[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Harry Furniss —> Little Dorrit —> Charles Dickens —> Next]
Little Dorrit tells 'The Story of the Princess'
Harry Furniss
1910
14.0 cm x 9.4 cm, vignetted
Dickens's Little Dorrit, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, Book the First, "Poverty," Chapter 24, "Fortune-telling," facing XII, 321.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Her great staring child tenderly embraced her; and having smoothed her hair, and bathed her forehead and eyes with cold water (offices in which her awkward hands became skilful), hugged her again, exulted in her brighter looks, and [Maggy] stationed her in her chair by the window. Over against this chair, Maggy, with apoplectic exertions that were not at all required, dragged the box which was her seat on story-telling occasions, sat down upon it, hugged her own knees, and said, with a voracious appetite for stories, and with widely-opened eyes:
"Now, Little Mother, let's have a good 'un!"
"What shall it be about, Maggy?"
"Oh, let's have a princess," said Maggy, "and let her be a reg'lar one. Beyond all belief, you know!"
Little Dorrit considered for a moment; and with a rather sad smile upon her face, which was flushed by the sunset, began:
"Maggy, there was once upon a time a fine King, and he had everything he could wish for, and a great deal more. He had gold and silver, diamonds and rubies, riches of every kind. He had palaces, and he had —" [Book the First, "Poverty," Chapter 24, "Fortune-Telling," 304: the wording of picture's original caption has been emphasized]
In Furniss's redrafting, Amy is not looking despondently out of the window at the tawdry life of the College Yard, but is fully engaged in formulating the fairy story (a fictionalized and symbolic account of herself) that she is about to narrate for Maggy's entertainment in her upper-storey garret in the Marshalsea. Furniss gives the reader little sense of the tidy nature of Amy's cramped room, focussing instead upon the physical differences between the large-headed, wide-eyed, cartoon-like Maggy and the sharply defined, realistically drawn Amy. If one compares this version of Amy with Furniss's earlier representations such as Little Dorrit among the Professionals (Chapter 20), one can readily see that Furniss is simultaneously making Amy seem larger and more mature, as if to prepare her for married life.
Above: Phiz's June 1856 plate showing Maggy and Arthur Clennam in the street outside the prison, Little Mother (Book 1, Chapter 9). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Junior's dual character study of Amy Dorrit and her mentally-challenged companion, Little Dorrit and Maggy (1867). Right: Phiz's original scene of Amy as inset Dickensian narrator, The Story of the Princess (June 1856). [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Above: James Mahoney's Household Edition illustration of Arthur Clennam's interrogation of the clarionet-player, Frederick Dorrit, in his rooms outside the Marshalsea about his niece, Amy, He was a feeble, spare, and slow in his pinches as in everything else. (Book I, Ch. 24). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. , 1990.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Authentic Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901 [rpt. 30 May 1857 volume].
_____. Little Dorrit. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.
_____. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. 14 vols.
_____. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1873. Vol. 5.
_____. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 12.
Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 19: Little Dorrit." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. 17, 398-427.
Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens and His 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. [Rpt. of the London 1899 edition]
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
"Little Dorrit — Fifty-eight Illustrations by James Mahoney." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Gordon Thomson, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. McL. Ralston, J. Mahoney, H. French, Charles Green, E. G. Dalziel, A. B. Frost, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1907.
Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. , 1999.
Steig, Michael. "VI. Bleak House and Little Dorrit." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. , 1978, 131-298.
Vann, J. Don. Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985.
Created 24 May 2016
Last modified 28 January 2020