"Kit and Barbara at Abel Cottage, Finchley" — Furniss's twelfth illustration for Dickens's "The Old Curiosity Shop" (1910)

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Kit and Barbara at Abel Cottage, Finchley

When Kit was looking at her eyelashes and wondering — quite in the simplicity of his heart — what colour her eyes might be, it perversely happened that Barbara raised her head a little to look at him.

1910

13.5 x 9.3 cm, vignetted

Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing V, 161.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Kit and Barbara Below Stairs

Down stairs, therefore, Kit went; and at the bottom of the stairs there was such a kitchen as was never before seen or heard of out of a toy-shop window, with everything in it as bright and glowing, and as precisely ordered too, as Barbara herself. And in this kitchen, Kit sat himself down at a table as white as a tablecloth, to eat cold meat, and drink small ale, and use his knife and fork the more awkwardly, because there was an unknown Barbara looking on and observing him.

It did not appear, however, that there was anything remarkably tremendous about this strange Barbara, who having lived a very quiet life, blushed very much and was quite as embarrassed and uncertain what she ought to say or do, as Kit could possibly be. When he had sat for some little time, attentive to the ticking of the sober clock, he ventured to glance curiously at the dresser, and there, among the plates and dishes, were Barbara’s little work-box with a sliding lid to shut in the balls of cotton, and Barbara’s prayer-book, and Barbara’s hymn-book, and Barbara’s Bible. Barbara’s little looking-glass hung in a good light near the window, and Barbara’s bonnet was on a nail behind the door. From all these mute signs and tokens of her presence, he naturally glanced at Barbara herself, who sat as mute as they, shelling peas into a dish; and just when Kit was looking at her eyelashes and wondering — quite in the simplicity of his heart — what colour her eyes might be, it perversely happened that Barbara raised her head a little to look at him, when both pair of eyes were hastily withdrawn, and Kit leant over his plate, and Barbara over her pea-shells, each in extreme confusion at having been detected by the other. [Chapter XXII, 167: original caption emphasized]

Related Material about The Old Curiosity Shop

Bibliography

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 Old Curiosity Shop. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. V.

Created 8 May 2020

Last modified 27 November 2020