Part the First
Richard Doyle; engraver, George Dalziel
1846
Wood engraving
12.7 high by 8 cm wide (5 by 3 ⅛ inches), vignetted
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: A Love Story: "Part the First," 3.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Embedded Text
Part the First
Once upon a time, it matters little when, and in stalwart England, it matters little where, a fierce battle. . . .
Passage Illustrated: ‘Somebody’s birth-day.’
The more actively, perhaps, because an elderly gentleman, who was no other than Doctor Jeddler himself — it was Doctor Jeddler’s house and orchard, you should know, and these were Doctor Jeddler’s daughters — came bustling out to see what was the matter, and who the deuce played music on his property, before breakfast. For he was a great philosopher, Doctor Jeddler, and not very musical.
‘Music and dancing to-day!’ said the Doctor, stopping short, and speaking to himself. ‘I thought they dreaded to-day. But it’s a world of contradictions. Why, Grace, why, Marion!’ he added, aloud, ‘is the world more mad than usual this morning?’
‘Make some allowance for it, father, if it be,’ replied his younger daughter, Marion, going close to him, and looking into his face, ‘for it’s somebody’s birth-day.’
‘Somebody’s birth-day, Puss!’ replied the Doctor. ‘Don’t you know it’s always somebody’s birth-day? Did you never hear how many new performers enter on this — ha! ha! ha! — it’s impossible to speak gravely of it — on this preposterous and ridiculous business called Life, every minute?’
‘No, father!’
‘No, not you, of course; you’re a woman — almost,’ said the Doctor. ‘By-the-by,’ and he looked into the pretty face, still close to his, ‘I suppose it’s your birth-day.’ ["Part the First," pp. 12-13]
Commentary
Dickens told Forster on the 20th of September [1846], after at last resuming the long-delayed composition of the opening scene and the transition to Doctor Jeddler's breakfast, that the book would have "a good human Christian groundwork" and "a great domestic effect in the last part." [Letters, IV: 622-623] Nature, Christ's birth (and sacrificial death), and family love were all to be somehow agents of restorative change in this version of the Christmas promise. [Patten, 208]
In the top register, we are reminded of the aftermath of the bloody battle fought in the previous century's civil war as we transition to a portrait of widower Dr. Jeddler and his charming daughters, whom we have already encountered in the frontispiece. The fanciful crowning of the beautiful brunette, Grace, by her blonde sister, Marion, establishes a mid-eighteenth-century present through the doctor's wig, cravat, and tailcoat.
The detail of the windmill to the left of the battle scene may well suggest that the "battle" was in the Low Countries rather than "stalwart England," and that, as Patten notes, the opening conflict 'might suggest to some readers the most recent fierce Battle fought in summer, just outside Brussels, on Sunday, June 18, 1815: the battle of Waterloo" (208). However, the cavalier's hat and the Puritan Roundhead casque both point unambiguously towards a battle in the English Civil War (1642-49). The basket of apples beside Grace suggests that the textual moment realised occurs after the dance depicted in the frontispiece, but occurring on pages 10 through 12.
Relevant Illustrations from Other Editions (1876, 1906, and 1912)
Left: Charles Green's engraved title-page, showing a mediaeval knight on horseback: The Battle of Life: A Love Story (1912). Right: Green's description of the doctor and his daughters in the orchard, Dr. Jeddler and Marion's Birthday.
Left: Barnard's 1878 engraving of the scene in which Dr. Jeddler wishes his younger daughter, Marion, happy birthday, "Bye-the-bye," and he looked into the pretty face, still close to his, "I suppose it's your birthday" (1878). Centre: Furniss's pen-and-ink study of the sisters' wishing Alfred goodbye, Alfred's Farewell (1910). Right: A. A. Dixon's lithograph of the sisters in the orchard: Danced in the freedom and gaiety of their hearts (1906).
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Battle of Life: A Love Story. Illustrated by John Leech, Richard Doyle, Daniel Maclise, and Clarkson Stanfield. Engraved by J. Thompson, Dalziel, T. Williams, and Green. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1846.
Dickens, Charles. The Letters of Charles Dickens, ed. Madeline House, Graham Storey, et al., 12 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1965-2002. Vol. IV.
_____. The Battle of Life. Illustrated by Charles Green, R. I. London: A & F Pears, 1912.
_____. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
_____. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1878.
_____. Christmas Books. Illustrated by A. A. Dixon. London & Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, 1906.
_____. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Co., 1910.
_____. Christmas Stories. Illustrated by E. A. Abbey. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1876.
Patten, Robert L. Chapter 9, "Battling for his Life." Dickens, Death, and Christmas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. 200-233. [Review]
Created 20 February 2001
Last updated 19 October 2026