Charles Dickens and his Hidden Family History (Hardback)

Charles Dickens is celebrated as one of the greatest novelists in English literature, yet much of his family history has remained obscured, until now. Charles Dickens and His Hidden Family History uncovers the lesser-known threads of his ancestry, revealing how generations of secrets, scandals, and connections quietly shaped his life and work, and how he used his influence and wealth to hide aspects of his life and background from public knowledge.

Who were the Barrows, Dickens’s maternal line, and how did their eighteenth-century links to the infamous Edward Colston echo in his writing? Was Dickens’s father truly the son of a butler, or might the aristocratic Crewe family have left a hidden imprint in Bleak House? What drove Dickens’s fear of familial insanity, and how did it inspire unforgettable characters like Miss Havisham?

What induced Dickens to extend an enormously generous mortgage to an Irish bootmaker to buy a large property in North London, and what did it have to do with his black sheep brother Augustus? How did a middle aged Jewish woman persuade Dickens to atone for his antisemitism, and what does this tell us about his family links to the Jewish community, and his own secret family history?

Drawing on previously unexplored records and revealing new biographical insights, this book delves deep into the family, social, and historical influences that shaped Dickens’s imagination. For anyone who thinks they know Dickens, this book offers a fresh, fascinating perspective on the hidden roots of his genius.