The Auto da Fe — illustration by John McLenan for Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities" in "Harper's Weekly" (27 August 1859)

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The Auto da Fe

8.4 cm high by 8.4 cm wide (3 ¼ inches square)

John McLenan

Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Book II, Ch. XIX, "An Opinion."

Harper's Weekly (27 August 1859): 557; this text appeared without illustration in the UK on Saturday, 20 August in All the Year Round.

Compare this to the relevant illustration by by Phiz

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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

The illustrations appearing here are courtesy of the E. J. Pratt Fine Arts Library, University of Toronto, and the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia.

Passage Illustrated: Severing Dr. Manette from his obsession with shoemaking

"If the thing were gone, my dear Manette, might not the fear go with it? . . . "I would not keep it," said Mr. Lorry, shaking his head; for he gained in firmness as he saw the Doctor disquieted. "I would recommend him to sacrifice it. I only want your authority. I am sure it does no good. Come! Give me your authority, like a dear good man. For his daughter's sake, my dear Manette!"

Very strange to see what a struggle there was within him!

"In her name, then, let it be done; I sanction it. But, I would not take it away while he was present. Let it be removed when he is not there; let him miss his old companion after an absence."

Mr. Lorry readily engaged for that, and the conference was ended. They passed the day in the country, and the Doctor was quite restored. On the three following days he remained perfectly well, and on the fourteenth day he went away to join Lucie and her husband. The precaution that had been taken to account for his silence, Mr. Lorry had previously explained to him, and he had written to Lucie in accordance with it, and she had no suspicions.

On the night of the day on which he left the house, Mr. Lorry went into his room with a chopper, saw, chisel, and hammer, attended by Miss Pross carrying a light. There, with closed doors, and in a mysterious and guilty manner, Mr. Lorry hacked the shoemaker's bench to pieces, while Miss Pross held the candle as if she were assisting at a murder — for which, indeed, in her grimness, she was no unsuitable figure. The burning of the body (previously reduced to pieces convenient for the purpose) was commenced without delay in the kitchen fire; and the tools, shoes, and leather, were buried in the garden. So wicked do destruction and secrecy appear to honest minds, that Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross, while engaged in the commission of their deed and in the removal of its traces, almost felt, and almost looked, like accomplices in a horrible crime. [Book the Second — "The Golden Thread," Chapter XIX, "An Opinion," 557]

Commentary: A Peculiar Caption for "The Accomplices at Work"

The term that McLenan has chosen for the caption suggests a human sacrifice rather than the burning of a piece of furniture. However, it certainly seems appropriate to "mysterious and guilty manner" of Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross, conspirators and accomplices in the destruction of the old shoemaker's bench from Dr. Manette's cell, 105 North Tower in the Bastille. It is as if, remarks the narrator, the pair are "burning" a corpse as part of some sort of ghastly ritual. And McLenan's treatment of his subject is consistent with that of Phiz in the October 1859 steel-engraving The Accomplices for Book Two, Chapter XIX. The Portuguese term suggests that the staid pair are surreptitiously committing an "act of faith." But here there is no magnificent backdrop such as a Catholic cathedral, no context such as a high mass, no accused heretic, and no culminating immolation as the severest judgment of the Inquisition, carried out by secular authorities. However, in that the scene does involve the destruction of Dr. Manette's former persona, the title captures the weird feelings that Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry experience as they remove the final psychological traces of Dr. Manette's incarceration. See "A Discussion of Phiz's October 1859 Plates. . . ." Whereas McLenan treats his subjects with melodramatic seriousness, Phiz renders the room in considerably greater detail, and injects a note of comedy into the agents' faces as they destroy the shoemaker's workbench.

Other Illustrated Editions (1859-1910)

Related Material

Bibliography

Allingham, Philip V. "Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (1859) Illustrated: A Critical Reassessment of Hablot Knight Browne's Accompanying Plates." Dickens Studies. 33 (2003): 109-158.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, 7 May through 3 December 1859.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities: A story of the French Revolution. Project Gutenberg e-text by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska. Release Date: September 25, 2004 [EBook #98].

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. With illustrations by John McLenan and Rowland Wheelwright. Orinda, Cal.: Sea Wolf Press, 2021.

Created 28 November 2007

Last modified 20 November 2025