Charles Dickens and Mesmerism
This biography suggests that EDWIN DROOD was an attempt by Dickens to break free from the make-believe. It suggests that Dickens concealed in its pages details of his life.
In 2019, I went on a trip with my mom and brother—first to Paris, then to London. On the last day of our stay in London, hours before the plane was due to take off, we made a stop to a place that I hadn’t imagined seeing but which filled me with all of the wonder I would have expected: the Charles Dickens Museum.
I was a fangirl visiting the home of my hero. I admired the depth of his plots, his witty writing, and the unique characters who remain alive in the hearts of loyal readers. Dickens is the reason why I’ve gone into writing serial stories; The Sea Rose, as well as my other works, have all been released in a chapter-by-chapter basis.
Dickens is remembered as the creator of Ebenezer Scrooge, a character you cannot escape around Christmastime. He is regarded by many as the man who invented Christmas as we know it. Of the traditions and tales we honor today, many gained popularity when Dickens was at the height of his fame. He might not have invented the Christmas tree, but his influence compelled Victorian families to welcome the spirit of Christmas into their lives.
The Mystery of Charles Dickens is a book about the human behind these stories. It paints a picture of a man I cannot imagine having written A Christmas Carol, because it is honest about the flaws he possessed, starting from his tormented youth and ending with his death at the age of fifty-eight. It describes his turbulent relationship with his parents, his (mostly) loveless marriage to wife Catherine, and his infatuation with the theatre actress Nell Ternan.
Author A.N. Wilson depicts Dickens as a brilliant man who carried with him wounds inflicted early in childhood. He was born into a family living in poverty. His father was financially irresponsible, and his mother seemed unable to give him the love that he needed. According to the book, rather than spending time in recovery with her infant, Elizabeth Dickens returned to work as an actress at once. When she soon became pregnant again, she was not able to give young Charles the attention he needed.
None of these things are excuses for the way that he later treated his wife, Catherine. We cannot deny, however, that the absence of love at a young age could fray the mind of a child, even if that child grew up to pen some of the most famous works of literature.
The Mystery of Charles Dickens revealed to me things about him that added color to the man behind Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop. One of the foremost surprises to me was the fact that Dickens was fascinated by mesmerism, an idea that gained popularity in Victorian times and was studied by various professors (including some of dubious credibility).
If you’ve read my previous paragraph and asked yourself “What in the heck is mesmerism?” worry not. I (see: Google) will do my best to explain.
Mesmerism is a theory developed by a German doctor called Franz Mesmer. The all-knowing Google summarizes it as “[a theory that] posits the existence of an invisible natural force possessed by all living things, including humans, animals, and vegetables. Mesmer claimed that this force could have physical effects, including healing. It is also associated with hypnotic induction.”
To learn more about mesmerism and Dickens’ fascination with it, read this excellent article.
Dickens was one among many Victorians fascinated by the idea of hypnotizing animals and humans. There were some potentially useful reasons for pursuing the studies: in a time where anesthesia had not been invented (and if some forms existed, they were not reassuring), the most sensible use of this invisible natural force was in the realm of medicine.
Doctors wondered if they could mesmerize, or hypnotize, their patient so that surgeries could be carried out without the patient feeling pain. While the idea is by no means foolproof, I understand their desire to find a way to—for example—minimize the sufferer’s terror when a limb had to be amputated, or open surgery performed.
Dickens, however, used mesmerism in a different context. When he learned of its ability to capture a subject’s attention, he began to experiment with different ways to use the influence of mesmerism during live performances of his stories. In other words, it became an inspiration for the ‘special effects’ with which he peppered each show.
While he did not have the science to hypnotize the thousands of people who came to hear him near the end of his life, he got creative, using screens, lights, and mechanisms to magnify his already potent voice.
Ah, but that was not the only way Dickens used mesmerism. In his early years with wife Catherine Hogarth, he had no scruples using her as a guinea pig test subject, hoping to master hypnotization. As he became more skilled with the process, he asked guests to sit in her place, often disregarding whether his experiments made them uncomfortable. One such guest burst into hysterics during this ‘rehearsal’; I think it is safe to assume she never accepted an invitation for tea at the Dickens’ again.
Mesmerism, seances, and other branches of bizarre science were popular during his time. We cannot claim Dickens to have been the only man who might have used his wife and guests in order to explore the occult. Some of the best, Gothic ghost stories were born from this Victorian impulse to venture into the unknown and taboo.
While these subjects remain popular in some forms today, I am relieved that reliable anesthesia has been invented. I’m also immensely grateful that I needn’t worry about someone trying to hypnotize me during teatime.
Charles Dickens was a genius, but also a flawed human. His wounds were many, and I believe he created his vibrant characters in an attempt to fill in the gap that festered in his soul. It was a gap that began when he was an infant and, towards the end of his life, seems to have brought out the worst in him.
The Mystery of Charles Dickens is a play on the title The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It is the manuscript that Dickens was working on during the final months of his life. His sudden death snuffed out that imagination before the novel reached completion, but the author of this biography suggests that Edwin Drood was an attempt by Dickens to break free from the make-believe. He suggests that Dickens concealed in the pages of Edwin Drood details of his life that had been tucked away.
Dickens’ earlier works were written for family audiences. They were crafted in order that they could be read around children without causing awkward conversations. Allegedly (I have not yet read it, and do not know if I ever will; how ever could I bear the torture of a novel that’ll never be resolved?) Edwin Drood contains innuendo and alludes to adult topics. It also, apparently, features characters that the careful reader might compare to people Dickens knew in reality—and not in positive lights.
One must wonder if he knew, at the time of writing, that this would be his last novel. It’s believed that he mentioned Drood to his publisher at the time, implying he had a premonition that the book might not reach The End.
Would we have been given a great confession at the end of Edwin Drood, a message to the audience that had been so captivated by this storyteller? Would we have learned dark secrets from his childhood, or heard regrets regarding his marriage to a woman with whom he fell out of love?
I can only speculate; again, I have not read the novel. I am only regaling what I learned from this biography.
It is a great tragedy that Charles Dickens never finished The Mystery of Edwin Drood. He died on June 9, 1870, taking his secrets to his grave. Whether it was ever his intention to reveal those secrets to the world, we shall never know. We can only be thankful for the books that he did manage to complete.
Many of his choices might have been questionable, but one thing cannot be disputed: Charles Dickens was one of the greatest authors of the English-speaking language. There will never be another.
I am immensely grateful for that visit to the Charles Dickens Museum. When I stood in his former bedroom, staring into the mirror where he looked at his own face, I made sure to thank him for the stories.
What of this book, then? Is it worth reading?
The Mystery of Charles Dickens is an eye-opening account of his final days. It presents the reader with a theory surrounding the circumstances of his death, and while we can only approach it as a theory, I was glad to learn more about the mythology of Dickens.
If you enjoy his novels, if you are fascinated by the legends he left behind, I recommend this book to you. It puts into perspective how times change, and bizarre trends spring up from the woodwork, never quite dying in spite of the passing of time.
Have you read any work by Charles Dickens? I read A Christmas Carol every year on Christmas Eve; it is a tradition I made for myself, and I’ve been faithful to my tradition for almost a decade.
Please comment and tell me what you think about the author, his strange interests, or the subject of mesmerism!
Wow! Absolutely love this. I do not know much about Dickens, but now I want to read more of his work. Thank you for including the history of mesmerism. Very fascinating. The unfinished art was also beautiful to see. Had it been completed, I don't think it would be nearly as wonderful.
This etching of Young Charles Dickens... wow! Had actually never seen a picture of him as a young person. You?