Girl in a Blue Dress

Gaynor Arnold

Dorothea mourns the death of the estranged husband she never stopped loving but his sudden passing provides the opportunity to find out why he treated her so shabbily. The marriage of Charles Dickens (the original celebrity author - charismatic yet capable of so much damage) was the inspiration behind this fascinating tale. A real insight into the hypocrisy of Victorian society – and the powerless of women, whatever their social standing.

Extract

I was transfixed by a vision: the figure of a young man standing perfectly still in the spilling lamplight below, dressed in an eye-catching way I knew was not quite gentlemanly - a scarlet waistcoat, a sky-blue coat, and slender trousers of a buff that was almost yellow. He had voluptuous long hair, far too wayward and rich for a man; and deep brown eyes, too wayward and rich for anyone.

Parallels