"Characters in the Story" — Harry Furniss's ornate title-page frame for Dickens's "Little Dorrit" (1910) (original) (raw)

Commentary

Fin-de-siécle illustrator Harry Furniss's visual overture for the 1855-57 novel, depicting most of the fifty-four named characters, and most prominently the eponymous character, the diminutive Amy Dorrit (upper centre). Furniss's ornamental title-page is most effective for those readers already familiar with the characters and situations of the novel; moreover, many of these Picasso-esque sketches foreshadow the full-scale lithographs to come. In the upper-left-hand corner, the smoking Rigaud and his short, chubby companion (Cavaletto, or Mr. Baptist) anticipates such illustrations as John Baptist Runs Away from his Patron and Mrs. Clennam and the Plotters, but does not foreshadow a particular plate. On the other h and, in the second vignette in the upper register Furniss is clearly utilising The Father of the Marshalsea (facing 80). In one of the most conspicuous positions in the ornamental frame, upper centre, Amy appears as she does in the facing Frontispiece and several regular illustrations.

Other characters recognizable from narrative-pictorial sequences by Furniss's predecessors, Phiz in the original, nineteen-part serialisation (1855-57) and James Mahoney in theHousehold Edition (1873), include Jeremiah and Affery Flintwinch with Mrs. Clennam in her wheelchair (upper right); Mr. Casby, Flora and Mr. F.'s Aunt, Arthur Clennam (lower right); Mr. Meagles, Tattycoram, and Miss Wade (centre left); and the memorable Maggy in her large hat holding a toasting-fork (centre left). The vignettes, numbering thirty-six, encompass both the major and minor characters of the novel, and anticipate several specific scenes. The closest approach to Furniss's ornate frame as a visual overture to the novel is Phiz's wrapper design for the novel, Cover for monthly parts, No. 7 (June 1856), which contains a myriad of symbolic figures surrounding the title and the names of author, illustrator, and publisher. However, the meaning of most of the vignettes on the wrapper (many of them allegorical, such as the Barnacles in the top register, impeding the progress of Britannia's chariot) would not have been fully apparent to most readers until well into the nineteen-month serialisation.

The Charles Dickens Library Edition, Volume 12. Published by The Educational Book Co. Ltd., London in 1910. Hard-back binding in navy cloth covers, gilt title, author lettering, and volume number to the spine, gilt "CD" motif to the upper panel, top edge gilt, illustrated end papers. octavo. 7½" x 5½"(i. e., 19.1 cm long by 12.8 cm wide).

Other Illustrations, 1855-1923

Nineteenth-Century Title-Pages for British and American Editions, 1856 to 1873

Left: Phiz's original serial wrapper, cover for monthly parts, No. 9 (August 1856). Right: Mahoney's title-page vignette for the Household Edition of the novel, Little Dorrit at the door of a cell in The Marshalsea (Untitled, 1873).

Left: Sol Eytinge, Junior's frontispiece for the Diamond Edition, Little Dorrit and Her Father (1867). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Junior's design for the Ticknor & Fields' title-page, Diamond Edition Title-page (1867). Right: John Gilbert's title-page vignette for the third volume of the Sheldon & Co. (New York) Household Edition, "He's too proud a chap to eat it . . ." (1863).

Above: Felix Octavius Carr Darley's beautifully engraved title-page vignettes for the other Sheldon & Co. (New York) Household Edition volumes; left: Feeding the Birds (vol. 1, 1863); centre: Joyful Tidings — Book I, Ch. XXXV (vol. 2, 1863); right: Closing in — Book II, Ch. XXX" (vol. 4, 1863).

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. , 1990.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Authentic Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901 [rpt. 30 May 1857 volume].

_____. Little Dorrit. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.

_____. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. 14 vols.

_____. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1873. Vol. 5.

_____. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 12.

Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 19: Little Dorrit."The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. 17, 398-427.

Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Landseer, Palmer, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. Amsterdam: S. Emmering, 1972. [Rpt. of the London 1899 edition]

Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.

"Little Dorrit — Fifty-eight Illustrations by James Mahoney." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Gordon Thomson, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. McL. Ralston, J. Mahoney, H. French, Charles Green, E. G. Dalziel, A. B. Frost, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1907.

Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. , 1999.

Steig, Michael. "VI. Bleak House and Little Dorrit." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. , 1978, 131-298.

Vann, J. Don. Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985.

Created 24 May 2016

Last modified 29 January 2020