"Characters in the Story" by Harry Furniss — engraved title for "Hard Times" (1910)

[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Henry Furniss —> — Next]

Characters in the Story

Harry Furniss

1910

14.2 x 9.8 cm vignetted

Dickens's Hard Times, Part Two, Vol. 5 of Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing frontispiece.

In the Charles Dickens Library Edition, Furniss complements his usual engraved title-page, Characters in the Story, with just a single character study of Gradgrind as a Special Frontispiece in the short novel. What motivated Furniss to illustrate the weekly-serialised novel so sparingly is hard to say, although perhaps that it initially appeared without any illustration in 1854 in Dickens's weekly journal Household Words may have been a factor. [Commentary continues below.]

[Click on image to enlarge it, and mouse over to find links.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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

Commentary

The short novel after its initial serialisation was illustrated in both The Library Illustrated Edition by Fred Walker, and in the British and American Household Editions respectively by Harry French and C. S. Reinhart in the mid-1870s.

Apparently Furniss thought it fitting to recall significant figures from his substantial body of illustrations for the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910) rather than depict such memorable characters from Hard Times as Bitzer, Tom Gradgrind, Sissy Jupe, Sleary, and Louisa and Josiah Bounderby. Since these thumbnails in the margins are entirely based on the regular illustrations for the full-length novels, the astute reader will not find among their ranks a single character from the 1854 novel, but will readily identify such iconic figures as Wackford Squeers from Nicholas Nickleby (upper left) and Miss Havisham from Great Expectations (left of centre at the bottom), matching exactly their forms and poses in the full-page plates.

Furniss has once again demonstrated his thorough knowledge of the Dickens canon, but not the particular Dickens text. Pickwick bows to the reader and doffs his hat at the top, centre; Mr. Micawber shows David Copperfield the sights of London in the right margin; at the bottom, centre, Scrooge settles down to his gruel as Marley's Ghost is about to appear; and in the left margin the enthusiastic tour guide, torch in hand, beckons Dickens and his party forward through the Roman catacombs in a memorable scene from Pictures from Italy (1846).

Relevant Programs of Illustration for this Novel (1868 through 1876)

O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the 1863 New York edition (1863)
Sol Eytinge's Illustrations in the Diamond Edition (1867)
Fred Walker's Illustrations in the Illustrated Library Edition (1868)
Charles Stanley Reinhart's Illustrations in the Household Edition (1876)
Harry French's Illustrations in the British Household Edition (1877)

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. Barnaby Rudge and Hard Times. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 16 vols. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.

Dickens, Charles. The Old Curiosity Shop and Hard Times. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. 5.

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times and Pictures from Italy. Il. Fred Walker. Illustrated Library Edition. London: Chapman & Hall, 1868.

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times and The Uncommercial Traveller. Il. C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1876.

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. With twenty illustrations by Harry French. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877.

Victorian
Web

Illustration

Harry
Furniss

Last modified 21 November 2019