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Amal El-Mohtar@amalelmohtar.com |
oh hey did y'all know that in 1858 when Charles Dickens was 45 he tried to have his wife institutionalized by falsely claiming she was insane & didn't love the ten children she had borne him, all so he could bang an 18 year old actress in his employ & this is has only really emerged since 2019
92 replies 486 reposts 1309 likes
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Meredith
@merrieberrie.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Yes! all! cis! men!
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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(((Eddie)))
@abracadocious.bsky.social
[ View ] |
More reasons to hate Dickens, @nameshiv.bsky.social
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Drew Melbourne
@drewmelbourne.com
[ View ] |
I'm just amazed (given the general shittiness of the world then and now) that it didn't work!
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Boz Handy Bosma, Ph.D.
@bbbozzz.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Is there some reference in this to Dickens having an affair with Ellen Ternan?. There is recent work suggesting she was his illegitimate daughter. The evidence is sparse either way. Not to defend Dickens’ attempts to have his wife committed. All to common and evil. Still happens today.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Sarah Thurmond
@sarahthurmond.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Interesting. Another random fact: Harry Lloyd, the actor who played Viserys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, is the great-great-great grandson of Dickens.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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@rosyclover.bsky.social
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I think I have heard this.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Delorian Tokes
@delorian.bsky.social
[ View ] |
new typical Dickensian dude just dropped
0 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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DW
@dustyworm.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Story old as time and young as today. Powerful men stomping on the weak when they are no longer useful.
1 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Barrington Kenilworth IV
@barringtonk.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The GQP wants to bring these days back. Any man who votes republican hates women. Any woman who votes Republican hates herself.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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V
@infinitecurses.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Did you know claiming someone attempted to kill themselves or getting them 5150'd will allow this to be the directive believed before their own words for the rest of their lives? It lingers on police records, hospital records, and causes the "patient" to forfeit their basic civil rights. Protocol.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Roger Ailes
@rogerailes.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I did know that.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Thaily
@thaily.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Why are men?
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Felicity Hayes-McCoy
@fhayesmccoy.bsky.social
[ View ] |
As Claire Tomalin's 1990 book The Invisible Woman was filmed 2013, and her Dickens biog, which details his treatment of Catherine, was published 2011, it's rather a stretch for the article to claim that 'up to now most accounts of the Dickens marriage break-up have given his side of the story'.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Stephen Cox Author only more so
@stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Fascinating to see more of her side of the story.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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The Grandest Marquis
@kitschqueen.bsky.social
[ View ] |
@brooklynmargo.bsky.social Has Dickens made the Creep list yet? Because this seems like a solid nomination.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Corrigan Nagy
@corrigannagy.bsky.social
[ View ] |
yes, but thanks to this horror we got the 'happy' ending to 'great expectations' which was dickens screaming from his own personal hell.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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daBookdragon
@dabookdragon.bsky.social
[ View ] |
He also treated his kids like crap. Read up on how they ended up. Tragic.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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The Magenta Egg
@emptymind.bsky.social
[ View ] |
His work is amazing, but yeah. He was every bit the kind of Victorian tool he rages about in his books. I *am* stashing this in my back pocket to taunt my friend who plays Dickens at Dickens Fair with this year though. (I typically play one of the villains half the show, so it’s 100% in character…)
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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WTF Surprise Doll
@wtfsurprisedoll.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I mean that does sound pretty Dickensian 🤷🏻♀️
0 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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George S
@harmonygritz.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Yowza. In a way I'm glad I missed this discovery in 2019. During pandemic lockdown I started reading the Dickens I never (had to) read in school, and this might well have thrown me off doing so. Learning of it today makes me hate human complexity/celeb/artist issues anew.
0 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Nicki Stephens
@nicki2910.bsky.social
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I’m not sure I’m shocked by his misogyny.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Guy Body
@bodycartoon.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Another subject for the “should we cancel talented monsters” debate. As it happens I’ve absolutely loathed Dickens and all his mawkish shite ever since having Bleak House inflicted on me in 5th form, so cancel the ever-lasting crap out of him, folks.
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Eldritch CAT POSSUM
@eldritchcatpossum.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Not a good look Boz.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Trashy McTrashface
@416raccoon.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I mean i already cancelled Dickens decades ago because of his horrible run-on sentences and unreadable prose, but this just adds to my dislike of him.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Cuntace Owens
@duaadiddy.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Isn’t there a movie about this? With Ralph Fiennes?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Jesse Clark
@modusponens.org
[ View ] |
Vote yes on California proposition 1 so I can get my wife institutionalized and bang an 18 year old actress in my employ.
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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CoffeeShopRabbi
@rruth.bsky.social
[ View ] |
So another great writer is revealed to have been a jerk in real life. I once met a writer whose work I admired, and he spent the brief time I talked with him making fun of my disability. His words never spoke the same way to me again, but it filled in some gaps in them, too.
