"Who tampered with a selfish father, urging him to sell his daughter to old Arthur Gride, and tampered with Gride, too, and did so in the little office, with a closet in the room?" — Chap. LIX, Fred Barnard's fifty-fourth illustration for "Nicholas Nickleby" (1875)

"Who tampered with a selfish father, urging him to sell his daughter to old Arthur Gride, and tampered with Gride, too, and did so in the little office, with a closet in the room?" — Chap. LIX, p. 392; fifty-fourth illustration for the British Household Edition, illustrated by Fred Barnard with fifty-nine composite woodblock engravings (1875). The framed illustration is 10.5 cm high by 13.7 cm wide (4 ⅛ by 5 ⅜ inches), p. 392. Running head: "But Not the Worst Yet" (393). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Passage Illustrated: Ralph Nickleby Brought to Book

Hablot Knight Browne's resolution of the narrative-pictorial sequence, The Recognition (September 1839), Chapter 58.

"I will speak," cried Newman, standing on tiptoe to look over Tim’s head, who had interposed to prevent him. "Hallo, you sir — old Nickleby! — what do you mean when you talk of “a fellow like this”? Who made me “a fellow like this”? If I would sell my soul for drink, why wasn’t I a thief, swindler, housebreaker, area sneak, robber of pence out of the trays of blind men’s dogs, rather than your drudge and packhorse? If my every word was a lie, why wasn’t I a pet and favourite of yours? Lie! When did I ever cringe and fawn to you. Tell me that! I served you faithfully. I did more work, because I was poor, and took more hard words from you because I despised you and them, than any man you could have got from the parish workhouse. I did. I served you because I was proud; because I was a lonely man with you, and there were no other drudges to see my degradation; and because nobody knew, better than you, that I was a ruined man: that I hadn’t always been what I am: and that I might have been better off, if I hadn’t been a fool and fallen into the hands of you and others who were knaves. Do you deny that?"

"Gently," reasoned Tim; "you said you wouldn’t."

"I said I wouldn’t!" cried Newman, thrusting him aside, and moving his hand as Tim moved, so as to keep him at arm’s length; "don’t tell me! Here, you Nickleby! Don’t pretend not to mind me; it won’t do; I know better. You were talking of tampering, just now. Who tampered with Yorkshire schoolmasters, and, while they sent the drudge out, that he shouldn’t overhear, forgot that such great caution might render him suspicious, and that he might watch his master out at nights, and might set other eyes to watch the schoolmaster? Who tampered with a selfish father, urging him to sell his daughter to old Arthur Gride, and tampered with Gride too, and did so in the little office, with a closet in the room?"

Ralph had put a great command upon himself; but he could not have suppressed a slight start, if he had been certain to be beheaded for it next moment. [Chapter XLIX, "In which one Scene of this History is Closed," 390-391]

Commentary: Ralph's Comeuppance

The story has been trending this way ever since the opening chapters, as the devilish Ralph Nickleby must inevitably be denounced by those angels in business suits: Ned and Charles Cheeryble, Tim Linkinwater, and Newman Noggs. The last's insider knowledge of Ralph's devious business practices proves invaluable in laying bare his duplicity.

As Ralph’s clerk, Newman Noggs (left) denounces his nefarious employer (right), Tim Linkinwater (left) tries to restrain Noggs’s digressive tendencies as his employers, the Cheerybles, observe the presentation of the damning facts against “the usurer.” Noggs is the most dynamic figure in the composition, wagging an accusatory finger at Ralph as he pushes a startled Tim into the corner. Ralph looks anything but confident and self-assured, possibly because, as he ruminates at the beginning of the chapter, he has had only fitful and disturbed sleep. Having failed in his attempts that afternoon to find out from either Snawley or Squeers what is afoot, Ralph suspects that Peg Sliderskew has been apprehended. Turned away by Gride at the house at Lambert, Ralph has finally bent his course towards the City, arriving at the Cheerbles’ offices about 5:30 PM. This, then, is the stage set for Barnard’s scene of denunciation. In the brother’s offices, “he sat with folded arms; paler than usual, certainly, and sufficiently ill-favoured, but quite collected” (390), exactly as in the illustration. Barnard effectively conveys Noggs’s indignation through his stance and posture, as well as his accusatory gesture.

Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators

Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image 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.]

Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (il.). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-nine illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. XV. Rpt. 1890.

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 4.

__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.

Created 23 September 20211