Wrapping Up Household Words
The end of Household Words reveals several interesting facets of Charles Dickens's personality. After he separated from his wife of three decades, Catherine, in May 1858, rumours of adultery began to circulate, rumours which Dickens attempted to quash by offering a full-page defence in the 12 June 1858 issue. However, when his publishers, Bradbury and Evans, refused to republish the same notice in their other highly successful weekly journal, Punch Magazine, Dickens offered to buy out (or to find a buyer for) their one-quarter share. They countered that they and not Dickens controlled the trade name of Household Words, but in a suit in the Court of Chancery Dickens won the day. Outmanoevering the publishers, Dickens swiftly wound up the magazine's affairs, and incorporated it into his new weekly, All the Year Round (April 1859). When his eldest son married Evans's daughter, Dickens, doubtless still smarting from his supposed ill-treatment, refused to attend the wedding! So ended a business relationship that had begun in 1844, when Dickens broke with his initial publishers, Chapman and Hall, over what he felt were the ridiculously low profits he made on A Christmas Carol. His first clash with the printers-turned-publishers had been over their unwarranted intrusion in the editing of the Daily News (1846), but for Dickens the publishers' refusal to broadcast his supposed innocence in the matter of his separation from Catherine, his wife of twenty years, was the last straw.
Related Material
- Introduction to Household Words — "As familiar in their mouths as household words" (1850-59)
- The Diverse Nature of the Contents: Household Words (1850-59)
- Contributors to Household Words
- The Invisible Woman — The story of the production
- The Invisible Woman becomes very visible — A film about Charles Dickens and Nelly
- Charles Dickens and George Elgar Hicks’ representations of the General Post Office on St-Martin’s-le-Grand
Bibliography
Bentley, Nicholas; Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.
Fido, Martin. The World of Charles Dickens. Vancouver: Raincoast, 1997.
Lohrli, Anne. Household Words: A Weekly Journal 1850-1859 Conducted by Charles Dickens — Table of Contents, List of Contributors and Their Contributions Based on The Household Words Office Book in the Morris L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists, Princeton University Library. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973.
Oppenlander, Ella Ann. Dickens's "All the Year Round": Descriptive Index and Contributor List. New York: Whitson, 1984.
Parrott, Jeremy. "Lohrli Revisited: Newly Identified Contributors to Household Words." Dickens Quarterly 35, 2 (June 2018): 110-126.
Schlicke, Paul. Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.
Created 11 July 2004
Last modified 12 June 2020