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Charles Dickens and His Circle
Charles Dickens (1812-70), the foremost novelist of the nineteenth century, was one of the first people to whom the term 'celebrity' in its modern sense was applied. Through sheer force of will he propelled himself from humble beginnings to become one of the world's most famous and adored men, whose extensive circle of friends and associates encompassed many eminent and influential figures of the Victorian age.
Lucinda Hawksley explores the life of Dickens her great-great-great-grandfather, the family and the remarkably diverse group of intelligent, radical, questioning individuals in his orbit: artists, illustrators, poets, social reformers and fellow writers - including those he encountered during his tours of the United States.
Beautifully illustrated with images from The National Portrait Gallery, this book reveals the man behind the novels and the lives of those around him.
Lucinda Hawksley explores the life of Dickens her great-great-great-grandfather, the family and the remarkably diverse group of intelligent, radical, questioning individuals in his orbit: artists, illustrators, poets, social reformers and fellow writers - including those he encountered during his tours of the United States.
Beautifully illustrated with images from The National Portrait Gallery, this book reveals the man behind the novels and the lives of those around him.
- GenresBiography
120 pages, Paperback
First published April 26, 2016
About the author
Lucinda Hawksley
40 books176 followersLucinda Hawksley is a British biographer, author and lecturer. She is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. Hawksley is an award-winning travel writer.
She also writes under the name Lucinda Dickens Hawksley.
She also writes under the name Lucinda Dickens Hawksley.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 1, 2020
As the great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Dickens, Lucinda Hawksley is in a good position to write expansively about her relative and his friends. And that is exactly what she does in 'Charles Dickens and his Circle' as she traces his life and intertwines the various relationships he had with the great and the good of the literary and artistic world which he inhabited.
Dickens' early life is examined before he became famous with Edward Blackmore, of solicitor's Ellis & Blackmore where Dickens was a clerk after his horrifying experience at Warren's Blacking Factory, remembering, 'He was a bright, clever-looking youth' and adding 'Several incidents took place in the office of which he must have been a keen observer , as I recognised some of them in his Pickwick and Nickleby ...'. That was Dickens forte because many of his characters were based on either family members - Mr Micawber on his father for instance - or people he had encountered - Maria Beadnell as Dora in 'David Copperfield' and also as Flora in 'Little Dorrit' immediately spring to mind. And it is often said that Little Nell in 'The Old Curiosity Shop' was based on his wife's sister Mary, who died in Dickens' arms after a night out at the theatre.
Thereafter, the first person to change Dickens' future was George Hogarth, whose daughter Catherine Dickens married. Catherine was not too enamoured of him when they first met even though he was infatuated with her. It was only after his 23rd birthday party that she wrote to her cousin, 'It was a delightful party … Mr Dickens improves very much on acquaintance, he is gentlemanly and pleasant.' As for George Hogarth, he was editor of the Evening Chronicle and he encouraged Dickens to write short stories for the newspaper.
Once 'Pickwick Papers' had proved so popular, Dickens was the literary lion of London and all doors opened to him and his various friendships blossomed. Artists and illustrators such as George Cruikshank and Hablot Knight Browne were the first intimates in the latter category although the friendship with the former did sour in later life and his business relationship with the latter finished unsatisfactorily after more than 20 years.
John Forster, Augustus Egg, John Leech, Mark Lemon - the first editor of 'Punch' - George Henry Lewes, the lover of George Eliot, who in later life refused Dickens' offer to serialise her work, Clarkson Stansfield, the actor William Charles Macready, William Makepeace Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, Thomas and Jane Carlyle and many others fell under his spell and formed part of his social circle. [On a personal note I was disappointed not to see one of my favourite authors, William Harrison Ainsworth, mentioned as a close friend, which he was in Dickens' younger days.]
And on his visits to America he befriended such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who thought him 'a glorious fellow', Washington Irving, who was later angered by Dickens' portrayal of his country in 'American Notes', and Edgar Allan Poe, who ceased his correspondence with Dickens when he (wrongly) believed that Dickens had done him a disservice in a published article.
His lady friends included Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, with whom he operated Urania Cottage, a rehabilitation home for so-called "fallen Women", Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Elizabeth Gaskell, whose work he serialised in his 'All the Year Round' magazine - 'there is no living English writer whose aid I would desire to list in preference to the authoress of 'Mary Barton' - and, of course, the ever faithful Georgina Hogarth, "Auntie Georgie" to his children, who kept house for him and supported him right through to the end. Finally he had a close friend in Ellen Ternan, with whom Henry Dickens later confirmed he had a child that died.
John Everett Millais, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the father and son illustrators Frank and Marcus Stone and William Holman Hunt all enjoyed his friendship as did Hans Christian Andersen, that is until he overstayed his welcome at Gad's Hill Place!
Some fantastic and really well reproduced (as is to be expected of a National Portrait Gallery publication) photographs and drawings adorn this delightful book that gives a superb picture of the man behind the novels and of those who peopled his world. It is very much a 'read-in-one session' book … and that is what I managed to do!
