"The Fat Boy Awake Again" — Phiz's first serial illustration for "Pickwick Papers" (original) (raw)

Passage Illustrated

. . . the lady [gave] a very unaffected start, and exclaimed in an affrighted tone —

"Mr. Tupman, we are observed! — we are discovered!"

Mr. Tupman looked round. There was the fat boy, perfectly motionless, with his large circular eyes staring into the arbour, but without the slightest expression on his face that the most expert physiognomist could have referred to astonishment, curiosity, or any other known passion that agitates the human breast. Mr. Tupman gazed on the fat boy, and the fat boy stared at him; and the longer Mr. Tupman observed the utter vacancy of the fat boy's countenance, the more convinced he became that he either did not know, or did not understand, anything that had been going forward. Under this impression, he said with great firmness —

"What do you want here, Sir?" [Chapter VIII, "Strongly illustrative of the position, that the course of true love is not a railway," p. 74]

Commentary

Although the illustration now accompanies Chapter 8 in what was the third (June 1836) serial instalment, Phiz developed it as as substitute for The Arbour Scene long after the the publication of that instalment; in all likelihood, since it does not appear in any of the serial instalment and its title does not appear in the instructions to the binder in the last double number, Phiz may well have produced this illustration as late as November 1837.

In its depiction of the lovers, the bower, and the intruding fat boy, Joe, the Phiz illustration captures the farcical moment rather more effectively that Buss's original. The viewer sees the scene as if it is set on stage, and Phiz realizes every detail with much greater precision than Buss, although his figures are more wooden and awkward. The advantage of Phiz's version is that it admirably establishes the context for the scene, placing the seventeenth-century, half-timbered Dingley Dell manor house (the symbol of the monied family and the estate to which Rachael Wardle has some claim) prominently behind the arbour, and foregrounding the intrusive page as well as the gardening tools. Tupman, thus surprised, attempts to rise, and Rachael Wardle, the spinster aunt, throws her hands into the air in dismay at their being detected.

The Original Buss Illustration of this scene (June 1836) & the Household Edition (1874)

Left: The original illustration by R. W. Buss that was later replaced by the Phiz illustration in the November 1837 volume edition: The Arbour Scene. Right: Phiz's revised version of this scene for the Household Edition, Mr. Tupman looked round. There was the fat boy. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

References

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert W. Buss, and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Chapman & Hall: 1836-37.

Dickens, Charles. "Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Robert Seymour and Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman & Hall, 1896.

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

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 51-85.

Last modified 30 September 2019