Title-page for Dickens's Our Mutual Friend in the Lee & Shepard (Boston), and Charles T. Dillingham (New York) 1870 Illustrated Household Edition a re-printed version of the 1867 Diamond Edition volume issued by Ticknor & Fields, Boston, which has no connection whatsoever with the Harper & Brothers/Chapman & Hall Household Edition shortly to be launched simultaneously in London and New York. 14.5 high x 10.2 cm.
Commentary
The American "Diamond Edition" volumes were both more compact and less highly illustrated than those which Chapman and Hall issued in the regular editions following serialisation, but approximately the same size as the Illustrated Library Edition volumes issued by Chapman and Hall. Given its compact size, in an age before paperbacks, such a volume would have been convenient for railway reading, and therefore the Diamond Edition was timely, for the end of the American Civil War was marked by a decided upturn in railway travel throughout the eastern United States.
The dedication page reads:
This book is inscribed by its author to Sir James Emerson Tennent as A Memorial of Friendship.
Note
Sir James Emerson Tennent, First Baronet (7 April 1804 - 6 March 1869) was a Conservative Member of Parliament for the Irish ridings of Belfast and Lisburn, and a resident Colonial Secretary in Ceylon. In 1862, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. However, Dickens may have been attracted to Tennent because of his relationship with George Gordon, Lord Byron, with whom he served in the Greek War of Independence in 1824 as an artillery captain. He remained with the poet until Byron's death, and wrote several books about the Greek struggle, as well as numerous articles in the British press. Dickens first encountered Tennent in Parliament when he was a reporter. The Tennents frequently toured with the Dickens circle throughout Kent, with the Fieldses, Bulwer Lytton, Layard, and Lady Moulesworth in the late 1860s.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham, Professor Emeritus, Lakehead University. [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.]
Bibliography
Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Vol. VIII. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. in the Illustrated Household Edition. Boston: Lee and Shepard, and New York: Charles T. Dillingham, 1870.
Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Landseer, Palmer, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. Amsterdam: S. Emmering, 1972. Re-print of the London 1899 edition.
Tomlinson, Claire. Charles Dickens: A Life. New York, Toronto, and London: Penguin, 2011.
Winter, William. "Charles Dickens" and "Sol Eytinge." Old Friends: Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard, & Co., 1909. Pp. 181-202, 317-319.
Created 19 August 2011 last updated 16 March 2023