Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry
Sol Eytinge, Jr.
1867
Dickens's The Adventures of Oliver Twist, also, Pictures from Italy, and American Notes for General Circulation (Diamond Edition)
Although other illustrators have depicted Oliver's early life at the workhouse, far less visual material is available for Oliver's apprenticeship to the dour undertaker and his wife. Eytinge shows them as stilted, wooden figures set against a backdrop of coffins. Dickens's original illustrator was much more concerned with depicting Oliver's thrashing of his fellow-apprentice than with the bloodless Mr. Sowerberry, his coffin-shaped snuff-box, and his virago of a wife.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Passage Illustrated
"Here! I've brought the boy." Oliver made a bow.
"Oh! that's the boy, is it?" said the undertaker [to the Beadle]: raising the candle above his head, to get a better view of Oliver. "Mrs. Sowerberry, will you have the goodness to come here a moment, my dear?"
Mrs. Sowerberry emerged from a little room behind the shop, and presented the form of a short, then, squeezed-up woman, with a vixenish countenance.
"My dear," said Mr. Sowerberry, deferentially, "this is the boy from the workhouse that I told you of." Oliver bowed again.
"Dear me!" said the undertaker's wife, "he's very small."
"Why, he is rather small," replied Mr. Bumble, looking at Oliver as if it were his fault that he was no bigger; "he is small. There's no denying it. But he'll grow, Mrs. Sowerberry, — he'll grow."
"Ah! I dare say he will," replied the lady pettishly, "on our victuals and our drink. I see no saving in parish children, not I; for they always cost more to keep, than they're worth. However, men always think they know best. There! Get downstairs, little bag o' bones." With this, the undertaker's wife opened a side door, and pushed Oliver down a steep flight of stairs into a stone cell, damp and dark, forming the anteroom to the coal-cellar, and denominated "the kitchen," wherein sat a slatternly girl, in shoes down at heel, and blue worsted stockings very much out of repair. [Chapter 4, "Oliver Being Offered Another Place, Makes His First Entry into Public Life," p. 22]
Relevant Illustrations from the serial edition (1838), Household Edition (1871), and Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
Left: George Cruikshank's Oliver plucks up a spirit (1838). Right: Harry Furniss's Charles Dickens Library Edition illustration Oliver Aroused (1910). [Click on images to enlarge them.]
James Mahoney's "Liberal terms, Mr. Sowerberry, liberal terms!" (1871).
Bibliography
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. "George Cruikshank." Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980. Pp. 15-38.
Darley, Felix Octavius Carr. Character Sketches from Dickens. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1888.
Davies, Philip. "Warren of Sunless Courts." Lost London, 1870-1945. Croxley Green, Hertfordshire: Transatlantic, 2009. Pp. 258- 260.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. Il. George Cruikshank. London: Bradbury and Evans; Chapman and Hall, 1846.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 55 vols. Il. F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1865.
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Il. Sol Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. . Household Edition. Il. James Mahoney. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. The Annotated Dickens. Ed. Edward Guiliano and Philip Collins. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986. Vol. 1. Pp. 534-823.
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens Library Edition. Il. Harry Furniss. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. 3.
Forster, John. "Oliver Twist 1838." The Life of Charles Dickens. Ed. B. W. Matz. The Memorial Edition. 2 vols. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1911. Vol. 1, book 2, chapter 3. Pp. 91-99.
Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. 1899. Rpt. Honolulu: U. Press of the Pacific, 2004. Pp. 1-28.
Last modified 16 October 2014