Dr Cindy Sughrue, Director, writes: Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917) is one of the most intriguing, yet little known, women of the Victorian age both in relation to her brother-in-law, the great writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870), but also in her own right as a single woman navigating the social constraints of the age to forge and maintain a stable position for herself.
Georgina moved into the Dickens household aged just 15 as lively company for the young family and to help her older sister, Catherine, in the running of the household. Over a period of nearly 30 years, Dickens and Georgina shared a home and became close friends. When the Dickens’s marriage failed and Charles and Catherine separated, Georgina remained with Dickens as ‘servant housekeeper’ but also as confidante and advisor, a role she maintained until Dickens’s death in 1870. Dickens described Georgina in his will as his ‘truest and best friend’ and made her guardian of his youngest child, as well as leaving her the modern equivalent of £1 million. Georgina was appointed co-executor of Dickens’s will along with his close friend John Forster, and she was a key figure in safeguarding his reputation and legacy until her own death in 1917.
Charles Kent (1823-1902), the recipient of these letters, is also of significance for the Museum due to his lengthy friendship with both Charles Dickens and Georgina Hogarth. Kent was an English poet, biographer and journalist who became editor of The Sun newspaper and contributed to Dickens’s weekly magazines, Household Words and All the Year Round. As this acquisition reveals, Kent and Georgina began writing to each other while Dickens was still alive, and were later able to share their profound grief on his sudden death, as well as discuss their subsequent efforts to preserve Dickens’s reputation and promote his work.
A particularly moving letter, on mourning paper, is written on the first anniversary of Dickens’s death, in which Georgina expresses that if it weren’t supposed to be wicked to wish for one’s own death, she would, as life is proving to be almost unbearable. Another letter talks about giving a keepsake, Dickens’s penknife, to Kent, and another refers to Kent’s plan to stage theatrical readings in Dickens’s memory.
Georgina Hogarth was a major figure in Dickens’s life and household, and although the Museum holds 23 letters from Georgina to a number of correspondents, these are largely brief administrative documents, with Georgina’s voice featuring in only a small number. This collection of 120 letters is a game-changing body of material that will allow us to reassess Georgina’s life, the domestic circumstances of the Dickens family and her friendship with Dickens in her own words, as well as illuminating her central role as a guardian of Dickens’s reputation and legacy.
The letters have significant research potential and will enhance the Museum’s primary research, temporary exhibitions and permanent displays.
