When Queen Victoria met Charles Dickens

Queen Victoria’s reign lasted for 63 years, from 1837 to 1901, making her the longest-serving monarch in history at the time.

She had been trying to arrange a private meeting with author Charles Dickens for 22 years, but he had always declined – something courtiers considered a terrible snub. Undeterred, Queen Victoria, a published author herself, continued to invite Dickens for an audience at Kensington Palace, determined to discuss literature with the greatest writer of their generation.

Her perseverance finally paid off in March 1870, when Dickens, who was privately not a great fan of the royal family, accepted her invitation. It went surprisingly well, and they discussed Dickens’ latest work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was to be published as a 12-part serial. He hadn’t discussed the plot with anyone but promised to share the ending with Queen Victoria.

The significance of this grand gesture was apparent only because Dickens hadn’t told even his closest friends the details. To take the Queen into his confidence seemed bizarre, considering he had avoided her for years! However, despite the surprisingly amicable meeting between the two most famous individuals of their era, things didn’t turn out quite as planned.

Life of Charles Dickens

Born in 1812 in Portsmouth, Dickens was working in the House of Commons by the age of 20, recording the debates for The Mirror of Parliament publication founded by his uncle, John Henry Barrow.

He then worked as a political journalist for the Morning Chronicle newspaper, submitting his first fictional story, A Dinner at Poplar Walk, to the Monthly Magazine in London in 1833. The short story about a wealthy bachelor forced to attend a party with disagreeable relatives was published and he bought a copy of the magazine from a bookseller on The Strand to see his first work in print.

After the publication of his famous short stories, Sketches by Boz, between 1833 and 1836, he became a fully fledged author, writing novels reflecting the hardships of life for the impoverished masses in Victorian England. They included Nicholas Nickleby, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Great Expectations and many more.

Dickens’ Oliver Twist is arguably his most famous novel and has sold more than 50 million copies. Written in 1838, it contained scandalous subject matter for the Victorian era, vividly describing crimes such as murder and theft.

He became a global celebrity in today’s terms when he travelled to the United States in 1842 on the steamship Britannia for a tour across America and Canada. During his trip, he visited people in prisons, orphanages, psychiatric hospitals, schools for deaf and blind children, factories and industrial mills. He also met US President John Tyler at the White House and openly spoke out against slavery.

He despised the ruling classes, privately describing Queen Victoria as “merely a provincial devotee” and having no desire to meet her. The monarch was determined and persisted with the invitations throughout the 1850s and 1860s, but to no avail.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Born in 1819, Victoria became Queen in 1837, at the age of just 18, following the death of William IV. Social convention required her to live with her mother, something she didn’t enjoy. Following an introduction to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and a relatively brief courtship, the couple married in February 1840 and had nine children over a 17-year period.

The forward-thinking Queen is famous for opening the Great Exhibition of 1851, in Hyde Park, London, where the Victorians showcased their industrial success and technology during a golden age of peace and prosperity for the wealthy. Attracting around 100,000 exhibits of machinery, raw materials, manufacturers and fine arts, more than six million people visited, with Queen Victoria attending 34 times.

For Dickens, the champion of the impoverished masses, nothing the monarch could do would make her more favourable to him.

Famous meeting

Finally, in March 1870, Dickens agreed to meet Queen Victoria, 22 years after her first invitation! The reason he decided to go this time was unknown, but although the meeting started out rather awkwardly, with both parties standing, he appeared to warm to the monarch.

A writer herself, Victoria’s illustrated book, Our Life in the Highlands from 1848 to 1861, had been published by Smith, Elder & Co in 1868, giving a factual account of holidays spent in the Scottish Highlands with Albert.

Privately, Dickens was said to have hated the book, describing it as “preposterous”. However, he kept his views on royalty and the book to himself, so when the Queen gave him a copy, he accepted it graciously.

They discussed Dickens’ famous live book readings and the Queen expressed regret that she had never been able to attend. This was perhaps the most surprising moment of their meeting, as Dickens said by way of recompense, he would share something highly confidential with her.

At the time, he was writing his new novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was different from his past books. It revolved around the strange disappearance of the title character and appeared to be a murder mystery.

The novel was being serialised and Dickens had written six of the 12 episodes, so the idea for the ending was only in his head and not on paper anywhere. No-one will ever know why he offered to share something so great with Queen Victoria, as she was hardly a close friend. Perhaps even more astounding was the fact the Queen politely said, “No thank you,” and didn’t wish to be a party to such top-secret information. Dickens didn’t tell her, and that discussion was closed.

Their conversation moved onto more mundane matters, such as the rising cost of food, while the Queen mentioned how difficult it was to find good servants these days.

They were never to meet again, as sadly, Dickens died suddenly just a few months later, on 9th June 1870, after a stroke at the age of only 58. Paying tribute to the great author, Queen Victoria described his death as “a very great loss” and said he had been “very agreeable, with a pleasant voice and manner”.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood has forever remained unsolved, as Dickens took its secrets to the grave. Whatever ending he had in mind was never revealed to anyone, leading to possibly the greatest literary mystique of the past 150 years. Scholars, fellow writers, academics and fans have long debated how the book could have perhaps ended, with all kinds of theories being put forward, but sadly, we’ll never know the truth.

Queen Victoria died on 22nd January 1901 at the age of 81. Her own book on holidays in Scotland was a success, selling 20,000 copies in the first month of publication. It’s still in print today.