Charles Dickens’s novels are often criticised for their idealised passive female characters, but as the Dickens Museum now shows, he was, in life and in death, surrounded by formidable, intelligent and independent women.
A new exhibition at the museum shifts attention away from Dickens as a solitary genius and instead places women at the centre of his creative world and cultural afterlife.
One of the exhibition’s most moving threads centres on Mary Hogarth, Dickens’s sister-in-law, whose sudden death in the Doughty Street house haunted him for years. Her influence can be traced in characters such as Little Nell (The Old Curiosity Shop) and Rose Maylie (Oliver Twist), both embodiments of Dickens’s grief.
Elsewhere, the exhibition highlights women whose strength and social engagement pushed Dickens’s writing in new directions. Angela Burdett-Coutts, the immensely wealthy philanthropist and founder of the Ragged School Union, inspired the gentle Agnes Wickfield (David Copperfield), though her real-life achievements far outstripped the character’s meekness.
A draft preface by Burdett-Coutts, annotated by Dickens in blue ink and displayed for the first time, underlines their close working relationship.
Together, they also founded Urania Cottage in Shepherd’s Bush, offering homeless women education, shelter and the possibility of a new life abroad. Dickens’s encounters with the homeless women gradually complicated his fictional portrayals of fallen women.
However, the exhibition makes clear that Dickens still felt constrained by Victorian expectations, often having to tone down what he knew was going on in the real world.
Women also fought back against their fictional distortions. Jane Seymour-Hill, Catherine Dickens’s chiropodist, successfully persuaded Dickens to revise the grotesque portrayal of Miss Mowcher (David Copperfield), insisting on a more humane depiction of disability.
After Dickens’s death, it was women who shaped what survived.
Catherine Dickens, long sidelined by her husband’s narrative of their separation, is re-presented here as intelligent, socially adept and deeply loved by her children. Georgina Hogarth, who remained with Dickens until his death, played a decisive role in controlling his papers and posthumous image. His daughter Katey Perugini, a gifted artist, repeatedly challenged her father in life but later helped preserve his legacy in art.
The exhibition tries to show that while many of our ideas about Victorian ladies were shaped by Dickens’ writings, much of what we know about Dickens the man comes from the ladies who shaped his life and legacy.
The exhibition, Extra/Ordinary Women, is at the Charles Dickens Museum until September 2026. It’s included in the general entry to the museum.
- Standard Ticket: £13.58
- Child (between 6 and 16) : £8.33
- Child (under 6) : Free
- Concession: £11.48
Details here.
