Dora Annie Dickens (August 16, 1850 – April 14, 1851) was the infant daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. She was the ninth of their ten children, and the youngest of their three daughters.[1][2]
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Dora Dickens was named after the character Dora Spenlow, the child-bride of David Copperfield in Dickens's 1850 novel David Copperfield.[3] According to Dickens's oldest daughter Mary, on the day of Dora's unexpected death on April 14 1851, her father had spent much of his time "playing with the children and carrying little Dora about the house and garden" of their Devonshire Terrace home.[4][5] Dickens then got changed and went to the London Tavern for an annual dinner at which he was to give a speech. Shortly before Dickens spoke his friend John Forster was called out of the room by one of Dickens's servants, who came with the news that Dora had suddenly died after suffering 'convulsions'. Forster decided to keep the news from Dickens until after he had made his contribution to the meeting. Then, with the assistance of Mark Lemon, Forster told Dickens the sad news.
" Half an hour before [Dickens] rose to speak I had been called out of the room by one of the servants from Devonshire-terrace to tell me his child Dora was suddenly dead. She had not been strong from her birth; but there was just at this time no cause for special fear, when unexpected convulsions came, and the frail little life passed away. My decision had to be formed at once; and I satisfied myself that it would be best to permit his part of the proceedings to close before the truth was told to him. But as he went on, after the sentences I have quoted, to speak of actors having to come from scenes of sickness, of suffering, aye, even of death itself, to play their parts before us, my part was very difficult."[6]
Dickens did not break down until he returned home, when, his daughter Mary later recalled, "I remember what a change seemed to have come over my dear father's face when we saw him again... how pale and sad it looked.".[4][7] All that night he sat keeping watch over his daughter's body, supported by his friend Mark Lemon. The next day Dickens wrote to his wife Catherine, who was recuperating at Malvern in Worcestershire. Anxious that the news might cause a further breakdown in her health, Dickens wrote "I think her very ill", even though Dora was already dead.[8] Forster delivered the letter to her at Malvern himself, and eventually told her the truth. Catherine then "fell into a state of 'morbid' grief and suffering", recovering her composure after twelve hours or so. Dickens himself managed to retain his composure for some time, but Mary Dickens remembered that eventually he could no longer control his grief. "He did not break down until, an evening or two after her death, some beautiful flowers were sent... He was about to take them upstairs and place them on the little dead baby, when he suddenly gave way completely."[4][9]
Dickens buried his daughter in Highgate Cemetery, on a spot from which it was possible to see London, and on her own death in 1879, Dora's mother Catherine Dickens was buried with her.