“The Invisible Woman” by Claire Tomalin

How Invisible was Nelly? 

I’m re-reading and loving “The Invisible Women” by Claire Tomalin, the biography of Nelly Ternan, Charles Dickens’ secret lover of twelve years.

In 1863, Dickens destroyed all letters written to him over his lifetime, but he could not convince people who had received letters from him to eradicate them.

After his death, Dickens’ children feverously destroyed evidence of their father’s clandestine affair and in the opening chapter of “The Invisible Woman”, titled ‘N’, Claire Tomalin wrote:

“This is the story of someone who—almost—wasn’t there: who vanished into thin air. Her name, dates, family and experiences very nearly disappeared from the record for good. Why and how          this happened is the theme; and how—by a hair’s breadth—she was reclaimed from oblivion despite strenuous efforts to keep her there.”

Voltaire and Invisibility

The French Enlightenment writer and philosopher, Voltaire, once wrote to a friend: ‘We owe respect to the living; to the dead, we owe only the truth.’

Claire Tomalin grappled with this statement before embarking on “The Invisible Woman”. Although Dickens was long dead, Tomalin knew it would dismay his readers when they learned of his clandestine affair because it cast a new light on him and his character, one that conflicted with his carefully crafted reputation as an upstanding family man and pillar of society.