"Ah!" he cried . . . "the burnt child dreads the fire!"
H. M. Brock
Photographic reproduction of pen and ink drawing (?)
1903
13.8 cm high by 9 cm wide (5 and ⅜ by 3 ½ inches), framed, p. 314.
Eighth illustration for Dickens's Great Expectations, p. 314.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Passage Illustrated: Orlick relishes taking vengeance
In his savage taunting, he flared the candle so close at me, that I turned my face aside, to save it from the flame.
"Ah!" he cried, laughing, after doing it again, "the burnt child dreads the fire!Old Orlick knowed you was burnt, Old Orlick knowed you was smuggling your uncle Provis away, Old Orlick's a match for you and know'd you'd come to-night! Now I'll tell you something more, wolf, and this ends it. There's them that's as good a match for your uncle Provis as Old Orlick has been for you. Let him 'ware them, when he's lost his nevvy! Let him 'ware them, when no man can't find a rag of his dear relation's clothes, nor yet a bone of his body. There’s them that can't and that won't have Magwitch — yes, I know the name! — alive in the same land with them, and that's had such sure information of him when he was alive in another land, as that he couldn't and shouldn't leave it unbeknown and put them in danger. P'raps it's them that writes fifty hands, and that's not like sneaking you as writes but one. 'Ware Compeyson, Magwitch, and the gallows!"
He flared the candle at me again, smoking my face and hair, and for an instant blinding me, and turned his powerful back as he replaced the light on the table. I had thought a prayer, and had been with Joe and Biddy and Herbert, before he turned towards me again. [Chapter LIII, 314]
Parallel Illustrations from Other Editions
Left: F. W. Pailthorpe's Old Orlick Means Murder (1885). Centre: Harry Furniss's Pip in the Power of Dolge Orlick (1910)."Do you know this?" said he. (1910). Right: Marcus Stone's Illustrated Library Edition's atmospheric On the Marshes, by the Lime-Kiln (1862).
Left: A. A. Dixon's Collins Pocket Edition lithograph of Orlick and Pip, "Ah! the burnt child dreads the fire (1905). Centre: Charles Green's "Do you know this?" said he. (1898). Right: F. A. Fraser's Household Edition illustration of Orlick's taunting a trussed up Pip: "Do you know this?" said he (1876).
Other Artists’ Illustrations for Dickens's Great Expectations
- A Comparison of Fraser's Illustrations in the original 1870s Household Edition plates and those in the Collier New York edition of 1900
- J. Clayton Clarke or "Kyd"
(2 coloured lithographs) - Felix O. C. Darley (2 plates)
- A. A. Dixon (8 lithographs)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (8 wood-engravings)
- F. A. Fraser (30 wood-engravings)
- Harry Furniss (28 plates)
- Charles Green (10 lithographs)
- Frederic W. Pailthorpe (21 lithographs)
- John McLenan (40 plates)
- Marcus Stone (8 plates)
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Imperial Edition. 16 vols. London: Gresham Publishing Company [34 Southampton Street, The Strand, London], 1901-3.
Created 19 January 2002 Last updated 30 April 2026