THE REAL-LIFE DEATH OF NANCY

Did a gruesome London murder inspire Dickens?

In what is possibly the most graphic and disturbing scene in any Charles Dickens book, the author described the brutal murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist.

It’s an event so dark than many adaptations of the book have tended to avoid portraying it in any detail. It’s been questioned just why this scene is so violent in the context of the wider story, but author Rebecca Gowers pointed to a potential link when she wrote her novel,

The Twisted Heart, which was inspired by real events. Gowers pointed to a real murder of a London sex worker named Eliza Grimwood in 1838. While some of the details of the murder differ, many of them are remarkably similar to Sikes’ methods. Grimwood was in bed when she was attacked, she was forced to her knees and after being killed the murderer continued to attack the body. In the real case Grimwood was stabbed, while Nancy was clubbed.

The most compelling evidence that Dickens used this murder as his template is that he wrote about the real event. While his days as a crime reporter ended in 1836 and the murder took place in May 1838, he went on to write about the murder in his short story The Pair

of Gloves, which discussed the Grimwood case by name many years later. Oliver Twist was syndicated from 1837 onwards, but the chapter that included Nancy’s death was not seen until January 1839. It seems like there’s a good chance the death of Eliza Grimwood was an inspiration to Dickens for his most harrowing scene.