[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Harry Furniss —> Master Humphrey's Clock —> Charles Dickens —> Next]
Mr. Pickwick Examining the Clock
"And this, said Mr. Pickwick, stopping short, "is the clock! Dear me! And this is really the old clock!" — Master Humphrey, p. 50
Harry Furniss
1910
13.8 cm x 8/6 cm (5 ½ by 3 ⅜ inches), vignetted.
Dickens's Master Humphrey's Clock, Chapter VII, "Master Humphrey's Visitor" — facing VI, 50.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The utmost I could obtain from him was a promise that he would attend upon our next night of meeting, that I might have the pleasure of presenting him immediately on his election.
Mr. Pickwick, having with many blushes placed in my hands a small roll of paper, which he termed his "qualification," put a great many questions to me touching my friends, and particularly Jack Redburn, whom he repeatedly termed "a fine fellow," and in whose favour I could see he was strongly predisposed. When I had satisfied him on these points, I took him up into my room, that he might make acquaintance with the old chamber which is our place of meeting.
"And this," said Mr. Pickwick, stopping short, "is the clock! Dear me! And this is really the old clock!"
I thought he would never have come away from it. [Ch. VII, "Master Humphrey's Visitor," 50]
Dickens has a great deal of fun introducing his celebrated creation, Mr. Samuel Pickwick, to his latest persona, the mild-mannered, shy, and diffident Master Humphrey. At the close of his visit and after careful inspection of the now-celebrated clock-case, Mr. Pickwick leaves a bundle of papers with Master Humphrey as he dashes to catch an omnibus home. Upon inspection, the bundle contains the two chapters of "Mr. Pickwick's Tale" of Will Marks and the witches, a subject which the other Illustrators of Master Humphrey's Clock (Cattermole, Phiz, Barnard, and Groome) have dealt with directly.
Left: George Cattermole and Hablot Knight Browne offer three significant illustrations for "Mr. Pickwick's Tale" in Master Humphrey's Clock (1840). Left, Cattermole's Will Marks reading the News concerning Witches (Ch. 1). Centre, Phiz's Will Marks takes up his position for the night (Ch. 1). Right: Cattermole's Will Marks arrives at the Church (Chapter 2).
Left: W. H. C. Groome illustrates the tale itself rather than the arrival of the tale-teller: Will seized a woman by the wrist (1907). Right: Fred Barnard in the Household Edition realizes a key moment in satire on popular beliefs about witchcraft in the reign of James I: At last they made a halt at the opening of a lonely, desolate space, and, pointing to a black object at some distance, asked Will if he saw that, yonder. (1872).
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Davis, Paul. "Master Humphrey's Clock." Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to his Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998, 238.
Dickens, Charles. Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by George Cattermole and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Chapman and Hall, 1840-41.
Dickens, Charles. Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by George Cattermole and Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Chapman and Hall, 4 April 1840 — 4 December 1841.
_______. Master Humphrey's Clock. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Reprinted Pieces, and Other Stories. With thirty illustrations by L. Fildes, E. G. Dalziel, and F. Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. XX. Pp. 253-306.
_______. Master Humphrey's Clock and Pictures from Italy. Collins Pocket Editions. Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-type Press, 1907. Pp. 1-168.
_______. Barnaby Rudge and Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. Charles Dickens Library Edition. Volume VI. London: Educational Book, 1910.
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture Book: A Record of the Dickens Illustrators. Ch. XIV. "Master Humphrey's Clock." The Charles Dickens Library. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Pp. 259-265.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 3, "From Caricature to Progress: Master Humphrey's Clock and Martin Chuzzlewit." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 51-85.
Stevens, Joan. "'Woodcuts Dropped into the Text': The Illustrations in The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge." Studies in Bibliography. 20 (1967): 113-34.
Vann, J. Don. "The Old Curiosity Shop in Master Humphrey's Clock, 25 April 1840-6 February 1841." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 64-65.
Created 25 August 2022