As each of the two handsome faces looked at each other, Clennam felt how each of the two natures must be constantly tearing the other to pieces — Book 2, chap. xx, is the full title as given in the Harper and Brothers printing. The Chapman and Hall edition has abbreviated version of this title: As each of the two handsome faces looked at the other. Sixties' illustrator James Mahoney's forty-fifth composite woodblock illustration for Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit, Household Edition, 1873. Wood-engraving by the Dalziels, 9.4 cm high by 13.6 cm wide, p. 329, framed, under the running head "Poor Frederick Drivels." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL.]
Passage Illustrated
As each of the two handsome faces looked at the other, Clennam felt how each of the two natures must be constantly tearing the other to pieces.
"Oh!" said Miss Wade, coldly subduing and removing her glance; "if you had any desire to see the place where you led the life from which I rescued you because you had found out what it was, that is another thing. But is that your truth to me? Is that your fidelity to me? Is that the common cause I make with you? You are not worth the confidence I have placed in you. You are not worth the favour I have shown you. You are no higher than a spaniel, and had better go back to the people who did worse than whip you."
"If you speak so of them with any one else by to hear, you'll provoke me to take their part," said the girl.
"Go back to them,"Miss Wade retorted. "Go back to them." — Book the Second, "Riches," Chapter 20, "Introduces the Next,"p. 339.
Commentary
Although there is no comparable illustration in the original serial, the present woodcut continues the thread of Arthur Clennam's observing Miss Wade and Tattycoram's meeting Blandois inthe Adelphi Terrace. Now, he has ascertained that the women are living in rented rooms across the Channel in Calais.In her possession are the papers pertaining to Little Dorrit's legacy. The three figures are Arthur Clennam (left), Tattycoram (centre) (seemingly trapped between the table and the overstuffed chair), and Miss Wade (right). His quest, however, does not involving Tattycoram to return to the Meagles, but to acquire information about Blandois. We have reached the point in the conversation when the girl admits to having gone down to Twickenham when Miss Wade left her alone in London. Miss Wade, ever jealous and insecure, interprets the girl's visit to the Meagles' cottage as a betrayal:
"Oh!" said Miss Wade, coldly subduing and removing her glance; "if you had any desire to see the place where you led the life from which I rescued you because you had found out what it was, that is another thing. But is that your truth to me? Is that your fidelity to me? Is that the common cause I make with you?" [339]
These remarks are delivered with passionate conviction and rhetorical flourish, neither of which does one detect in Mahoney's placid image of Miss Wade, who has just denounced the man who jilted her, Clennam's acquaintance, Henry Gowan. Tattycoram, too, seems quite calm, although her dialogue suggests her chafing at Miss Wade's attempts to control her. The papers that Miss Wade has given Clennam to read are apparently on the table beside Tattycoram. However, the overall effect of the picture is to suggest a staging of Arthur Clennam's visit to Miss Wade's rooms at Calais, and nothing more.
Images of Miss Wade and Tattycoram, 1856 through 1910
Left: Phiz's original serial illustration depicting the emotionally distraught Harriet Meagles (a. k. a., "Tattycoram"), Under the microscope (December 1855: I: 2). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Junior's Diamond Edition character study of the severe spinster and the girl whom she has taken in, Miss Wade and Tattycoram (1867). Right: Harry Furniss's illustration of the proud, bitter spinster (right) and the rebellious maid, Tattycoram and Miss Wade (1910). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: Mahoney's study of the clandestine meeting between Blandois, Miss Wade, and Tattycoram on the Adelphi Terrace in Book 2, Chapter 0, He stopped at the corner, seeming to look back expectantly up the street as if he had made an appointment with some one to meet him there; but he kept a careful eye on the three. When they came together, the man took off his hat and made Miss Wade a bow. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
References
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Authentic Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901 [rpt. of the 1868 volume, based on the 30 May 1857 volume].
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. 14 vols.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1873. Vol. 5.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 12.
Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 19: Little Dorrit." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. 17. Pp. 398-427.
Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Landseer, Palmer, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. Amsterdam: S. Emmering, 1972. Re-print of the London 1899 edition.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Ch. 12, "Work, Work, Work." Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 128-160.
"Little Dorrit — Fifty-eight Illustrations by James Mahoney." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Gordon Thomson, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. McL. Ralston, J. Mahoney, H. French, Charles Green, E. G. Dalziel, A. B. Frost, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1907.
Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.
Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.
Vann, J. Don. Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985.
Last modified 14 June 2016