Did Dickens fall mortally ill at Ellen Ternan's House in Peckham, or perhaps even die there? In the June 2008 number of Dickens Quarterly, a footnote to an article by Robert Garnett firmly suggests he did not (Garnett 116). (1) Garnett convincingly argues that Ellen Ternan was at Dickens's funeral, but his footnote highlights a problem. There is no careful analysis in print of what is wrong with the Peckham conjecture. I propose to remedy that. The generally accepted version of Dickens's last hours is based upon the account in the biography of Dickens by his friend John Forster, published between 1872 and 1874 (Forster bk. 12, ch. 1). Forster got his information from Georgina Hogarth, Dickens's devoted sister-in-law and housekeeper. More testimony has become available since Forster's life was published, some of it first-hand. Forster's account is corroborated by others, moreover, written by members of Dickens's circle such as George Dolby (Dolby 385-93). Testimony from those close to Dickens has to be scrutinized carefully and dispassionately, to be sure, but there is a consideration we cannot overlook. Some details of the story about a fatal seizure in Peckham are plainly absurd.
