It was fine summer weather again [Page 129] by F. A. Fraser (1876), in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, Chapman & Hall. British Household Edition, for Chapter XXXV. 9.6 by 13.8 cm (3 ¾ by 5 ⅜ inches), framed. Running head: "How My Sister's Death Affected Me" (129). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Pip, now a "Gentleman," returns to the Village of his Birth
It was fine summer weather again, and, as I walked along, the times when I was a little helpless creature, and my sister did not spare me, vividly returned. But they returned with a gentle tone upon them that softened even the edge of Tickler. For now, the very breath of the beans and clover whispered to my heart that the day must come when it would be well for my memory that others walking in the sunshine should be softened as they thought of me.
At last I came within sight of the house, and saw that Trabb and Co. had put in a funereal execution and taken possession. Two dismally absurd persons, each ostentatiously exhibiting a crutch done up in a black bandage, — as if that instrument could possibly communicate any comfort to anybody, — were posted at the front door; and in one of them I recognised a postboy discharged from the Boar for turning a young couple into a sawpit on their bridal morning, in consequence of intoxication rendering it necessary for him to ride his horse clasped round the neck with both arms. All the children of the village, and most of the women, were admiring these sable warders and the closed windows of the house and forge; and as I came up, one of the two warders (the postboy) knocked at the door, — implying that I was far too much exhausted by grief to have strength remaining to knock for myself. [Chapter XXXV, 129]
Commentary: "He Doth Bestride the Narrow World like a Colossus" — Shakespeare
Pip, dressed as an upper-middle-class gentleman in the latest London fashion and carrying an umbrella, dwarfs the thatched-roofed farm buildings behind him. Fraser, however, does not depict Dickens's protagonist and narrator returning home in triumph, receiving the cheers and adulation of the villages for a fellow Kentishman who has made a place for himself in the metropolis and the wider world, Rather, Pip seems both alienated and abstracted; even the strutting rooster (left) has his coterie of hens. Thus, we wonder at his expression and his state of mind, assisted by the page's running head: "How My Sister's Death Affected Me" (129). We note also that this chapter begins with an ornamental initial letter: "I." The letter in the Household edition is usually just a decorative adjunct to the letterpress, but here it underscores Pip's personal perspective on the village of his birth which his sister's recent death has compelled him to visit in order to attend her funeral; he is indeed "haunted" by so many images of the past associated with this dreary place. And, of course, the initial-letter makes plain the differing points of view of the letter-press (first-person, major character) and the program of illustration in the objective or dramatic narrative point of view. Shortly Pip will turn twenty-one.
Other Artists’ Illustrations for Dickens's Great Expectations
- Edward Ardizzone (2 plates selected)
- H. M. Brock (8 lithographs)
- J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") (2 lithographs from watercolours)
- Felix O. C. Darley (2 plates)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (8 wood engravings)
- Marcus Stone (8 wood engravings)
- John McLenan (40 wood engravings)
- Harry Furniss (28 plates)
- Charles Green (10 lithographs)
- Frederic W. Pailthorpe (12 lithographs)
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
Allingham, Philip V. "The Illustrations for Great Expectations in Harper's Weekly (1860-61) and in the Illustrated Library Edition (1862) — 'Reading by the Light of Illustration'." Dickens Studies Annual, Vol. 40 (2009): 113-169.
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Letters of Charles Dickens. Ed. Madeline House, Graham Storey, and Kathleen Tillotson. Oxford: Clarendon, 1965. Vol. 9 (1859-1861).
______. Great Expectations. All the Year Round. Vols. IV and V. 1 December 1860 through 3 August 1861.
______. Great Expectations. Illustrated by John McLenan. [The First American Edition]. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vols. IV: 740 through V: 495 (24 November 1860-3 August 1861).
______. ("Boz."). Great Expectations. With thirty-four illustrations from original designs by John McLenan. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson (by agreement with Harper & Bros., New York), 1861.
______. Great Expectations. Illustrated by Marcus Stone. The Illustrated Library Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1862. Rpt. in The Nonesuch Dickens, Great Expectations and Hard Times. London: Nonesuch, 1937; Overlook and Worth Presses, 2005.
______. A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition.16 vols. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
______. Great Expectations. Volume 6 of the Household Edition. 22 vols. Illustrated by F. A. Fraser. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876.
______. Great Expectations. The Gadshill Edition. Illustrated by Charles Green. London: Chapman and Hall, 1898.
______. Great Expectations. "With 28 Original Plates by Harry Furniss." Volume 14 of the Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910.
Rosenberg, Edgar (ed.). "Launching Great Expectations." Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999. Pp. 389-423.
Stein, Robert A. "Dickens and Illustration." The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens. Ed. John O. Jordan. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 2001. 167-188.
Watt, Alan S. "Why Wasn't Great Expectations Illustrated?" The Dickens Magazine Series 1, Issue 2. Haslemere, England: Euromed Communications, 2001: 8-9.
Waugh, Arthur. "Charles Dickens and His Illustrators." Retrospectus and Prospectus: The Nonesuch Dickens. London: Bloomsbury, 1937, rpt. 2003. Pp. 6-52.
Created 28 December 2004 Last modified 30 November 2024