A new exhibition at The Charles Dickens Museum of unpublished and rarely-seen letters reveal plenty of intriguing details of life within the Dickens family in the years immediately following the death of Dickens in 1870, including a mention of his writing chalet at Gad's Hill.
The letters were all sent by members of the Dickens family to ‘Plorn’ Dickens (1852-1902), the youngest son of Charles and Catherine Dickens, between 1868 and 1902 and was acquired by the Museum at auction on in January this year at auction.
The collection shows the affectionate but sometimes strained relationships between the Dickens siblings, in one case caused by wrangling over the disposal of Charles Dickens’s chalet at Gad’s Hill. On July 12, 1871, the eldest daughter, Mamie Dickens (1838-1896), wrote to Plorn about their brother Francis (1844-1886). “Yes, we looked forward with great pleasure to seeing Franky again, but his visit has been a great disappointment as far as we are concerned, for we have seen hardly anything of him. Ever since the business of the Chalet he has never been near us. I have written to him constantly asking him to come here. We, as well as Kitty, have done everything we possibly could to make him welcome. However, we lead such a quiet life now, that I think he found us dull. He was always a queer fellow."
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