Miss Havisham

This blog is all about spooky brides - so I couldn't miss out the wonderfully theatrical Miss Havisham. She's the bitter and twisted spinster in Charles Dickens' 'Great Expectations'.

Here she looks a very Grande Dame.

She was jilted by the swindler Compeyson at twenty to nine on the morning of her wedding. Ever afterwards she wore her wedding dress and just one shoe. 

All the clocks in her house were stopped at twenty to nine.

The Wedding Breakfast - including the cake - was left to moulder away.

She teaches her adopted daughter, Estella, to despise men. Estella then breaks the heart of Pip -which Miss Havisham regrets later. She begs forgiveness shortly before her dress catches fire and she dies of her injuries.

Was she an old lady?

Or rather younger?

Certainly an inspiration for photographers:

How do you imagine her?