Charles Dickens' Favorite Daughter: The Life, Loves, and Art of Katey Dickens Perugini

In this updated edition of the British Katey: the life and Loves of Dickens' Artist Daughter, Hawksley, the several times granddaughter of Dickens, attempts to do justice to the life of his daughter, Katey. At first, Dickens himself takes center stage, while Katey takes a strong supporting role along with the rest of her family. Katey's circle of friends included luminaries of the British artistic and literary world such as John Millais, William Thackery, and George Bernard Shaw. Katey doesn't emerge as the heroine until her marriage to Charles Collins, younger brother of author Wilkie, and even then she spends much of their marriage as his nursemaid rather than his lover. After Collins's untimely death, Katey marries Carlo Perugini and "it is from this time that Kate's career as an artist can truly be counted." Unfortunately for the author, few of Katey's paintings are currently in the public domain, so only four black and white plates of her work appear. Her liveliness, wit, and balancing periods of depression are vividly rendered, but much about her life remains a mystery. B&w photos, illus. (July)