Emma (Harding) And Charles (Dickens)

This would be one of those places at which we burn a bit of incense in honor of our patron saint, Michel Foucault, again.

Stare at it a moment -- the great big hole in this corner of the historical record that will never, ever be filled, with anything other than supposition.

What did Emma's letter say?

What papers did Emma send Charles? Were they returned? Do we have them, in some published form or other, now?

Why early 1854? How did Emma know Charles?

Supposition: the papers in question were, in some form or other, the work we now know as The Wildfire Club (1861), or at least some version of one or more stories in that collection. After all, what does an actress -- by her own account blackballed off the London stage by a "baffled sensualist" in 1854 -- do next? Write, of course.

And how did she know Charles, well enough to write him, and well enough for Dickens to be after Wills to return her papers? Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Social network analysis enthusiasts, take note. Here, in the black holes of history, we suppose on the basis of connection: Emma to Edward, Edward to Charles, Emma to Charles. Drama, the theatre, the Adelphi, spiritualism -- the links among the three are complex, pregnant.