Page "William Makepeace Thackeray" Paragraph 9

She eventually deteriorated into a permanent state of detachment from reality, unaware of the world around her.

Thackeray desperately sought cures for her, but nothing worked, and she ended up confined in a home near Paris.

She remained there until 1893, outliving her husband by thirty years.

After his wife's illness, Thackeray became a de facto widower, never establishing another permanent relationship.

He did pursue other women, in particular Mrs. Jane Brookfield, and Sally Baxter.

In 1851 Mr Brookfield barred Thackeray from further visits to or correspondence with Jane.

Baxter, an American twenty years his junior whom he met during a lecture tour in New York City in 1852, married another man in 1855.