Charles Dickens: Novelist, philanthropist…lover? Dickens has been analyzed in many ways throughout the years, but never through the lens of his relationships with women. In this highly readable and thoroughly researched new volume, Garnett explores Dickens through his experiences with three great loves: his first love Maria Beadnell, Mary Scott Hogarth, his young sister-in-law who tragically died at 17, and actress Ellen Ternan.