Mr. Carker
Sol Eytinge, Jr.
1867
Wood-engraving
10 x 7.4 cm (framed)
Dickens's Dombey and Son (Diamond Edition), facing III, 99.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Context of the Illustration: The Satanically Handsome Mr. Carker
Mr. Carker was a gentleman thirty-eight or forty years old, of a florid complexion, and with two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose regularity and whiteness were quite distressing. It was impossible to escape the observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke; and bore so wide a smile upon his countenance (a smile, however, very rarely, indeed, extending beyond his mouth), that there was something in it like the snarl of a cat. He affected a stiff white cravat, after the example of his principal, and was always closely buttoned up and tightly dressed. His manner towards Mr. Dombey was deeply conceived and perfectly expressed. He was familiar with him, in the very extremity of his sense of the distance between them. "Mr Dombey, to a man in your position from a man in mine, there is no show of subservience compatible with the transaction of business between us, that I should think sufficient. I frankly tell you, Sir, I give it up altogether. I feel that I could not satisfy my own mind; and Heaven knows, Mr Dombey, you can afford to dispense with the endeavour," If he had carried these words about with him printed on a placard, and had constantly offered it to Mr. Dombey’s perusal on the breast of his coat, he could not have been more explicit than he was.
This was Carker the Manager. [Ch. 13, "Shipping Intelligence and Office Business," 99]
Commentary: The Perpetually Smiling Manager
Eytinge had the considerable advantage over Dickens's original illustrator, Phiz, when in Chapter 13 he introduced the villainous Carker into his narrative-pictorial sequence. Whereas Phiz must have had some dialogue with Dickens about this significant character, he would not necessarily have learned about Carker's trajectory in the plot, or how he would figure as Edith Dombey's lover. Eytinge gives him a diabolical, knowing smile, as if he is challenging the viewer to assess what he has in store for his employer, the aloof Mr. Dombey. Although Eytinge has the specific description in Chapter 13 in mind, in his cat-like, knowing look Eytinge hints at the menace that the duplicitous manager will pose the unbending, phlegmatic Dombey.
James Carker (otherwise, "The Manager") smiles constantly in a way that discomposes those with whom he converses, for he is constantly baring his teeth. He seems indeed in the Eytinge portrait of him "oily of tongue" and malicious. Although he projects an image of utter loyalty to the House of Dombey, for years he has been embezzling from his unwitting employer. He easily manipulates the emotionally needy Edith Dombey, who agrees to run away with him to France.
Phiz's and Barnard's Carker Plates for Dombey and Son
Left: Detail of Carker in his speeding carriage,
Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son
- Dombey and Son (homepage)
- The Diamond Edition of the Novels (1867)
- Phiz's Illustrations for Dombey and Son, Wholesale Retail & for Exportation (Oct. 1846 - April 1848)
- Fred Barnard's 61 illustrations for the Household Edition (1872)
- Harry Furniss's 29 Illustrations for the Charles Dickens Library Edition, 1910
- Kyd's five Player's Cigarette Cards for , 1910
Bibliography
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. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. III.
_______. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard [62 composite wood-block engravings]. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.
Hammerton, J. A. "Ch. XVI. Dombey and Son." The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book Co., [1910], 294-338.
Created 7 December 2019
Last modified 17 December 2020