1 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Julia Rios
@omgjulia.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Horrifying, but not exactly surprising. If you want an hour of Sue Perkins dunking on Dickens, please watch Mrs Dickens’ Family Christmas. And yeah, he had real writing chops. It’s so frustrating. youtu.be/dpB-B3Kk4Dw?...
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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🌌PHUZ Face🌌
@phuzface.bsky.social
[ View ] |
OH MY GAWD
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Lee Rowan
@leerowan.bsky.social
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Dumping inconvenient women in asylums was common in Victorian times. LOTS of queer women abused this way. And remember how Freud decided that a girl who reported sexual abuse by her father was actually fanatasizing based on repressed desires? England had a queen but it was misogynist as hell.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Emerence
@damemyniah.bsky.social
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Cripes, I knew he fell in love with a young woman when he was an old man but not this.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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JeannetteBlue
@jeannetteblue.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I think Drunk History covered this.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Mayor of the Moon
@moonmayor.bsky.social
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I thought that this said Charles Darwin and I was like "I thought he loved his cousin wife"
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Cinema Strikes Back
@cinemastrikesback.bsky.social
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10 children! He could field a baseball team!
1 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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Elizabeth Coggin Womack
@ecwomack.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Yeah, he’s gross. Bleak House is amazing, annnnnnnnd yet.
0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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hand_to_eye
@delightw2023.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The fate of many Victorian women.
1 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Roger Langridge
@hotelfred.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I think it’s been known a bit longer than that, it was in Claire Tomalin’s biography from 2012 and it was already documented before that.
1 replies 0 reposts 9 likes
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@josephlcallahan.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Wow, I didn't know that about the author. So, being a creep isn't a modern thing (I know it isn't.)
2 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Minuit
@zoroark.ca
[ View ] |
The dickens, You say?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Topias Uotila
@thuotila.bsky.social
[ View ] |
What a dickens move.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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ramza saddiq
@heartgold.xyz
[ View ] |
really putting the dick (in both senses) in dickens huh
1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Frisky Dingus 🍉
@friskydingus.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I love when we find this kind of thing out a majority of the response seems to be people begging you to not stop liking their works. Love that for us.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Kami Bee
@kami.land
[ View ] |
"troubled" doing a lot of heavy lifting in the opening passage of that article! I can still enjoy his works for what they are, nothing to be gained by cancelling a dead guy, I just hope my mother never comes to hear of any of this...
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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@wabiartqzm.bsky.social
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😮😮😮 Patriarchy kills 😡
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Quangle-Wangle
@maryaed.bsky.social
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I think he was a legit genius who, like so many, got drunk on fame and money, and believed he was thus justified in getting whatever he wanted. He got more horrible as he went along because Genius. Power corrupts. But his books are great. (I know, but show me the unproblematic Victorian novels.)
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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power to the ice pick (Liz)
@pluplubasch.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Boooooooo!
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Dee Severe 🐶🌊🎬🏈🎶🇵🇸
@deesevere.bsky.social
[ View ] |
More proof that great talent and being a good person, are often mutually exclusive.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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The Avvie Nation
@theavvienation.bsky.social
[ View ] |
That is so . . Dickensian
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Miri Baker
@miribaker.bsky.social
[ View ] |
HUH. OKAY
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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@spookylawless.bsky.social
[ View ] |
@medusaswink.bsky.social Our Dickens hatred is justified!
1 replies 1 reposts 3 likes
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Risa Wolf / Killerpuppytails
@risawolf.bsky.social
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I remember Phyllis Rose mentioning (or implying?) something like this in the 1984 edition of Parallel Lives, based on letters from Catherine's aunt. I'm truly glad it's official now, vs something a lot of scholars dismiss like they did when I was growing up. Thank you for passing it on.
0 replies 0 reposts 11 likes
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E.D.E. Bell
@edebell.com
[ View ] |
putting the dickens in Dickens
1 replies 0 reposts 25 likes
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E.D.E. Bell
@edebell.com
[ View ] |
whoa ok
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Amal El-Mohtar
@amalelmohtar.com
[ View ] |
Research! it's amazing!
2 replies 0 reposts 119 likes
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lorem ipsum
@whiskeynachos.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Good Lord the midlife crisis transcends time.
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Nona Moss
@nonamoss.bsky.social
[ View ] |
📌
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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@mherringe.bsky.social
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I would have thought he could boink the young actress regardless.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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FeistyEnglishTeacher
@flower-power.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Here’s a classic work about how psychiatry and other social institutions have historically impeded (or attempted to)healthy psychological development in women. Very relevant to this discussion.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Juni is rewilding the yard
@qrky.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Never could stand Dickens. Vindication.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Paula
@dentonitis.bsky.social
[ View ] |
CANCELED except for Muppet Christmas Carol
1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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J. Eisinger
@jayeeis.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Rapscallions Trying To Bang Their Employees for 500, Alex.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Pete Milan
@petemilan.bsky.social
[ View ] |
There was a film about Dickens and Ellen Ternan which showed him in full creep mode, but I don't think this fact made it in.
