Household Edition Title-page Vignette: Horatio Sparkins
A. B. Frost
Engraver: E. Dalziel
1878
composite woodblock engraving
vignette, 17.5 cm wide by 25.3 cm high; page, 17.5 cm wide by 25.3 cm high
The Works of Charles Dickens, "Household Edition": Pictures from Italy, Sketches, and American Notes. New York. Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"Horatio Sparkins," fifth of the stories in the 'Tales' section of the collected edition of Sketches buy Boz. Originally published in The Monthly Magazine, Feb. 1834. Describes how Sparkins, posing in society as a fashionable young gentleman, imposes on the snobbish Malderton family, who are horrified to discover by accident that he is, in fact, merely as draper's assistant. [Bentley et al., 123]
That Frost has made the young shopman with aspirations to join high society the subject of the title-page vignette, as well as the subject of a separate illustration which describes his unmasking at the climax of the tale, suggests that the American illustrator saw this particular character, an audacious impostor and social upstart, as central to the themes and issues of the 1836 collection of London sketches. Cruikshank chose the climactic unmasking of Mr. Smith in the draper's shop as the subject of his copper-plate engraving, and Fred Barnard in the British Household Edition depicted "Horatio Sparkins" at a social function, looking not a little like a slender Lord Byron, and attracting the attention of numerous juvenile young women of the upper middle class.
The appearance of Mr. Horatio Sparkins at the assembly, had excited no small degree of surprise and curiosity among its regular frequenters. Who could he be? He was evidently reserved, and apparently melancholy. Was he a clergyman? — He danced too well. A barrister? — He said he was not called. He used very fine words, and talked a great deal. Could he be a distinguished foreigner, come to England for the purpose of describing the country, its manners and customs; and frequenting public balls and public dinners, with the view of becoming acquainted with high life, polished etiquette, and English refinement? — No, he had not a foreign accent. Was he a surgeon, a contributor to the magazines, a writer of fashionable novels, or an artist? — No; to each and all of these surmises, there existed some valid objection. — "Then," said everybody, "he must be somebody." — "I should think he must be," reasoned Mr. Malderton, within himself, "because he perceives our superiority, and pays us so much attention." ["Tales," No. 5, "Horatio Sparkins," page 225]
"Horatio Sparkins," as Dickens reveals at the climax of the sketch, does not exist; rather, it is the assumed name and impersonation of a fashionable young man about town, vastly different from the actual Samuel Smith, a shopman in a cut-rate line-draper's shop, in terms of class, connections, profession, and annual income. Of the fifty-six sketches in the anthology (that is, the seven observations in "Our Parish," the twenty-five pieces in "Scenes," the dozen descriptions in "Characters," and a dozen short stories in "Tales"), some readers might be surprised by Frost's choice of subject for the title-page vignette. For the novels in the Household Edition series of volumes, the title-page vignettes customarily focus on a significant moment in the life of the protagonist, such as Oliver's standing at the milestone in Oliver Twist, or an iconic image such as the blood-thirsty female Jacobin on the title-page of A Tale of Two Cities. But the anthology of highly disparate pieces with a great range of unconnected characters, Sketches by Boz offers no single, outstanding character or iconic image that would serve as a suitable overture to the selections written between 1833 and 1836, and published in a number of London periodicals. Whereas Fred Barnard chose a theatrical moment, At the Back-stage Door, from a genuine London sketch, "Astley's," Chapter 11 in "Scenes," A. B. Frost has focussed on the dubious protagonist of the regency short story "Horatio Sparkins." On the surface, the yong shopman passing as a member of fashionable London society would seem to have little in common with the " thin pale man, with a very long face, in a suit of shining black, thoughtfully knocking that part of his boot which once had a heel, with an ash stick. He is the man who does the heavy business, such as prosy fathers, virtuous servants, curates, landlords, and so forth." In fact, both Frost and Barnard see these actors or posers as symptomatic of the characters in Sketches. Thus, the vignette of the poser Samuel Smith is analogous to such iconic images from the novels as Pecksniff appreciatively contemplating his bust in Martin Chuzzlewit or David Copperfield as a sickly waif taking the high road to Kent. These singular moments epitomize the texts they preface, and focus the reader's attention on a key moment in the book as the initial proleptic reading of the illustrations.
Dickens, Charles. "Tales," Chapter V, "Horatio Sparkins." American Notes, Sketches by Boz, and Pictures from Italy. Illustrated by A. B. Frost and Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1877. Pp. 357-63.
Last modified 2 April 2019
