Ternan

There are only brief mentions of his wife, Catherine—with whom he fathered 10 children before abandoning her—and his mistress, Ellen "Nelly" Ternan.

The Best of Dickens's Life and Times Julia M. Klein 2011

"When Dickens cast someone off he did not relent," Ms. Tomalin notes, and as in every biography since Forster the reader's sympathy is instantly extended to Catherine Dickens, who bore him 10 children in 20 years only to be traded in for a discreetly tended younger model the actress Ellen Ternan and cut out of his life forevermore.

Snapshots of 'Boz' D.J. Taylor 2011

Although she refuses to venture out to Gibson's funeral--not least because he wouldn't like all the fuss of Victorian mourning--the death ultimately shocks her out of her seclusion: she visits Queen Victoria to accept her condolences, reconciles (at least temporarily) with the sister who took her place, and finally meets the infamous Wilhelmina Ricketts (the novel's version of Ellen Ternan).

Girl in a Blue Dress 2009

Far too long to appeal to modern readers, it nevertheless contains many haunting self-contained fragments, such as the five-page tale subtitled "The Reasons Why Léontine de Ternan Decided to Become a Nun."

The Great de Staël Holmes, Richard 2009

Although she refuses to venture out to Gibson's funeral--not least because he wouldn't like all the fuss of Victorian mourning--the death ultimately shocks her out of her seclusion: she visits Queen Victoria to accept her condolences, reconciles (at least temporarily) with the sister who took her place, and finally meets the infamous Wilhelmina Ricketts (the novel's version of Ellen Ternan).

The Little Professor: 2009

Yes, like everyone else I knew about the Ellen Ternan affair, if that's the word for it.

12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004 John 2003

But perhaps that remark also reflected his growing attachment to Nelly Ternan and the trouble it caused in his domestic life.

Dickens Our Contemporary 2002

In Nelly Ternan he saw a last chance to make up for this lack and seized it, putting in jeopardy the whole edifice of bourgeois respectability he had laboriously constructed.

Dickens Our Contemporary 2002

But perhaps that remark also reflected his growing attachment to Nelly Ternan and the trouble it caused in his domestic life.

Dickens Our Contemporary 2002

Realizing that his own womenfolk would not be able to hold the stage in a large auditorium, he hired a family of professional actors: Frances Ternan, a widow, and her three daughters, Fanny, Maria, and Ellen ( "Nelly").

Dickens Our Contemporary 2002