The Search for “Lives” of Misers” — Harry Furniss's sixteenth illustration for “Our Mutual Friend” (1910)

[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Harry Furniss —> Charles Dickens —> Our Mutual Friend —> Next]

The Search for “Lives” of Misers

Harry Furniss

1910

13.5 cm x 9.3 cm, or 5 ¼ by 3 ⅝ inches, vignetted

The Charles Dickens Library Edition, Vol. XV, Book 3, “A Long Lane,” Chapter V, “The Golden Dustman Falls into Bad Company,” facing 481.

Any book that seemed to promise a chance of miserly biography, Mr. Boffin purchased without a moment’s delay and carried home. Being informed that a portion of the Annual Register was devoted to “Characters,” he bought a whole set, and began to carry it home piecemeal, confiding a volume to Bella. — Our Mutual, p. 486.

[Click on the images on this page to enlarge them.]

Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.].

Passage Illustrated: Noddy Boffin and Bella Wilfer Scour the London Bookstalls

She had begun by this time to be his frequent companion in his morning strolls about the streets, and it was at this time that he made her a party to his engaging in a curious pursuit. Having been hard at work in one dull enclosure all his life, he had a child’s delight in looking at shops. It had been one of the first novelties and pleasures of his freedom, and was equally the delight of his wife. For many years their only walks in London had been taken on Sundays when the shops were shut; and when every day in the week became their holiday, they derived an enjoyment from the variety and fancy and beauty of the display in the windows, which seemed incapable of exhaustion. As if the principal streets were a great Theatre and the play were childishly new to them, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, from the beginning of Bella’s intimacy in their house, had been constantly in the front row, charmed with all they saw and applauding vigorously. But now, Mr. Boffin’s interest began to centre in book-shops; and more than that — for that of itself would not have been much — in one exceptional kind of book.

‘Look in here, my dear,’ Mr. Boffin would say, checking Bella’s arm at a bookseller’s window; ‘you can read at sight, and your eyes are as sharp as they’re bright. Now, look well about you, my dear, and tell me if you see any book about a Miser.’

If Bella saw such a book, Mr. Boffin would instantly dart in and buy it. And still, as if they had not found it, they would seek out another book-shop, and Mr. Boffin would say, ‘Now, look well all round, my dear, for a Life of a Miser, or any book of that sort; any Lives of odd characters who may have been Misers.’

Bella, thus directed, would examine the window with the greatest attention, while Mr. Boffin would examine her face. The moment she pointed out any book as being entitled Lives of eccentric personages, Anecdotes of strange characters, Records of remarkable individuals, or anything to that purpose, Mr. Boffin’s countenance would light up, and he would instantly dart in and buy it. Size, price, quality, were of no account. Any book that seemed to promise a chance of miserly biography, Mr. Boffin purchased without a moment’s delay and carried home. Happening to be informed by a bookseller that a portion of the Annual Register was devoted to “Characters,” Mr. Boffin at once bought a whole set of that ingenious compilation, and began to carry it home piecemeal, confiding a volume to Bella, and bearing three himself. The completion of this labour occupied them about a fortnight. When the task was done, Mr Boffin, with his appetite for Misers whetted instead of satiated, began to look out again.

It very soon became unnecessary to tell Bella what to look for, and an understanding was established between her and Mr. Boffin that she was always to look for Lives of Misers. [Book Three, “A Long Lane,” Chapter V, “The Golden Dustman Falls into Bad Company,” pp. 486-487]

Commentary: Becoming a Pious Fraud — Noddy's Assuming the Character of a Miser

Despite the fact that Mahoney in 1875 had a Stone composite woodblock engraving showing the search for misers' biographies as a visual antecedent, Mahoney deviated from the choice for the Chapter Five illustration which Dickens and his original illustrator, Marcus Stone, had made. However, Harry Furniss has reverted to the original composition, updating the engraving that appeared in the twelfth monthly serial number (April, 1865). The vigorous street scene certainly complements Mahoney's original notion of showing Mrs. Boffin's leading Bella further into the "pious fraud" plot involving her husband's supposedly becoming a hardened miser.

In every respect (setting, backdrop, and animation of the principals) Furniss's 1910 lithograph represents a considerable advance over the Stone original. The aloofness of the young, fashionably-dressed beauty, the haughty Bella, complements the smug self-satisfaction on the face of the book-collecting Boffin, purchases stuffed into the pockets of his greatcoat. But what immediately strikes the viewer as so effective is Furniss's depiction of the varied life of the street. Coachmen, policemen, liveried servants on carriages, a coachman with his whip, and even a street waif (lower right) render the London Sunday-morning street scene a "Theatre" indeed. The only aspect of the Stone original that surpasses Furniss's animated, crowded backdrop is the 1865 rendering of the building facades.

Relevant Illustrations in the Original (Serial), Diamond, and Household Editions

Left: Marcus Stone's serial plate for the April 1865 number: Bibliomania of the Golden Dustman. Centre: Mahoney's 1875 Household Edition illustration for the same chapter focusses on Bella's relationship with Mrs. Boffin: Feigning to be intent on her embroidery, she sat plying her needle until her busy hand was stopped by Mrs. Boffin's hand being laid lightly upon it (p. 203). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s dual study of the Golden Dustman and his wife in their parlour at Boffin's Bower: Mr. and Mrs. Boffin (1867). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Related Materials

Illustrations by Marcus Stone (40 plates from the Chapman and Hall edition of May 1864 through November 1865)
Frontispieces by Octavius Carr Darley (4 photogravures from the Hurd and Houghton Household Edition of 1872)
Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr. (16 plates from the Ticknor and Fields' Diamond Edition of 1867)
James Mahoney (58 plates from the Chapman and Hall Household Edition of 1875)
Harry Furniss (28 lithographs from the Charles Dickens Library Edition, Vol. XV, 1910)
Clayton J. Clarke (two studies from his designs for the Player's Cigarette Cards, 1910)

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

The Characters of Charles Dickens Pourtrayed in a Series of Original Water Colour Sketches by “Kyd.” London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1898[?].

Cordery, Gareth, and Joseph S. Meisel, eds. The Humours of Parliament: Harry Furniss's View of Late-Victorian Culture. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2014. [Review by Françoise Baillet]

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Marcus Stone [40 composite wood-block engravings]. The Authentic Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. 21 vols. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1901 [based on the original nineteen-month serial and the two-volume edition of 1865]. Vol. XIV.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1872. 4 vols.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. VIII.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume IX.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. XV.

Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 21: The Other Novels." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. XVII. Pp. 441-442.

Kitton, Frederic G. Dickens and His Illustrators. London: George Redway, 1899. Rpt. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2004.

Vann, J. Don. "Our Mutual Friend, twenty parts in nineteen monthly instalments, May 1864—November 1865." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985, 74.

Created 9 August 2025