Girl In A Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold

This is a novel based on the life of Charles Dickens, told from his wife's point of view. It begins with Dickens'/Alfred Gibson's funeral, to which his wife Dorothea ( all the names were changed by the author) has not been invited; she and Alfred have been estranged for over10 years. The novel is a really good picture of the Victorian era: how people lived, their relationships, their family life, their loving and living extravagantly and passionately. But I wasn't all that taken with it, first because I didn't like the fact that the names were changed- and even the titles of Dickens' books, which were referred to many times, were changed as well.

I checked Wikipedia for the bio of Dickens, and certainly many of the facts presented in this story were accurate- Dickens' obsession with his wife's sister, his affair with a young actress, his over-the-top way of living, etc.

I think I'll try to read Peter Ackroyd's bio, entitled "Dickens". Girl In a Blue Dress was long-listed for the Booker in 2008: I don't see that it had enough depth to make it to the short list.