"What is this?" ("The Shoemaker") — Barnard's fifth illustration for Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities" (1874)

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"What is this?"

Fred Barnard

1874

Composite woodblock engraving

13.8 high by 10.6 cm wide (5 ½ by 4 ¼ inches)

Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Book I, chap. vi.

Scanned image and text 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 it in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: The Former Prisoner Begins to Recover His Memory.

"What is this?"

With the tears streaming down her face, she put her two hands to her lips, and kissed them to him; then clasped them on her breast, as if she laid his ruined head there. [Book the First, "Recalled to Life," Chapter VI, "The Shoemaker," 20]

Commentary: Family Reunion in the Loft of Saint Antoine's Wine-shop.

The mental deterioration of the bearded figure on the shoe mender's bench is admirably conveyed by his ragged clothing and riveted gaze upon the fashionable young, middle-class woman whose presence illuminates his garret. The scene of gradual recognition and returning self-awareness occurs in the text on the self-same page as Barnard's illustration.

Lucie Manette, who has long thought herself an orphan, and Dr. Manette (who has lost his identity through eighteen long years of imprisonment in the Bastille), are reunited at last in the garret above the Defarges' wine shop in the seedy Paris district of St. Antoine, adjacent to the notorious prison. Barnard captures the precise moment when Lucie attempts to engage her father's attention as her father clasps the beautiful young woman's skirt, and then (presumably) drops the hem. The artist captures well the old man's amazement, but fails to suggest the strong emotions welling up in Lucie. The picture is nevertheless effective because of its internal tensions, between youth and age, smooth cheek and bearded, ill-kempt visage, standing versus sitting, fashionable versus ragged apparel. The gaze between the two figures, so very different and yet intimately connected, speaks volumes.

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.

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

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by Phiz. London: Chapman & Hall, 1859.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman & Hall, 1874.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly. (21 May 1859): 325.

Dickens, Charles, and Fred Barnard. The Dickens Souvenir Book. London: Chapman & Hall, 1912.

Created 20 February 2011

Last updated 17 December 2025