The Times Literary Supplement has a review of a new book by Jenny Hartley, Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women. No, it's not what it sounds like. It's the story of Dickens's "most important and most characteristic charitable venture," a home for women deemed "irreclaimable" by others.
Reviewer John Bowen writes that despite various setbacks, "overall, it is striking how clear-minded the Urania project was and how realistic and thorough in execution. Dickens and [fellow philanthropist Angela] Burdett-Coutts were simply unwilling to be indifferent to the suffering that surrounded them, and unfailingly energetic in pursuing the chances of change for the better. Urania gave those who entered its doors decent food and clothing, some education, a library, a garden and even music lessons from Dickens’s old friend John Hullah, Professor at King’s College London. . . . Caroline Chisholm, a fellow advocate of emigration, asked Dickens if it really was true that his ex-prostitutes 'had Pianos'. 'I shall always regret', he told Miss Coutts, 'that I didn’t answer yes – each girl a grand, downstairs – and a cottage in her bedroom – besides a small guitar in the washhouse.'"
Read more of Bowen's intriguing and insightful review here.
In other news, commenter Juliana Maantay asked about the location of Aunt Betsey's house in the David Copperfield movie. A search turned up this site, which places it in Hampshire and has some lovely photos (including one of the bird wallpaper)!
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