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Smitten with a young actress named Ellen Ternan, Dickens had turned against and separated from Catherine, his wife of twenty years and the mother of his ten children. His behavior throughout the episode – like that of a “madman,” as his daughter Katey recounted – brought “misery and unhappiness” to his family, and cost him close friendships. It brought him misery and unhappiness as well, as he strove to justify himself (without much success) in public but suffered guilt in private, according to his daughter Mamie.

That behavior has long been a source of consternation for fans who love the magnanimous humanity of his work and struggle to reconcile these two disparate sides of him.