"A child!" said Edith, looking at her. "When was I ever a child? What childhood did you ever leave to me?" — Fred Barnard's twenty-ninth illustration for "Dombey and Son" (1877)

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"A child!" said Edith, looking at her. "When was I ever a child? What childhood did you ever leave to me?"

Fred Barnard

1877

13.7 cm high x 10.5 cm wide, three-quarter-page, framed.

composite wood-block engraving

Dombey and Son, 204

Illustration for Chapter 26, "Shadows of the Past and Future," in Dickens's Dombey and Son, in the Household Edition, XV.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham

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Passage Illustrated: Edith's bitterness about being a pawn in "The Marriage Game"

"You know he has bought me," she resumed. "Or that he will, to-morrow. He has considered of his bargain; he has shown it to his friend; he is even rather proud of it; he thinks that it will suit him, and may be had sufficiently cheap; and he will buy to-morrow. God, that I have lived for this, and that I feel it!"

Compress into one handsome face the conscious self-abasement, and the burning indignation of a hundred women, strong in passion and in pride; and there it hid itself with two white shuddering arms.

"What do you mean?" returned the angry mother. "Haven’t you from a child —"

"A child!" said Edith, looking at her, "when was I a child? What childhood did you ever leave to me? I was a woman — artful, designing, mercenary, laying snares for men — before I knew myself, or you, or even understood the base and wretched aim of every new display I learnt You gave birth to a woman. Look upon her. She is in her pride tonight."

And as she spoke, she struck her hand upon her beautiful bosom, as though she would have beaten down herself. [Chapter 27, "Deeper Shadows," 202]

Other Illustrators' Studies of Mrs. Skewton (1847, 1867, and 1910)

Left: Harry Furniss's character study of the Hon. Mrs. Skewton, Edith Granger's mother and Mr. Dombey's future mother-in-law: Mrs. Skewton (1910). Centre: Phiz's celebrated characterization of the egotistical major introducing himself to Mrs. Skewton and her daughter: Major Bagstock is delighted to have that opportunity (March 1847). Right: Eytinge's characterization of the beautiful Ediith Granger and her repulsive mother: Edith and Mrs. Skewton (1867).

Related Material including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son

Dombey and Son (homepage)
Phiz's 39 illustrations for Dombey and Son, Wholesale Retail & for Exportation (Oct. 1846 — April 1848)
Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 illustrations (1867)
The Illustrators of the Household Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens (22 vols., 1871-79)
Kyd's five Player's Cigarette Cards for Dombey and Son (1910)
Harry Furniss's illustrations for the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Phiz. (Hablot K. Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1848.

_______. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

_______. Dombey and Son.16 Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and A. V. S. Anthony (engraver). The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. III.

_______. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard [62 composite wood-block engravings]. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

"Dombey and Son — Sixty-two Illustrations by Fred Barnard." 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.

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