Chaste Little Harem

In the Times Literary Supplement, John Bowen writes of Charles Dickens’s refuge for fallen women.

Urania women were obliged to tell their story to Dickens but, once they had done so, were forbidden ever to refer to it again, either to each other, the staff at the home, or in their future lives. The parallel with the ways that Dickens handled his own family’s shameful secrets is striking.