Past Event: Gaynor Arnold at Edinburgh
- Where
- Edinburgh International Book Festival
- When
- 3:30pm, 18th August 2009
Gaynor Arnold and Charles Dickens
Gaynor Arnold’s ambitious and acclaimed debut novel, Girl in a Blue Dress, was inspired by the turbulent marriage of Charles Dickens and has been longlisted for both the Man Booker and the Orange Prize for Fiction. Girl in a Blue Dress brings to life the fierce energy and brilliance of the most famous of Victorian authors – from the perspective of his estranged wife of twenty years. In Dorothea Gibson, Arnold has ‘tried to give voice to the largely voiceless Catherine Dickens, who once requested that her letters from her husband be preserved so that “the world may know he loved me once”.’
She is appearing alongside Jenny Diski in an event that will delve into the past to analyse the relationships of two of history’s great literary figures. Jenny Diski examines the life of Marie de Gournay, obsessive fan, adopted daughter and then editor of the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne.
