Dora Annie Dickens
Encyclopedia
Dora Annie Dickens was the infant daughter of English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 novelist
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 and his wife Catherine
Catherine Dickens
Catherine 'Kate' Thomson Dickens was the wife of English novelist Charles Dickens, with whom he fathered 10 children.-Marriage:...

. She was the ninth of their ten children, and the youngest of their three daughters.

A short life

Dora Dickens was named after the character Dora Spenlow
Dora Spenlow
Dora Spenlow is a character in the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. David falls in love with Dora, who is beautiful but foolish, and later marries her. She proves unable to cope with anything but being a child bride, and is more interested in playing with her dog, Jip, than in acting as...

, the child-bride of David Copperfield
David Copperfield (character)
David Copperfield is the character after which the 1850 Charles Dickens novel, David Copperfield, was named. The character is widely thought to be based on Dickens himself, using many elements of his own childhood.-Origin:...

 in Dickens's 1850 novel David Copperfield
David Copperfield (novel)
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery , commonly referred to as David Copperfield, is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Like most of his works, it originally appeared in serial...

. According to Dickens's oldest daughter Mary
Mary Dickens
Mary 'Mamie' Angela Dickens was the oldest daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine...

, on the day of Dora's unexpected death on April 14 1851, her father had spent much of his time "playing with the children and carrying little Dora about the house and garden" of their Devonshire Terrace home. Dickens then got changed and went to the London Tavern for an annual dinner at which he was to give a speech. Shortly before Dickens spoke his friend John Forster was called out of the room by one of Dickens's servants, who came with the news that Dora had suddenly died after suffering 'convulsions'. Forster decided to keep the news from Dickens until after he had made his contribution to the meeting. Then, with the assistance of Mark Lemon
Mark Lemon
Mark Lemon was founding editor of both Punch and The Field.-Biography:Lemon was born in London on the 30 November 1809. He was the son of Martin Lemon, a hop merchant, and Alice Collis. His parents married on 26 December 1808 at St Mary, Marylebone, London...

, Forster told Dickens the sad news.

" Half an hour before [Dickens] rose to speak I had been called out of the room by one of the servants from Devonshire-terrace to tell me his child Dora was suddenly dead. She had not been strong from her birth; but there was just at this time no cause for special fear, when unexpected convulsions came, and the frail little life passed away. My decision had to be formed at once; and I satisfied myself that it would be best to permit his part of the proceedings to close before the truth was told to him. But as he went on, after the sentences I have quoted, to speak of actors having to come from scenes of sickness, of suffering, aye, even of death itself, to play their parts before us, my part was very difficult."

Impact on Dickens

Dickens did not break down until he returned home, when, his daughter Mary
Mary Dickens
Mary 'Mamie' Angela Dickens was the oldest daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine...

 later recalled, "I remember what a change seemed to have come over my dear father's face when we saw him again... how pale and sad it looked.". All that night he sat keeping watch over his daughter's body, supported by his friend Mark Lemon
Mark Lemon
Mark Lemon was founding editor of both Punch and The Field.-Biography:Lemon was born in London on the 30 November 1809. He was the son of Martin Lemon, a hop merchant, and Alice Collis. His parents married on 26 December 1808 at St Mary, Marylebone, London...

. The next day Dickens wrote to his wife Catherine
Catherine Dickens
Catherine 'Kate' Thomson Dickens was the wife of English novelist Charles Dickens, with whom he fathered 10 children.-Marriage:...

, who was recuperating at Malvern
Malvern, Worcestershire
Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...

 in Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

. Anxious that the news might cause a further breakdown in her health, Dickens wrote "I think her very ill", even though Dora was already dead. Forster delivered the letter to her at Malvern himself, and eventually told her the truth. Catherine then "fell into a state of 'morbid' grief and suffering", recovering her composure after twelve hours or so. Dickens himself managed to retain his composure for some time, but Mary Dickens remembered that eventually he could no longer control his grief. "He did not break down until, an evening or two after her death, some beautiful flowers were sent... He was about to take them upstairs and place them on the little dead baby, when he suddenly gave way completely."

Dickens buried his daughter in Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....

, on a spot from which it was possible to see London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and on her own death in 1879, Dora's mother Catherine Dickens
Catherine Dickens
Catherine 'Kate' Thomson Dickens was the wife of English novelist Charles Dickens, with whom he fathered 10 children.-Marriage:...

 was buried with her.

External links

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