Tiny Tim, by M. F. or E. M. Taylor

Tiny Tim

M. F. or E. M. Taylor

Photographic reproduction of line drawing

Approximately 2.5 inches wide x 3.5 inches high

From Dickens' Dream Children, p. 12, at the conclusion of Mary Angela Dickens's "Introduction"; realizing a description in the nineteenth chapter, "Tiny Tim."

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.]

Although he is but one of a relatively large cast of characters in Victorian England's most popular novella, A Christmas Carol (1843), Tiny Tim is certainly memorable, if not for his plucky cheerfulness in the face of adversity, then for his remarking, "God bless us, every one!" Mary Angela Dickens re-tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge's moral and social reclamation by focusing on Timothy Cratchit and making him the protagonist of the nineteenth chapter, "Tiny Tim." Bundled up against the cold and carrying his crutch, Tiny Tim as realized by one of the Taylors resembles the boy as he is depicted in his father's arms as Bob carries the boy through Camden Town's busy streets in Harold Copping's much-reproduced lithograph "Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim". Copping's co-illustrator, has changed the proportion of the child's head to his body, making him seem better developed, less fragile physically, and more like one of Kate Greenaway's ideal, ever-so-pretty children. We are very far from Phiz and Cruikshank!

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 13 September 2010