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 woman. Arnold brings the spirit of Catherine Dickens to
life in the form of Dorothea "Dodo" Gibson-a woman who is doomed to
live in the shadow of her husband, Alfred, the most celebrated
author in the Victorian world.
The story opens on the day of Alfred's funeral. Dorothea is not
among the throngs in attendance when The One and Only is laid to
rest. Her mourning must take place within the walls of her modest
apartment, a parting gift from Alfred as he ushered her out of
their shared home and his life more than a decade earlier. Even her
own children, save her outspoken daughter Kitty, are not there to
offer her comfort-they were poisoned against her when Alfred
publicly declared her an unfit wife and mother. Though she refuses
to don the proper mourning attire, Dodo cannot bring herself to
demonize her late husband, something that comes all too easily to
Kitty.
Instead, she reflects on their time together-their clandestine and
passionate courtship, when he was a force of nature and she a
willing follower; and the salad days of their marriage, before too
many children sapped her vitality and his interest. She uncovers
the frighteningly hypnotic power of the celebrity author she
married. Now liberated from his hold on her, Dodo finds the courage
to face her adult children, the sister who betrayed her, and the
charming actress who claimed her husband's love and left her heart
aching.
A sweeping tale of love and loss that was long-listed for both the
Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize, "Girl in a Blue Dress" is
both an intimate peek at the woman who was behind one of
literature's most esteemed men and a fascinating rumination on
marriage that will resonate across centuries.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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