Commentary: A New Edition for the Triumphant Second Tour
oston publisher James T. Fields in anticipation of Dickens's long-awaited second American reading tour, which the outbreak of the American Civil War had postponed, commissioned from Sol Eytinge, Jr. ninety-six designs for wood-engravings to grace the pages of the exhaustive sixteen-volume Diamond Edition of Dickens's works, each volume being of compact dimensions with very fine but sharp type. Logically intended for readers travelling on the American railroads of New England, the publication of this slender volume coincided with that momentous visit to American shores.
Note: By the end of 1867, Ticknor and Fields had issued the first fifteen of the "handy" sixteen Diamond Edition volumes, heralding the arrival of Charles Dickens and his manager, George Dolby, on 9 November 1867. The publishers probably timed the appearance of the final volume to coincide with the Christmas book-buying season.
On the verso of the title-page is the statement that Fields, the author's friend and confidant, so valued since it authorized his firm as Dickens's sole representatives in the United States:
Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent, Second April, 1867. By a special arrangement made with me and my English Publishers (partners with me in the copyright of my works), MESSRS. TICKNOR AND FIELDS, of Boston, have become the only authorized representatives in America of the whole series of my books. CHARLES DICKENS.
William Winter in his autobiography recalls that Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s illustrations for Dickens's works "gained the emphatic approval of the novelist" (318), although of course the pair did not actively collaborate on this series, as did Hablot Knight Browne and Dickens for so many of the full-scale novels in twenty monthly parts, concluding with the illustrations for the Chapman and Hall A Tale of Two Cities in 1859. As one regards this series of ten individual and small group character studies for Barnaby Rudge and appreciates them as a realistic reaction to the former "caricatural style," one is inclined to agree with Winter that "The most appropriate pictures that have been made for illustration of the novels of Dickens, — pictures that are truly representative and free from the element of caricature, — are those made by Eytinge . . ." (317-18).
- Barnaby and His Mother
- John Willet and His Cronies
- Sim Tappertit and Stagg
- Old Rudge
- Mr. and Mrs. Varden and Miss Miggs
- Joe Willet and Dolly Varden
- Mr. Chester and Edward
- Lord Gordon, Gashford, and Grueby
- Mr. Haredale
- Dennis and Hugh
- Title-page for the "Diamond Edition" of Barnaby Rudge and Hard Times (1867)
Related Resources
- Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (homepage)
- Cattermole and Phiz: The Old Curiosity Shop: A Team Effort by "The Clock Works" (1841)
- Phiz's Illustrations for Barnaby Rudge (13 Feb.-27 Nov. 1841)
- Cattermole's Seventeen Illustrations for Barnaby Rudge (13 Feb.-27 Nov. 1841)
- Felix Octavius Carr Darley's Six Illustrations for Barnaby Rudge (1865 and 1888)
- Fred Barnard's 46 Household Edition Illustrations for Barnaby Rudge (1874)
- A. H. Buckland's 6 illustrations for the Collins' Clear-type Pocket Edition of Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (1900)
- The Charles Dickens Library Edition Illustrations for Barnaby Rudge by Harry Furniss (1910).
Scanned image, caption, and commentary 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. Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz and George Cattermole. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.
________. Barnaby Rudge. A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Illustrated by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1862. 2 vols.
________. Barnaby Rudge and Hard Times. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 16 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. IX.
________. Barnaby Rudge — A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. VII.
________. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by A. H. Buckland. The Collins Clear-type Press Edition. London & Glasgow: Collins, 1900.
________. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI.
________. Barnaby Rudge. Ed. Kathleen Tillotson. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') and George Cattermole. The New Oxford Illustrated Dickens. London: Oxford University Press, 1954, rpt. 1987.
Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens and His Illustrators: 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.
Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 3. "From Caricature to Progress: Master Humphrey's Clock to Martin Chuzzlewit." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 53-85.
Winter, William. "Charles Dickens" and "Sol Eytinge." Old Friends: Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard, & Co., 1909. 181-202, 317-319.
Created 8 November 2011
Last modified 3 December 2025