"When he had filled his pipe in an absolute reverie of satisfaction, Florence lighted it for him." — Fred Barnard's forty-ninth illustration for "Dombey and Son" (1877)

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When he had filled his pipe in an absolute reverie of satisfaction, Florence lighted it for him

Fred Barnard

1877

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

composite wood-block engraving

Dombey and Son, 352: running head: "The Captain smokes and muses" (349)

Illustration for Chapter 49, "The Midshipman makes a Discovery," 352, 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: Florence's house-keeping for Captain Cuttle

The Captain’s delight and wonder at the quiet housewifery of Florence in assisting to clear the table, arrange the parlour, and sweep up the hearth — only to be equalled by the fervency of his protest when she began to assist him — were gradually raised to that degree, that at last he could not choose but do nothing himself, and stand looking at her as if she were some Fairy, daintily performing these offices for him; the red rim on his forehead glowing again, in his unspeakable admiration.

But when Florence, taking down his pipe from the mantel-shelf gave it into his hand, and entreated him to smoke it, the good Captain was so bewildered by her attention that he held it as if he had never held a pipe, in all his life. Likewise, when Florence, looking into the little cupboard, took out the case-bottle and mixed a perfect glass of grog for him, unasked, and set it at his elbow, his ruddy nose turned pale, he felt himself so graced and honoured. When he had filled his pipe in an absolute reverie of satisfaction, Florence lighted it for him — the Captain having no power to object, or to prevent her — and resuming her place on the old sofa, looked at him with a smile so loving and so grateful, a smile that showed him so plainly how her forlorn heart turned to him, as her face did, through grief, that the smoke of the pipe got into the Captain’s throat and made him cough, and got into the Captain’s eyes, and made them blink and water. [Chapter 49, "The Midshipman makes a Discovery," 349]

Pertinent Scenes from Other Illustrated Editions (1847 and 1910)

Left: Phiz's dramatisation of climactic return of Walter Gay later in this same chapter: The Shadow in the Little Parlour (Ch. 49, January 1848). Centre: Harry Furniss's somewhat theatrical version of the reunion scene in the same chapter: Captain Cuttle and Walter's Return (1910). Right: Kyd's watercolouir portraits of the Captain for the Player's Cigarette Card series about Dickens's characters (Card No. 25, 1910).

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.

Created 14 January 2021