麻豆约拍

Catherine Dickens was married to one of English literature's greatest novelists but she has gone down in the history books as an unsatisfactory wife, a bad mother, and an overweight frump.

Her reputation was rubbished by her husband, Charles, after they separated.

Now, an exhibition at the Dickens Museum in central London is hoping to rehabilitate her and Nick Higham has been studying the character that emerges.

(Photo: Charles Dickens. Credit: Getty Images)