"Dick Swiveller" by J. Clayton Clarke (Kyd)

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Dick Swiveller

J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd")

Watercolour

"A select convivial circle called the 'Glorious Apollers,' of which I have the honour to be Perpetual Grand." Old Curiosity Shop. — Chap. xiii.

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The John Players cigarette card

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham

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Richard ("Dick") Swiveller, one of Dickens's most memorable young men, is "Chronically feckless and impecunious, always awaiting a remittance from his aunt" (Bentley et al., The Dickens Index, 254). Based partly on John Dickens as a young man, Dick is the convivial leader of a social group who style themselves "The Glorious Apollos" (but pronounced "Apollers"), with whom Dick shows his endless capacity for quotation from romantic poetry and popular song lyrics. When under the employ of lawyer Sampson Brass and his Amazonian sister, Sally, Dick makes the acquaintance of the Brasses' maid, whom he dubs "The Marchioness." When he falls deathly ill, she nurses him back to recovery. In recompense, he pays for her education — and eventually marries her at the conclusion of The Old Curiosity Shop.

Bibliography

The Characters of Charles Dickens portrayed in a series of original watercolours by “Kyd.” London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, nd.

Created 26 January 2015