despickable character, I admit to being intrigued to read about Dicken's much publicized and disastrous marriage. I was so captivated that everytime I picked up this book and began reading I smiled. I had been transported back in time and Dorothea Gibson (AKA Mrs. Charles Dickens) was speaking directly to me. If you are at all attracted to this book by the cover image, you will not be disppointed with the book. I have added Gaynor Arnold to my list of "must-read" authors!

A Victorian marriage gone sour, through the wife's eyes

Some months ago one of the reading groups that I belong to online was buzzing about a novel set in the Victorian period. Many considered it to be a very good novel and worth the effort to read, and when it was released here in the States, I decided to add it to my never-ceasing stack of books to be read. First time author Gaynor Arnold uses the life and marriage of Charles Dickens to create a haunting story of a life that was burdened by fame and responsibility, with unforeseen and tragic consequences. While the characters of Alfred Gibson and his family are fictional, the author created the story from the very well known Charles Dickens, and his rather unusual home life. At the start of the novel, Alfred Gibson, novelist and playwright, the most famous of the Victorian writers and possessed of a devoted following around the world, has died. "The One and Only"s wife, Dorothea -- called Dodo by her family and friends -- watches the hysteria with calm. For nearly twenty years she was with him, raising their numerous brood of children, putting up with his traveling and moods, but the man that she had worked so hard to please cast her aside a decade earlier, banishing her from their children's lives, and sentencing her to a life of half-shadows and misery, in a small home and no company save for her maid, Wilson. To the public, Dodo Gibson is a spurned wife, and his husband moved her sister, Sissy, in to raise their children, and rumours of his taking up with a pretty young actress, Miss Ricketts, for companionship. Denied access to her children, Dodo has waited, but for what, is never really made clear. As the world mourns Alfred Gibson, Dodo's first visitor is her eldest child, Kitty, decked out in extravagant mourning and enraged by the fact that her mother is ignored. Dodo takes it all in stride, apparently uncaring. But inside, the reader is treated to quite a storm indeed. For through Dodo's eyes, we get to see a very different Alfred Gibson. Swept away by him as a young girl, Dodo married him in haste, and Alfred, full of fire and enthusiasm, set out to change the world and make his fortune as a writer. Dodo falls in love with this paragon, and at first, struggles to meet his expectations of a helpmeet, striving to keep their ever growing brood of children, and the finances and household in order. And Alfred soon discovers that not only can he write and act -- he is determined to be the lead not just at home but on the stage as well -- but that he quickly develops a following that not just adores his work, but clamours for more. Alfred provides that, creating friendships with everyone it seems, but also oblivious to the fact that his wife has her own dreams as well. And much like the sun, Alfred dazzles everyone, creating a blinding light that not just illuminates the dark side of Victorian life, but also enchants the young women that flock around him. For Dodo, she tries to bury her jealousy and own hunger for her husband's company, s

(3.5) "How easily she was won over, how easily we all were."

Arnold's depiction of a Victorian marriage is painfully accurate, a fictional biography of a prolific English writer, Alfred Gibson and his wife, Dorothea, a thinly-veiled account of the marriage of Charles Dickens and his wife, Catherine. Names and events have been changed, of course, but it is certainly reasonable to extrapolate a sense of the marriage and how difficult a life with such a man could be. From the bright days of early marriage to a struggling writer who will capture the imaginations of countless fans, "Dodo" exemplifies the Victorian wife, subservient, gracious and self-sacrificing. But as Alfred's creative genius expands, his self-importance multiplies in equal measure. At the same time, whatever the complex psychological constructs of this man, it becomes his mission to denigrate and belittle his wife, as though to grow his own stature it is necessary to diminish hers: hence the years of humiliation, criticism and finally rejection. Arnold's challenge is to cast Alfred in the true colors of his nature, while imbuing Dodo's character with compassion, humility and the debilitating burden of petty jealousy justified by her husband's outrageous appetites. For all her suffering, the lonely years of childbearing and Alfred's barbed attacks, her figure lost to the rigors of too many births and an excess of laudanum, Dodo fulfills her wifely duty at the cost of her soul. Rationalizing Alfred's behavior, justifying his misdeeds, Dodo temporizes, apologizes, crumbles under the weight of her husband's demands. Instead of a spirited, brave lady married to a demanding, domineering man, Dodo becomes his victim. As the tale moves between Alfred's death and the reminiscences of confrontation, humiliation and emotional abuse, this rogue's gallery of demeaning incidents is painful to explore, competition with her sisters for the affection of her husband, the ultimate betrayal of a mistress replacing her in the family home, Dodo's removal to a smaller dwelling. Given the author's familiarity with Dickens and his family history, had this been offered as a biography, it might have been more palatable to this reader. But Dodo's long-suffering cooperation in chapter after chapter peels away any compassion I might have, replaced by frustration and disappointment. This is the story of a victim, unlike her Victorian counterparts in that Dorothea is married to a man beloved by the people; he shall always be a hero, she a tragic failure. But without spirit- or hope- Dodo fails on a more significant scale that that of society's expectations. Battered and denied, in a laudanum-induced fugue when her children need her, Dorothea wears her crown of thorns proudly, parading her scars like badges of honor. It is literally painful to endure the weight of this marital story, the stripping of one to appease the massive needs of the other. Dodo makes me weary, her weakness my burden. And there is no relief with Alfred's death, Dodo clinging to the fragments of a

Wonderfully compelling

The thinly-disguised story of Catherine Dickens, wife of the famous author, is at the heart of this unpretentious, unassuming novel.The celebrated author Alfred Gibson has died, leaving England in mourning. His estranged wife, Dorothy (or "Dodo") sits at home as the funeral and reading of the will take place. As she sits, she looks back on her twenty-year-plus marriage to "the One and Only," and "The Great Original." An invitation to visit Queen Victoria, as well to her sister Sissy and the actress Wilhelmina Rickets, leads to another series of reflections on her marriage. It's a quiet novel, simple yet complicated in many ways. There's not much action, certainly not in the present day, but there's a certain gentleness of language that makes this book compellingly readable. Dodo, despite her shy, retiring ways, is a likeable heroine, strong in the ways a "typical" Victorian woman wasn't supposed to be. In addition, I enjoyed the way the characters interacted with one another: Dodo's daughter Kitty, the son-in-law who is obsessed with money; but most of all, Alfred Gibson himself: control freak, obsessed with keeping poverty at bay (even when he was in his most successful period), and eagerness to change the truth when it suits him. I get the feeling that Gibson isn't supposed to be likeable, but he's charismatic enough that the people around him tend to overlook his flaws. The only one who realizes who Gibson really was is, ironically, Dodo. To the modern reader, the Victorian era is a strange place--all those customs regarding mourning, for example, are simply mind-boggling. Dorothy's world is one that's strictly defined by traditions and conventions, and Dodo's story is that of a woman who isn't afraid to bend the rules a bit. In all, an excellent novel, worthy of having been longlisted for the Booker Prize. I know that the price of this book is a little steep for a paperback, but add it to your wish list this holiday season. It's definitely a book that's worth it.