Film Review: The Invisible Woman: Dickens' Secret Lover

The rain continuing to pour down over Bath, we decided an afternoon trip to the cinema was in order.

The Invisible Woman is a BBC film directed by Ralph Fiennes, based on the book The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin. 

Available here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/

I was eager to see this film as I wrote my dissertation on Dickens’ Bleak House and became quite fond of him in the six months I spent writing and researching it. 

Ellen Lawless Turnan, known as Nelly, was an actress, better known for being Dickens’ mistress, whom she first met in 1857 when she was just seventeen: Dickens was 45. Although he eventually separated from his wife Catherine a year after meeting the vivacious Nelly, she continued to be kept a secret from the general public, hence the film’s title. 

After Dickens’ death she went onto marry again and the couple ran a boys school in Margate; the film features several scenes of Nelly walking along the Essex coastline, venting her inner torment on the sandy dunes whilst the sea rages in the background. 

The affair reaches its peak as Catherine Dickens visits Turnan on her eighteenth birthday to present her with a ruby bracelet meant as a gift to the young actress from her lover, sent mistakenly to Catherine instead. Awkward or what. 

It is thought Dickens based many of his later female literary creations on Turnan, including Estella in Great Expectations. 

I can certainly testify to the fact she was kept invisible, veiled from public knowledge, as despite the vast amounts of research I conducted for my dissertation I never came across her name, although I was aware his marriage to Catherine, with whom he had ten children, had soured towards the end of his life. 

The old tiresome wife always seems to loose out to the youthful and beautiful girl. 

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the film as much as I did; I thought it would follow the course of all the other period dramas that grace our screens, but I was pleasantly surprised and kept entertained throughout. I definitely recommend a trip to see this, especially if you are interested in Dickens and his work. One of the first examples of 'celebrity culture', Dickens lived out most of his life under intense scrutiny from the public eye and as a result was often misunderstood. 

Coming out of the darkened cinema we were greeted by a welcome surprise: sun! The rain had momentarily given way to bright blue skies, perfect for a little stroll around the city.