0 replies 0 reposts 14 likes
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Phoebe Barton 🚀 🇺🇳
@phoebebarton.bsky.social
[ View ] |
what a dick
0 replies 0 reposts 16 likes
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stuckatthisbit
@stuckatthisbit.bsky.social
[ View ] |
If it’s true about Tuke refusing to certify Dickens’ wife despite his friendship with him, he epitomises what a true professional should always be
0 replies 0 reposts 11 likes
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Nunsense & Shenunigans
@annaleehq.bsky.social
[ View ] |
📌
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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GuyGalaxy
@guygalaxy.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The Dicken's you say
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Yokuutsu
@yokuutsu.bsky.social
[ View ] |
People want to write off current authors for doing horrible things, why hasn't this happened to Dickens and his work too?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Lost Squishy
@lostsquishy.bsky.social
[ View ] |
None of this surprises me.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Pyrholidon Enthusiast ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
@pyrholidon.bsky.social
[ View ] |
well . . . it's too late to cancel him right?
1 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Lesley A Hall
@erinacean.bsky.social
[ View ] |
So, actually contemporaneous with scandal over (now lesser-known) novelist Edward Bulwer ('dark and stormy night') Lytton having his estranged wife confined in an asylum, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosina_... and just before Dickens' actual mate Wilkie Collins published The Woman in White....
0 replies 0 reposts 14 likes
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Al Kennedy
@alkennedy.bsky.social
[ View ] |
He was such a dickhead! He led a full-on character assassination of John Rae when Rae returned to London with evidence that Franklin's crew had turned to cannibalism trying to chart the Northwest Passage (at least partly because he wanted to bang Jane Franklin, imo)
0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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harrier
@harrier-hexx.bsky.social
[ View ] |
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Deacon Blues
@realdeaconblues.bsky.social
[ View ] |
wat.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Joyce (Wolf) Chng/Ch'ng 🐺
@jolantru.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Why am I not surprised that he was not a Nice Person?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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@stevehartzler.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I didn't know that. But it's never surprising to find out a historical person was evil.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Beth
@thisbethlife.bsky.social
[ View ] |
It’s like this just is and has been the way with any man who gets the most basic level of fame/power.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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its moira
@m01r4.bsky.social
[ View ] |
dickens is fascinating because there are these yawning gulfs between his philosophy as expressed in his writing and his interpersonal behavior. dude was regularly writing in the newspaper about how much he hated his fat ugly wife! an unbelievably cruel dude
2 replies 2 reposts 57 likes
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Slip Slidin' Away
@liberallibra.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Yeah, I heard he paid a "Pecker" two hundred pounds to kill the story....
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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cats_hell_yeah
@sukatra.bsky.social
[ View ] |
No I did not but it doesn't surprise me bc too many men were successful at that very ruse for far too long
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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MountainMusings
@mountainmusings.bsky.social
[ View ] |
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Jess Nevins
@jessnevins.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Inspired by Bulwer-Lytton's example, possibly.
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Carriage Return
@carriagereturn.bsky.social
[ View ] |
There's a fairly recent novel called Drood which talks about this all while Dickens is writing Drops and while Wilkie Collins goes slowly insane from opium. I also didn't realize how interesting Dickens daughter Katie was until that
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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MeWantBite
@frogwife.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I hope he’s stuck with Hans Christian Andersen as a room mate forever in Hell.
1 replies 0 reposts 32 likes
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Kate W
@kateweb.bsky.social
[ View ] |
📌
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Tommy
@tommyg.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Deeply horrifying. The cruelty and mendacity of this is breathtaking.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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MyInnerStupid
@myinnerstupid.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Dicken’s “Chuck” phase.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Theseus
@blackbird3000x.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Times never change.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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@AnnWilliams
@annwilliams.bsky.social
[ View ] |
He never was 1 of my favourites: &, Did you know that the Conte of Monte Cristo was a true story, NOT written by Alexander Dumas but PLAGIARISED from old police record written by a legal clerk?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Amelia Antrim
@gingerreckoning.bsky.social
[ View ] |
@vulgarhistory.bsky.social has a great podcast episode about this asshole!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/v...
0 replies 1 reposts 4 likes
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Chris Wilhelm
@cwilhelm24.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Oh, and isn't this the 18 year old actress to whom the lead female character in A Tale of Two Cities bore a suspiciously close resemblance? My students were SO squicked out when I told them about that.
0 replies 0 reposts 10 likes
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Robert Sebastian
@robertthered.bsky.social
[ View ] |
And Dickens ordered the ten children to never speak to their mother again; all obeyed him except the eldest, a son who basically said “the hell with that” and stuck by his mother and prevented her from becoming destitute.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Entery Potivon
@goodguyprime.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The original Christmas Carol visitation was the ghost of Old Past Wife, Hot Babysitter Present, and future Unbangable Wife. God bless us all with hornyness.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes