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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Dalya Alberge

UNCOVERED: The handwriting is wrong dickens letters dismissed as forgeries | History Defined

Charles Dickens
The letters described as being by Dickens were from 1855 and 1858 to his young love, Maria Beadnell, and her husband, Henry Louis Winter. Photograph: PA

Two letters described as written by Charles Dickens in the 1850s have been withdrawn from a forthcoming auction after a leading academic dismissed them as forgeries.

Dr Leon Litvack, an expert analyst of Dickens’ letters and manuscripts, told the Guardian: “The handwriting is wrong. It’s the signature that is always the giveaway. I have letters from the same period that will confirm that these are forgeries.”

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