The twelfth full-page illustration for Nicholas Nickleby House: Walter Bray and Madeline, by Sol Eytinge, Jr. 7.5 cm high by 10 cm wide (2 ⅞ by 3 ⅞ inches), framed. The Diamond Edition of Dickens's Works, Volume IV (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., rpt. from 1867), facing p. 344. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage Illustrated: The Dour Debtor and his Attentive Daughter
And yet Nicholas was in the Rules of the King’s Bench Prison! If he had been in Italy indeed, and the time had been sunset, and the scene a stately terrace! But, there is one broad sky over all the world, and whether it be blue or cloudy, the same heaven beyond it; so, perhaps, he had no need of compunction for thinking as he did.
It is not to be supposed that he took in everything at one glance, for he had as yet been unconscious of the presence of a sick man propped up with pillows in an easy-chair, who, moving restlessly and impatiently in his seat, attracted his attention.
He was scarce fifty, perhaps, but so emaciated as to appear much older. His features presented the remains of a handsome countenance, but one in which the embers of strong and impetuous passions were easier to be traced than any expression which would have rendered a far plainer face much more prepossessing. His looks were very haggard, and his limbs and body literally worn to the bone, but there was something of the old fire in the large sunken eye notwithstanding, and it seemed to kindle afresh as he struck a thick stick, with which he seemed to have supported himself in his seat, impatiently on the floor twice or thrice, and called his daughter by her name.
"Madeline, who is this? What does anybody want here? Who told a stranger we could be seen? What is it?" [Chapter XLVI, "Throws some Light upon Nicholas’s Love; but whether for Good or Evil the Reader must determine," 344]
Walter Bray: A Pathetic Curmudgeon contrasting his dutiful Daughter
Eytinge has seized upon Nicholas's visit to the Brays' modest apartment "within the limits of the King;s Bench" as a way including the whinging debtor and his beautiful, supportive daughter as a study in opposites. Thanks to Madeline's various previous appearances and the Cheerybles' candid assessment of her father earlier in the chapter, the reader, like Nicholas, is fully prepared to judge Bray harshly. Whereas Phiz in his June 1839 serial illustration had included costly ornaments and furnishings to imply how Madeline and the Cheerybles have endeavoured to make Bray's lifestyle at least comfortable, Eytinge merely emphasizes the invalid's immobility of expression, his lean hand, and the oversized pillow that the attentive Madeline is positioning for him. Apart from the small table, drapery, the medicine bottle, and the glass, the room is devoid of the kinds of details Phiz included (see below).
The small-scale wood-engraving compelled the artist to minimize or entirely omit the small items that Nicholas observes as he enters the lodger's upstairs parlour, including "Flowers, plant, birds, the harp, the old piano" in the "poor;y-furnished room." Thus, Eytinge has focussed on the invalid "propped up with pillows in an easy-chair." However, the illustrator has made two interesting changes: Madeline is in the front parlour already, attending to her father, and, on the little table beside the chair are the small bottle and a glass, as mentioned above. The illustration, therefore, emphasizes a lack of possessions and furnishings, to suggest the poverty of the Brays, despite Dickens's assertions to the contrary. Eytinge has given the debtor a face with a wrinkled, mahogany skin lacking in flesh, as if he is indeed "worn to the bone" by his own splenetic disposition, as manifested in his abrasive dialogue with Nicholas.
Relevant Illustrations from Other Editions (1839, 1875, and 1910)
Left: Phiz finally brings Nicholas and Madeline face to face in Nicholas Makes His First Visit to Mr. Bray (June 1839). Right: C. S. Reinhart's study of the controlling parent and his beautiful daughter: "Madeline, who is this — what does any body want here?" (1875).
.
Left: Fred Barnard finally brings Nicholas and Madeline face to face in "No matter! Do you think you bring your paltry money here s a favour or gift; or as a matter of business, and in return for value received?" (1875). Right: Harry Furniss's interpretation of Nicholas's later rescue of Madeline: Nicholas rescues Madeline (1910).
Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators
- Nineteenth-Century Britain, a Nation of Debtors
- Walter Bray and John Dickens: Fictional and Real Incarcerated Debtors
- Nicholas Nickleby (homepage)
- Phiz's monthly illustrations for the novel, April 1838-October 1839.
- Cover for monthly parts
- Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise, engraved by Finden
- "Hush!" said Nicholas, laying his hand upon his shoulder. (Vol. 1, 1861)
- The Rehearsal (Vol. 2, 1861)
- "My son, sir, little Wackford. What do you think of him, sir?" (Vol. 3, 1861)
- Newman had caught up by the nozzle an old pair of bellows . . . (Vol. 4, 1861).
- The Diamond Edition of Charles Dickens’s Works
- Fred Barnard's 59 Illustrations for the Household Edition (1875)
- C. S. Reinhart's 52 Illustrations for the American Household Edition (1875)
- Harry Furniss's frontispiece: Nicholas's Vengeance on Squeers in The Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
- Kyd's four Player's Cigarette Cards (1910).
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 the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.
_______. Nicholas Nickleby.Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. The Diamond Edition. 16 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. IV.
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Ed. Andrew Lang. Illustrated by 'Phiz' (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. 2 vols.
_______. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 9.
Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 12: Nicholas Nickleby." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. 17, 147-170.
Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens andHis 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.
Lester Valerie Browne. Chapter 8., "Travels with Boz." Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. 58-69.
Loomis, Rick. First American Editions of Charles Dickens: The Callinescu Collection, Part 1. Yarmouth, ME: Sumner & Stillman, 2010.
Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader'sCompanion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 14-50.
Vann, J. Don. "Nicholas Nickleby." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985. 63.
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.
Last modified 8 September 2021