07/10/2025
She gave him ten children. She buried three with her own hands. She followed him across the ocean, stood by him through fame and struggle, and kept a household that never stopped moving.
And yet, Catherine Hogarth — the wife of Charles Dickens — was cast aside, blamed, and forgotten.
Dickens, celebrated as a genius of Victorian literature, accused her of being “fat, lazy, jealous, and dull.” He even made their private pain public, publishing a letter that painted himself as the victim. The world pitied him. Few pitied her.
But who wouldn’t feel tired after ten pregnancies? Who wouldn’t gain weight, or collapse in grief after burying children? Catherine was not weak. She was strong. She endured.
Her marriage ended not because of her, but because Dickens fell for a much younger actress, Ellen Ternan. Divorce was impossible in those days, so Catherine became the scapegoat. He even built a wall in their home to keep her apart.
One day, Catherine put on her hat, walked out the door, and never went back. She lost her children, her home, and her place in society.
Before she died, she wished only for one thing — that the love letters Dickens had once written her be published, to prove she had been loved. That wish was denied.
But her story lives. Catherine Dickens was not a burden. She was a survivor.