Dickens' early life is examined before he became famous with Edward Blackmore, of solicitor's Ellis & Blackmore where Dickens was a clerk after his horrifying experience at Warren's Blacking Factory, remembering, 'He was a bright, clever-looking youth' and adding 'Several incidents took place in the office of which he must have been a keen observer , as I recognised some of them in his Pickwick and Nickleby ...'. That was Dickens forte because many of his characters were based on either family members - Mr Micawber on his father for instance - or people he had encountered - Maria Beadnell as Dora in 'David Copperfield' and also as Flora in 'Little Dorrit' immediately spring to mind. And it is often said that Little Nell in 'The Old Curiosity Shop' was based on his wife's sister Mary, who died in Dickens' arms after a night out at the theatre.
Thereafter, the first person to change Dickens' future was George Hogarth, whose daughter Catherine Dickens married. Catherine was not too enamoured of him when they first met even though he was infatuated with her. It was only after his 23rd birthday party that she wrote to her cousin, 'It was a delightful party … Mr Dickens improves very much on acquaintance, he is gentlemanly and pleasant.' As for George Hogarth, he was editor of the Evening Chronicle and he encouraged Dickens to write short stories for the newspaper.
Once 'Pickwick Papers' had proved so popular, Dickens was the literary lion of London and all doors opened to him and his various friendships blossomed. Artists and illustrators such as George Cruikshank and Hablot Knight Browne were the first intimates in the latter category although the friendship with the former did sour in later life and his business relationship with the latter finished unsatisfactorily after more than 20 years.
John Forster, Augustus Egg, John Leech, Mark Lemon - the first editor of 'Punch' - George Henry Lewes, the lover of George Eliot, who in later life refused Dickens' offer to serialise her work, Clarkson Stansfield, the actor William Charles Macready, William Makepeace Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, Thomas and Jane Carlyle and many others fell under his spell and formed part of his social circle. [On a personal note I was disappointed not to see one of my favourite authors, William Harrison Ainsworth, mentioned as a close friend, which he was in Dickens' younger days.]
And on his visits to America he befriended such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who thought him 'a glorious fellow', Washington Irving, who was later angered by Dickens' portrayal of his country in 'American Notes', and Edgar Allan Poe, who ceased his correspondence with Dickens when he (wrongly) believed that Dickens had done him a disservice in a published article.
His lady friends included Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, with whom he operated Urania Cottage, a rehabilitation home for so-called "fallen Women", Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Elizabeth Gaskell, whose work he serialised in his 'All the Year Round' magazine - 'there is no living English writer whose aid I would desire to list in preference to the authoress of 'Mary Barton' - and, of course, the ever faithful Georgina Hogarth, "Auntie Georgie" to his children, who kept house for him and supported him right through to the end. Finally he had a close friend in Ellen Ternan, with whom Henry Dickens later confirmed he had a child that died.
John Everett Millais, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the father and son illustrators Frank and Marcus Stone and William Holman Hunt all enjoyed his friendship as did Hans Christian Andersen, that is until he overstayed his welcome at Gad's Hill Place!
Some fantastic and really well reproduced (as is to be expected of a National Portrait Gallery publication) photographs and drawings adorn this delightful book that gives a superb picture of the man behind the novels and of those who peopled his world. It is very much a 'read-in-one session' book … and that is what I managed to do!
August 4, 2026
This is a pretty little book, and covered all sorts of people (other writers, artists, actors, among others) that Dickens was well acquainted with. Some I had never heard of, but most were very well known people.
There is a very nice photo or artist's rendering of each person on a full page opposite the info about them. The info itself, tho, is just a page or two, and often just leaves you wanting to know more, for which you have to look elsewhere.
And one thing that I found questionable was the absence of any mention of Catherine's young sister Mary. Georgina is mentioned as living with the family and being a beloved member, but I had always understood that it was Mary who lived with Charles and Catherine before that--early in their marriage--and up until she died at a young age, which left Dickens inconsolable. And that more than one of his books had characters that were patterned after her. Here she is never mentioned once, which I found very odd. Why would she not be counted as part of "Dickens' circle"?
One thing I did like: on her own page (as the great-great-great granddaughter of Dickens), Ms. Hawksley says that she was unaware until primary school that Dickens was so famous, and that she read his books later in her own time, coming to love them that way.
There is a very nice photo or artist's rendering of each person on a full page opposite the info about them. The info itself, tho, is just a page or two, and often just leaves you wanting to know more, for which you have to look elsewhere.
And one thing that I found questionable was the absence of any mention of Catherine's young sister Mary. Georgina is mentioned as living with the family and being a beloved member, but I had always understood that it was Mary who lived with Charles and Catherine before that--early in their marriage--and up until she died at a young age, which left Dickens inconsolable. And that more than one of his books had characters that were patterned after her. Here she is never mentioned once, which I found very odd. Why would she not be counted as part of "Dickens' circle"?
One thing I did like: on her own page (as the great-great-great granddaughter of Dickens), Ms. Hawksley says that she was unaware until primary school that Dickens was so famous, and that she read his books later in her own time, coming to love them that way.
May 20, 2021
Nice quick read. Easy to read in a way that almost felt conversational. As expected with a book by the National Portrait Gallery, the photos were lovely. I bought this for £1 in The Works so perhaps if I had paid more my review may have been more critical. Would definitely recommend though!
January 24, 2026
This little book from the National Portrait Gallery is a really lovely collection of portraits of the people in Dickens' life, in loosely chronological order, accompanied by short bios written by one of his descendants. While not a substitute for a full biography, it's a wonderful resource for putting faces to names and seeing Dickens' social circle as actual people with lives of their own, and finding out which ones might have informed some of his characters.
November 13, 2016
Well organized and full of excellent information
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews