Catherine Hogarth married Charles Dickens in 1836, the same year he began serializing his first novel. Together they traveled widely, entertained frequently, and raised ten children. In 1858, the celebrated writer pressured Catherine to leave their home, unjustly alleging that she was mentally disordered, unfit and unloved as wife and mother. Dickens created the image of his wife as a depressed and uninteresting figure, using two of her three sisters against her, by measuring her presumed weaknesses against their strengths. This self-serving fiction is still widely accepted. In the first comprehensive biography of Catherine Dickens, Lillian Nayder, Professor of English, Bates College, and President of the International Dickens Society, debunks this tale in retelling it, wresting away from the famous novelist the power to shape his wife's story.