MP3 Audio Sample
Short Synopsis
Acclaimed biographer Claire Tomalin provides a compelling portrait of Nelly Ternan, the struggling actress whose affair with novelist Charles Dickens led to scandal.
Full Synopsis
Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan met in 1857; she was 18, a hard-working actress performing in his production of The Frozen Deep, and he was 45, the most lionized writer in England. Out of their meeting came a love affair that lasted thirteen years and destroyed Dickens's marriage while effacing Nelly Ternan from the public record.
In this remarkable work of biography and scholarly reconstruction, the acclaimed biographer of Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys and Jane Austen rescues Nelly from the shadows of history, not only returning the neglected actress to her rightful place, but also providing a compelling portrait of the great Victorian novelist himself. The result is a thrilling literary detective story and a deeply compassionate work that encompasses all those women who were exiled from the warm, well-lighted parlors of Victorian England.
Author Claire Tomalin
Narrated by Wanda McCaddon
Publication date Oct 30, 2012
Running time 11 hrs
Available Formats
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