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Florence Dombey from “Dombey and Son”
Felix O. C. Darley
Annin-Loomis
1861, rpt. 1866
12 by 7.9 cm (4 ¾ by 3 ¼ inches)
Composite woodblock engraving
Frontispiece with Florence Dombey, Mr. Toots, and Diogenes for Dombey and Son in Dickens' Little Folks.
[Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"The fact is — "I say! Miss Dombey!" blubbered Toots.
"Don't be afraid to speak to me," said Florence, with a quiet smile; "I should be very glad if you would talk about my brother."
"Would you, though," retorted Mr. Toots, with sympathy in every fibre of his otherwise expressionless face. "Poor Dombey! I'm sure I never thought that Burgess & Co. — fashionable tailors (but very dear), that we used to talk about — would make this suit of clothes for such a purpose." Mr. Toots was dressed in mourning. "Poor Dombey! I say! Miss Dombey!" blubbered Toots.
"Yes," said Florence.
There's a friend he took to very much at last. I thought you'd like to have him, perhaps, as a sort of keepsake. You remember his remembering Diogenes?"
"Oh, yes! oh, yes!" cried Florence.
. . . . And when Diogenes, released, came tearing up the stairs and bouncing into the room (such a businessas there was, at first, to get him out of the cabriolet!) dived under all the furniture, and wound a long iron chain, that dangled from his neck, round legs of chairs and tables, and then tugged it until his eyes became unnaturally visible, in consequence of their nearly starting out of his head; and when he growled at Mr. Toots, who affected familiarity; and went pell-mell at Towlinson, the servant, morally convinced that he was the enemy whom he had barked at round the corner all his life, and had never seen yet; Florence was a pleased with him as if he had been a miracle of discretion. [Chapter I, “Florence Dombey,” pp. 12-14]
"I say! Miss Dombey!" blubbered Toots.
"Yes," said Florence.
"There’s a friend he took to very much at last. I thought you’d lIke to have him, perhaps, as a sort of keepsake. You remember his remembering Diogenes?"
"Oh yes! oh yes" cried Florence.
"Poor Dombey! So do I," said Mr. Toots.
Mr. Toots, seeing Florence in tears, had great difficulty in getting beyond this point, and had nearly tumbled into the well again. But a chuckle saved him on the brink.
"I say," he proceeded, "Miss Dombey! I could have had him stolen for ten shillings, if they hadn’t given him up: and I would: but they were glad to get rid of him, I think. If you’d like to have him, he’s at the door. I brought him on purpose for you. He ain’t a lady’s dog, you know,’ said Mr. Toots, ‘but you won’t mind that, will you?"
In fact, Diogenes was at that moment, as they presently ascertained from looking down into the street, staring through the window of a hackney cabriolet, into which, for conveyance to that spot, he had been ensnared, on a false pretence of rats among the straw. Sooth to say, he was as unlike a lady’s dog as might be; and in his gruff anxiety to get out, presented an appearance sufficiently unpromising, as he gave short yelps out of one side of his mouth, and overbalancing himself by the intensity of every one of those efforts, tumbled down into the straw, and then sprung panting up again, putting out his tongue, as if he had come express to a Dispensary to be examined for his health.
But though Diogenes was as ridiculous a dog as one would meet with on a summer’s day; a blundering, ill-favoured, clumsy, bullet-headed dog, continually acting on a wrong idea that there was an enemy in the neighborhood, whom it was meritorious to bark at; and though he was far from good-tempered, and certainly was not clever, and had hair all over his eyes, and a comic nose, and an inconsistent tail, and a gruff voice; he was dearer to Florence, in virtue of that parting remembrance of him, and that request that he might be taken care of, than the most valuable and beautiful of his kind. So dear, indeed, was this same ugly Diogenes, and so welcome to her, that she took the jewelled hand of Mr. Toots and kissed it in her gratitude. And when Diogenes, released, came tearing up the stairs and bouncing into the room (such a business as there was, first, to get him out of the cabriolet!), dived under all the furniture, and wound a long iron chain, that dangled from his neck, round legs of chairs and tables, and then tugged at it until his eyes became unnaturally visible, in consequence of their nearly starting out of his head; and when he growled at Mr. Toots, who affected familiarity; and went pell-mell at Towlinson, morally convinced that he was the enemy whom he had barked at round the corner all his life and had never seen yet; Florence was as pleased with him as if he had been a miracle of discretion. [The Diamond Edition of Dombey and Son (1867), Chapter 18, "Father and Daughter," 145]
Left: Harry Furniss's portrait of Toots's wedding speech: Mr. Toots makes a speech (1910). Left of centre: Barnard's realisation of Toots as a schoolboy at Dr. Blimber's, a fashion-plate even then: "Your father's regularly rich, ain't he?" inquired Mr. Toots. (1877). Right of centre: Sol Eytinge, Junior's study of the fatuous but fashionable Regency beau and his boxing trainer: Mr. Toots and the Chicken (1867). Right: Clayton J. Clarke's watercolour study: Mr. P. Toots (1910).
In Charles Dickens' Dombey and Son, Mr. Toots gifts Florence the dog Diogenes. Diogenes was a large, clumsy, and protective dog that took a liking to little Paul Dombey. Mr. Toots, who is infatuated with Florence, kindly gives her the dog as a parting gift. Diogenes, despite his unkempt, shaggy appearance, becomes dear to Florence.
The sixth full-page illustration for Dombey and Son: Florence Dombey. Sol Eytinge, Jr. 8.5 cm high by 10 cm wide, framed. The Diamond Edition of Dickens's Works, Volume III (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867), facing page 117. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
As an American nineteenth-century illustrator, Sol Eytinge, Jr., is very likely to have studied all of Darley's composite woodblock engravings for the 1861-63 Household Edition, including his studies of Florence Dombey, Mr. Toots, and the shaggy Diogenes. In his dual portrait of Florence and Paul's friend, Eytinge is apparently alluding to the passage in Chapter 18 when Toots, Paul's best friend at school, reveals that he has bought Diogenes for Florence because the large-breed dog was so attached to her brother.
Left: Fred Barnard's study of Florence in mourning for the same chapter, It was repeated, often — very often, in the shadowy solitude; and broken murmurs of the strain still trembled on the keys, when the sweet voice was hushed in tears. (1877). Right: Phiz's original study of Florence and Diogenes, the dog who was little Paul's constant companion at Dr. Blimber's: Poor Paul's Friend (March 1847).
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Canton: Ohio U. P., 1980.
Darley, Felix Octavius Carr (illustrator). "Florence Dombey" from “The Dombey and Son” of Charles Dickens in Dickens' Little Folks. New York: Clark, Austin, Maynard & Co., 1862; rpt. John B. Alden, c. 1880.
Darley, Felix Octavius Carr (illustrator). "Little Paul Dombey, Mr. Dombey, Florence, Walter, and Captain Cuttle" from “Dombey and Son” in Dickens' Little Folks. "Illustrated by Darley." New York: John B. Anderson, 1866.
Dickens, Charles. 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. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. III.
Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition, 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. Vol. XV.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Ch. 12, "Work, Work, Work." Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. 128-160.
Schlicke, Paul. (Ed.). "Dombey and Son." The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1999. 183-88.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 4. "Dombey and Son: Iconography of Social and Sexual Satire." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 86-112.
Created 18 June 2025
Last modified 24 July 2026