The Invisible Woman

1. The Erasure of Women, Especially Actresses

This is the story of someone who – almost – wasn’t there; who vanished into thin air.

History's omissions. The book explores how women, particularly those in professions like acting, were often deliberately written out of history or forced to deny their own experiences. Nelly Ternan's story is a prime example of this historical erasure, where her life and significance were nearly lost to time. This wasn't accidental; it was a conscious process driven by societal norms and the desire to protect reputations.

Reasons for invisibility. Nelly and her sister Fanny were largely erased from public record for two main reasons:

• Nelly's relationship with Charles Dickens was a "blot on the good name" of a national idol, and his powerful public relations machinery worked to conceal it.
• The Ternans belonged to the theatrical world, a subculture viewed with suspicion and often associated with immorality and "public prostitution" by respectable Victorian society.

Self-imposed silence. The Ternan sisters themselves participated in their own erasure, feeling it necessary to hide their theatrical past to gain social acceptance and respectability. This fear of scandal and disgrace led them to suppress their own histories and experiences, even from their children, highlighting the immense pressure placed upon women who deviated from conventional paths.

2. The Unique World of Victorian Theatre

The stage was virtually the only profession in which this sort of independence was possible for women at this time.

A world apart. The theatre in the 19th century was a unique microcosm that operated under different rules than mainstream Victorian society. It offered women opportunities for independence and professional agency rarely found elsewhere, including:

• Earning power equal to or greater than men.
• The ability to make their own working contracts.
• Acceptance as directors and managers.

Challenges and stigma. Despite opportunities, the theatrical profession carried a significant social stigma. Actresses were often viewed with suspicion, accused of vanity, deceit, and even prostitution, regardless of their personal conduct. This prejudice was deeply ingrained, making it difficult for actresses to gain respectability outside their own community.

Solidarity and resilience. Facing external disapproval, the theatrical community fostered a sense of solidarity. Actresses like Fanny Kelly and Mrs. Siddons were acutely aware of the equivocal admiration they received, but many, like Charlotte Deans, displayed immense courage and resilience, enduring hardship and prejudice while dedicating themselves to their art.

3. The Ternan Sisters: A Theatrical Matriarchy

Nelly’s history begins with a matriarchy.

Generations on stage. The Ternan sisters were born into a family deeply rooted in the theatre, tracing back to their grandmother, Martha Maria Mottershed, who joined a company and married the prompter. Their mother, Frances Eleanor Jarman, was a child performer from age two and became the family's breadwinner after her husband's disappearance and death. This established a pattern of female independence and resilience.

Early training and life. The sisters grew up immersed in the backstage world, constantly traveling between towns and living in temporary lodgings. Their education was unconventional, focused on performance skills like:

• Dancing and singing.
• Mimicry and improvisation.
• Learning lines and creating costumes.

Shared bonds and support. Without stable homes or consistent parental attention, the sisters formed strong bonds, creating their own world within the theatrical community. Fanny, the eldest and a celebrated child prodigy, took a protective role towards her younger sisters, especially Nelly, on whom she "lavished protective love."

4. Dickens's Lifelong Fascination with the Stage

There was no time of his life when he was not fascinated by the stage and by the idea of performance.

Early theatrical ambitions. From childhood, Dickens was drawn to the theatre, performing as a child, writing plays, and organizing amateur theatricals. His mimicry skills, possibly learned from his mother, were foundational to his later dramatic readings and character creation. He even seriously pursued a career as a professional actor in his early twenties.

Deep engagement. Despite becoming a world-famous writer, Dickens maintained a close relationship with the theatre throughout his life. He:

• Attended performances frequently, from high drama to burlesque.
• Befriended actors, managers, and playwrights.
• Acted as a theatre critic and editor of theatrical memoirs.
• Organized elaborate amateur productions, often involving his family and friends.

Complex views on actresses. While fascinated by the stage, Dickens held complex and sometimes contradictory views on actresses. He admired their talent and resilience but also reflected societal prejudices, warning his own daughter against the profession's dangers while simultaneously being drawn to the "gaslight fairies" and their blend of knowledge and apparent innocence.

5. The Fateful Meeting (1857) and Scandal

As Dickens’s fellow author and member, Thackeray, arrived for the evening, he was asked for his opinion. At once and authoritatively he denied that the sister-in-law was the cause of the trouble. He had been told the truth at Epsom races. The affair was not with her at all: ‘No says I no such thing – its with an actress.’

A professional connection. Dickens first met the Ternan sisters in August 1857 when seeking professional actresses to replace amateur ladies in his production of The Frozen Deep for a performance in Manchester. Mrs. Ternan, Maria, and Nelly were recommended by a theatre manager friend, bringing them into Dickens's orbit.

Immediate fascination. Dickens, then 45 and already a literary giant, was instantly captivated by the Ternans, particularly the youngest, Nelly, who was just 18. He was struck by their resilience, intelligence, and the contrast between their theatrical background and their apparent innocence. His interest quickly intensified beyond professional collaboration.

Public scandal. By 1858, rumors of Dickens's affair were circulating, initially focusing on his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth. Thackeray's blunt correction of this gossip at the Garrick Club revealed the truth: the affair was "with an actress." This led to Dickens's public denial and the painful, very public separation from his wife, Catherine, causing immense distress to his family and damaging his carefully cultivated image of domestic harmony.

6. The Double Life: Secrecy and Hidden Homes

He had perfected a way of life which allowed him freedom to come and go as he chose, always living in more than one place, and sometimes with three or even four semi-permanent addresses, quite apart from his reading tours and working trips.

The need for concealment. Following the scandal and his public denial, Dickens was determined to keep his relationship with Nelly secret. This necessitated a complex double life, involving:

• Maintaining multiple residences (Gad's Hill, Wellington Street flat).
• Frequent, often clandestine, travel between these locations and Nelly's various homes.
• Using false names for Nelly's residences (e.g., Charles Tringham in Slough and Peckham).

Nelly's hidden life. After leaving the stage in 1859, Nelly's life became one of enforced invisibility. She lived in homes provided by Dickens, first in London (Berners Street, Ampthill Square) and later in suburban or provincial locations (Slough, Peckham). Her existence was largely confined to waiting for Dickens's visits and maintaining the facade of respectability.

The cost of secrecy. This hidden life, while providing financial security and leisure, came at a significant personal cost to Nelly. She was cut off from her own generation, unable to pursue a conventional social life or openly seek marriage. The constant need for deception and the strain of her ambiguous position contributed to her later ill health and unhappiness.

7. The Burden of Secrecy and Possible Child

If she became his mistress, every time he took her in his arms, he would be inflicting on her the fear of becoming pregnant with a child which would shame her, and which could never be openly acknowledged by its father...

Anxiety and guilt. The secrecy surrounding their relationship created immense anxiety for both Dickens and Nelly. For Dickens, it meant living a lie and fearing exposure, which he acknowledged caused him "never to be forgotten misery." For Nelly, it meant living in a state of constant vulnerability and potential disgrace.

The possibility of a child. Evidence suggests Nelly may have become pregnant by Dickens, possibly more than once. The diary entry mentioning "Arrival" and "Loss" in April 1867, coupled with later family testimony, points to the birth and death of a child. This would have added a profound layer of grief, shame, and secrecy to their lives.

Impact on Nelly's health. The emotional strain of the relationship, the secrecy, the possible loss of a child, and the physical trauma of the Staplehurst accident likely contributed to Nelly's delicate health in her later years. Her illness became a tangible manifestation of the burdens she carried.

8. Reinvention: Nelly's Later Life and Marriage

So began 1876, with a new life and a new name.

A new identity. After Dickens's death in 1870, Nelly was finally free to build a new life. With the financial security provided by Dickens, she embarked on a process of reinvention, shedding her past as an actress and mistress to become a respectable lady. She traveled abroad, cultivated her interests, and sought a conventional future.

Marriage to George Robinson. In 1876, Nelly married George Wharton Robinson, a young clergyman. This marriage provided her with the social legitimacy and stability she had long desired. She adopted a new name and, crucially, a new age, subtracting fourteen years from her true age to align with her desired persona.

Life in Margate. As Mrs. George Wharton Robinson, Nelly settled in Margate and became a model of Victorian respectability. She was active in local charities, organized theatricals, and presented herself as a delicate lady from a cultivated background. This period marked a deliberate and successful effort to erase her past and live a conventional life.

9. The Sisters' Divergent Paths (Fanny & Maria)

Thus Maria, the merry, original and outspoken, emerges as the most unorthodox, both by leaving her husband and by becoming a successful career woman as a foreign correspondent.

Escape from the stage. Like Nelly, Fanny and Maria eventually left the theatrical profession, finding its prospects limited and its social standing undesirable. They pursued different paths to respectability and fulfillment.

Fanny's literary life. Fanny, the eldest, became a successful novelist and biographer, often writing under her married name, Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope. She married into a distinguished literary family and continued to cultivate her intellectual interests, though her relationship with Dickens became strained later in life.

Maria's independent career. Maria, the most unconventional, left her marriage to become an artist and a highly successful foreign correspondent in Rome. She embraced independence and professional ambition, living a life far removed from Victorian domesticity and proving that women could thrive in demanding careers.

10. Posthumous Revelations and Enduring Mystery

It seemed a good moment to start putting something on paper which might restore Nelly to visibility.

The secret emerges. Despite efforts to maintain secrecy, hints and rumors about Dickens's relationship with Nelly persisted after his death. Thomas Wright's biography in the 1930s, based on revelations from Canon Benham, brought the story into the public domain, causing scandal and debate.

Family reactions. The revelations were deeply upsetting to Nelly's children, particularly her son Geoffrey, who had been raised in ignorance of his mother's past. His distress and subsequent destruction of family papers highlight the profound impact of the long-held secret.

Historical debate. The exact nature and extent of Dickens's relationship with Nelly remain subjects of historical debate. While evidence points strongly to a long-term, intimate relationship, the lack of definitive documentation and the deliberate efforts to conceal the truth ensure that aspects of Nelly's story, and her true feelings, may forever remain a mystery.

Last updated: May 19, 2025