Meg and the Little Girl, by M. F. or E. M. Taylor

Meg and the Little Girl

M. F. or E. M. Taylor

Photographic reproduction of line drawing

Approximately 3.75 inches wide x 3.75 inches high

From Dickens' Dream Children, p. 202, at the head of Mary Angela Dickens's eleventh chapter, "Trotty Veck and His Daughter Meg"; realizing a scene between Meg and little Lilian, Will Fern's niece, in Toby Veck's modest London home on New Year's Eve:

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 one in a print medium.]

"Why, father!" cried Meg, as she knelt before the child and pulled off her wet shoes, "you're crazy to-night, I think. I don't know what the Bells would say to that. Poor little feet, how cold they are!" [207]

In contrast to the brutalized poor of London in Oliver Twist, the struggling working-class characters of The Chimes (1844) are cheerful, tender-hearted, and worthy of the middle-class reader's sympathy.

Bibliography

Dickens, Mary Angela [Charles Dickens' grand-daughter]. Dickens' Dream Children. Illustrated by Harold Copping, E. M. Taylor, and M. F. Taylor. London, Paris New, York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., 1926.

Last modified 15 September 2010