Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Charles Dickens circa 1850 by Herbert Watkins
Charles Dickens circa 1850. Photograph: Herbert Watkins
Charles Dickens circa 1850. Photograph: Herbert Watkins

From the archive, 18 January 1883: The ghost story which 'inspired' Charles Dickens

This article is more than 12 years old
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 18 January 1883

A few weeks ago we mentioned a ghost story that had attracted the special attention and interest of Charles Dickens. This was the narrative of Mr. Thomas Heaphey, the artist, who stated that he had seen the apparition of a lady thrice - first in a railway carriage, then in a country house, and again in his own studio, where she asked him to take her portrait, and gave him an engraving that was considered to be very like her.

He managed to make a sketch of her, and some time after, whilst accidentally detained at Lichfield, wrote from his inn, as he supposed, to an old friend, but put on the envelope instead the name of the gentleman, to him unknown, who was the father of the young lady who had thus appeared to him. After due apologies for the mistake, the artist went with the stranger to his house in order to paint a daughter's portrait. He learned from another daughter that it was thought that grief had sapped the father's mind, that he imagined he had visions of his dead girl, and that he was above everything desirous of obtaining a satisfactory portrait.

The artist tried, but in vain, to make a sketch from the description given by the sister, when she mentioned that an engraving which was a striking resemblance had disappeared from the house. The artist then recalled the circumstances of the visits of the mysterious lady, and produced the engraving and his sketches, which were declared to be good likenesses of her whose early death had been so greatly mourned.

The announcement of the appearance of Mr. Heaphey's book has caused some interest in New York, where a sister of that artist lived for some time. Mrs. Murray, it appears, occasionally narrated the story of her brother's ghostly visitant, and it has been retailed by one of her auditors to a representative of the New York World. "I am very glad," said this gentleman, "to have an opportunity of putting on record my own recollections of it, that I may compare them with Mr. Dickens's version when I receive it."

This remark shows a radical misconception of the case. That which is now published is the narrative of Mr. Heaphey himself, and it first appeared in All the Year Round as long ago as 1861. A comparison between the New York version and the original is, however, interesting as showing the changes which a story may undergo even when there is no intentional deception.

In the American narrative the ghost first appears in the studio, tells the artist of the engraving, and urges him to make a sketch there and then. In the original the studio is the scene of the second appearance, and, so far from asking him to make a sketch, she endeavours to prevent him from doing so by constantly moving about the room. The manner in which he receives the engraving is also told with a difference. Mr. Heaphey says that he tried to sketch the lady whilst she was in his studio; the American says that he did it months afterwards, and from memory only.

The American account of the incident at Lichfield varies greatly from that of the artist. The first says that he "ordered the usual British dinner, with the usual soup, the usual fish, and the usual joint, enlivened with a pint of dry champagne;" whilst Mr. Heaphey himself says, "I have an especial dislike to passing an evening at an hotel in a country town. Dinner at such places I never take, as I had rather go without than have such as I am likely to get." Then the transatlantic narrator says that an unexpected young gentleman was announced, whose card had on it the name of one of the artist's old schoolfellows. This messenger brought an invitation from his father to Mr. Heaphey, who when he arrived at the house found a young lady with a fixed idea that he was painting her sister's portrait from an engraving that had been sent to him. This, it will be seen, is quite distinct from Mr. Heaphey's own way of stating the concluding part of his remarkable adventure.

The difficulty of writing history correctly has apparently not decreased with the advance of the ages. The narrative given in the New York World is a good ghost story as such things go, but we decidedly prefer Mr. Heaphey's own narrative as a more artistic production.

[Heaphey accused Dickens of plagiarism when the author published a version of the tale in Four Ghost Stories in 1861.]

Most viewed

Most viewed