Mrs. Dickens
On sale
11th June 2026
Price: £20
‘Mrs Dickens has my whole heart . . . I was enthralled’ Jennie Godfrey
London, 1836. Nineteen-year-old Kate Hogarth falls in love with the young journalist Charles Dickens. In the early days of their marriage, Charles is infatuated with his new bride and Kate delights in her new life, the balm to her husband’s irrepressible spirit. But as he finds fame as a novelist and the family rise through the ranks of Victorian society, Kate becomes increasingly aware of his frustration that real people cannot be manipulated as easily as his characters.
Meanwhile, in the East End slums, a young orphan named Anne Brown has lost everything, but is determined to make her way in the world. A chance encounter with the Dickens family transports her to the heart of the household, opening up a world of privilege, travel and remarkable company. But her new-found freedom has come at a cost she cannot always ignore.
As the years go by and the family expands, the cracks in the Dickens’ marriage deepen. Kate seeks comfort and companionship in her trusted servant, but whilst Anne has come to care deeply for Mrs Dickens, her loyalties are tested to breaking point as Charles takes control of their future…
Vibrant, witty and deeply moving, Mrs Dickens traces a long marriage in all its tenderness, grief, romance and fury. It illuminates the life of a complex, forgotten woman whose voice often went unheard but whose story deserves to be told.
‘A beautiful, heartbreaking, immersive novel, which brings a woman’s silenced story back to vivid, irrepressible life . . . Howes’ distinctive voice is so warm, so relatable, so companionable’ Roisín O’Donnell
London, 1836. Nineteen-year-old Kate Hogarth falls in love with the young journalist Charles Dickens. In the early days of their marriage, Charles is infatuated with his new bride and Kate delights in her new life, the balm to her husband’s irrepressible spirit. But as he finds fame as a novelist and the family rise through the ranks of Victorian society, Kate becomes increasingly aware of his frustration that real people cannot be manipulated as easily as his characters.
Meanwhile, in the East End slums, a young orphan named Anne Brown has lost everything, but is determined to make her way in the world. A chance encounter with the Dickens family transports her to the heart of the household, opening up a world of privilege, travel and remarkable company. But her new-found freedom has come at a cost she cannot always ignore.
As the years go by and the family expands, the cracks in the Dickens’ marriage deepen. Kate seeks comfort and companionship in her trusted servant, but whilst Anne has come to care deeply for Mrs Dickens, her loyalties are tested to breaking point as Charles takes control of their future…
Vibrant, witty and deeply moving, Mrs Dickens traces a long marriage in all its tenderness, grief, romance and fury. It illuminates the life of a complex, forgotten woman whose voice often went unheard but whose story deserves to be told.
‘A beautiful, heartbreaking, immersive novel, which brings a woman’s silenced story back to vivid, irrepressible life . . . Howes’ distinctive voice is so warm, so relatable, so companionable’ Roisín O’Donnell
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Reviews
How can you hope to tell your truth when you're up against the greatest fiction-writer of the nineteenth century? Mrs Dickens rescues the novelist's despised wife from the margins of her husband's story and makes her the heroine of her own
Mrs Dickens tells the story of Charles Dickens' beleaguered bride, Kate. She bore ten children, travelled around the world with her husband, and still couldn't live up to the Victorian ideal of the Angel in the Home. Soon, their family is unravelling in a way that seems, well, Dickensian. Reimagining the life of a woman lost to history, this is a book just begging for screen rights
I loved Mrs Dickens; I couldn't put it down. A powerful and compelling portrait of a marriage, it made me question many of my previous assumptions about Charles Dickens. Part love story, part horror story, Mrs Dickens kept me gripped until the final pages
Powerful, tender and evocative, Mrs Dickens is a deeply thoughtful contribution to our understanding of the life of Catherine Dickens. Emily Howes writes with great skill, plucking at the truth without flinching and exploring topics that are as relevant today as they were in the 1800s, from the manipulation of women by the men they love, to the ill treatment of mothers in society. She captures the complexities of their famous marriage, and the harsh realities of being married to a genius, with such depth . . . An impressive follow-up to her brilliant debut The Painter's Daughters, Emily Howes is a class act. I will be recommending to everyone!
I know it's only February, but Mrs Dickens is already a serious contender for my Book of the Year. Huge applause to Emily Howes for bringing pitch-perfect storytelling and a profound understanding of human frailty to this devastating account of a doomed marriage. Every character is beautifully observed, from Mr Dickens' hubris and hypocrisy to his wife's nerve-shredding passivity. In Victorian England, a woman who lost her husband's love stood to lose everything, and nowhere, I think, has the vulnerability and heartbreak of that situation been so poignantly described as here. I hope the whole world is paying attention - I think we're witnessing the emergence of a very great writer. And one final point; I suspect I will never read a Dickens novel again without snarling
Mrs Dickens has my whole heart. Will undoubtedly be one of my books of the year, with its unflinching portrait of a marriage unravelling, and the women who surround Charles Dickens. I was enthralled
A beautiful, heartbreaking, immersive novel, which brings a woman's silenced story back to vivid, irrepressible life. A story about the cost of male ambition, and the courage it takes for a woman to reclaim her own narrative. Howes' distinctive voice is so warm, so relatable, so companionable; readers will fall in love with Kate, or "Mrs. Dickens"