Enigma

At present this image confronts me every time I open my ipad. Why this rather forbidding daily companion? Because it’s Charles Dickens and I’m reading his novel Our Mutual Friend on the ipad.

Despite his huge fame and larger than life public persona, Dickens’ life was really rather sad. As a child he suffered emotional trauma that he never got over. His marriage was a disaster and his children often a disappointment. He was chronically over worked and over stretched. He looks somewhat care worn in most of his portraits, I think. (Although that could be Victorian photography.)

And yet he was the most wonderfully creative, funny, generous and large hearted spirit. An enigma indeed.