"The Characters in the Story" — Furniss's engraved title-page for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1910)

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The Characters in the Story

Harry Furniss

1910

14.2 x 9.8 cm, vignetted

Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing IV, the frontispiece.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Commentary

Present in the margins of the title-page for The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby are the ardent Nicholas; his virtuous sister, Kate; his wicked uncle, Ralph; the hapless Smike; the cupidinous and brutal Yorkshire schoolmaster, Wackford Squeers; and the benign Cheeryble Brothers. Furniss apparently based these thumbnails on the twenty-seven remaining full-page line drawings that appear throughout the volume. Furniss has prominently positioned the largest of the two-dozen figures, strolling player Vincent Crummles, at the very centre of the bottom of the elaborate border, as if to draw attention to the comic aspects of the novel. The ornate border filled with thumbnails hardly does justice to the picaresque novel's huge cast of characters, who, according to editor J. A. Hammerton's "Who's Who in Nicholas Nickleby," total one hundred and one (x-xi).

Relevant Covers, Frontispieces and Title-Pages for this Novel (1838 through 1876)

Hablot Knight Browne's Cover No. XIII for the monthly parts
Daniel Maclise's frontispiece Portrait of Charles Dickens (1839)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 1, 1861)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1861)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 4, 1861)
Sir John Gilbert's "My son, sir, little Wackford. What do you think of him, sir?" (Vol. 3, 1861)
Fred Barnard's Title-page Vignette in the British Household Edition (1875)
Fred Barnard's Frontispiece in the British Household Edition (1875)
C. S. Reinhart's Frontispiece in the American Household Edition (1875)
C. S. Reinhart's Title-page Vignette in the American Household Edition (1875)

Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators

Nicholas Nickleby (homepage)
Phiz's 38 monthly illustrations for the novel, April 1838-October 1839.
Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s 16 illustrations for The Diamond Edition (1867)
C. S. Reinhart's 52 Illustrations for the American Household Edution (1875)
Fred Barnard's 59 Illustrations for the Household Edution (1877)
Kyd's four Player's Cigarette Cards (1910).

Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (illustrator). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-eight illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume 15. Rpt. 1890.

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 Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 4.

__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al.. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.

Created 27 November 2019

Last modified 18 April 2021