"Three soldiers, the first carrying a torch, the others with bayonets fixed, lead Magwitch away in chains." [Uncaptioned vignette] — seventh illustration for "Great Expectations" by John McLenan (8 December 1860)

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Three soldiers, the first carrying a torch, the others with bayonets fixed, leading Magwitch away in chains [uncaptioned headnote vignette]

John McLenan

Third instalment: 8 December 1860

10.5 cm high by 5.5 cm wide (4 ¼ by 2 ⅛ inches)

Dickens's Great Expectations, in Harper's Weekly IV (8 December 1860): 773.

Not reproduced in the T. B. Peterson single-volume edition of 1861

The atmospheric scene on marshes with musket-bearing soldiers following their comrade carrying the torch and the prisoner in tow alerts the serial reader to Magwitch's re-apprehension. Thus, the visual clue opens the curtain that closed in last week's (1 December 1860) instalment, when Pip meets the party of soldiers at the door just as Mrs. Joe is about to announce the theft of the savoury pork pie: But I ran no farther than the house door, for there I ran head-foremost into a party of soldiers with their muskets, one of whom held out a pair of handcuffs to me, saying, “Here you are, look sharp, come on!” [766]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: The Runaway Shackled and Led Away

The soldier with the basket soon got a light, and lighted three or four torches, and took one himself and distributed the others. It had been almost dark before, but now it seemed quite dark, and soon afterwards very dark. Before we departed from that spot, four soldiers standing in a ring, fired twice into the air. Presently we saw other torches kindled at some distance behind us, and others on the marshes on the opposite bank of the river. “All right,” said the sergeant. “March.”

We had not gone far when three cannon were fired ahead of us with a sound that seemed to burst something inside my ear. “You are expected on board,” said the sergeant to my convict; “they know you are coming. Don’t straggle, my man. Close up here.” [Chapter V, 773]

Commentary: The Recapture — A Dark Plate

The illustrator emphasises the threat that Magwitch appeared to pose society by showing the scene in which soldiers with bayonets fixed lead away the recaptured convict. The smoking torch underscores the fact that this is a night scene, an effect to which the general blurriness of all but the first rank of soldiers contributes. Marsh reeds and cattails in the foreground economically establish the setting as the Thames marshes. Shortly Magwitch will exonerate Pip of the theft of the "wittles" and bottle from Mrs. Gargery's pantry by taking responsibility for the theft himself.

American readers, fully conscious that matters were coming to a head between the "Free" North and the slave-owning South, might have interpreted the re-apprehension scene in terms of the capture by bounty-hunters of an escaped plantation slave, common enough prior to the Civil War.

Other editions' illustrations for this same chapter (1860-1910)

Left: Felix Octavius Carr Darley's 1861 frontispiece for the first volume of the Sheldon & C. edition: The sergeant ran in first when he had run the noise quite down and two of his men ran in quite close upon him. Right: In the Household Edition British illustrator F. A. Fraser depicts the re-capturing of the ragged convicts: The sergeant ran in first (1876).

Related Material, Including Penal Transportation and Film Adaptations

Other Artists’ Illustrations for Dickens's Great Expectations

Edward Ardizzone (2 plates selected)
H. M. Brock (8 lithographs)
J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") (2 lithographs from watercolours)
Felix O. C. Darley (4 photogravure plates)
Sol Eytinge, Jr. (8 wood engravings)
Marcus Stone (8 wood engravings)
Frederic W. Pailthorpe (21 steel engravings)
F. A. Fraser in the Household Edition (29 wood engravings)
Harry Furniss (28 plates)
Charles Green (10 lithographs)

Bibliography

Allingham, Philip V. "The Illustrations for Great Expectations in Harper's Weekly (1860-61) and in the Illustrated Library Edition (1862) — 'Reading by the Light of Illustration'." Dickens Studies Annual, Vol. 40 (2009): 113-169.

_______. "'We Can Now See That the Days of Illustrated Novels Were Drawing to an End' — Not So." The Dickens Magazine. Haslemere, Surrey: Bishops Printers. Series 1, Issue 3, pp. 6-7.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vol. IV-V (24 November 1860 through 3 August 1861).

_______. ("Boz."). Great Expectations. With thirty-four illustrations from original designs by John McLenan. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson (by agreement with Harper & Bros., New York), 1861.

______. Great Expectations. Volume 6 of the Household Edition. Illustrated by F. A. Fraser. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876.

Paroissien, David. The Companion to "Great Expectations." Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2000.

Watts, Alan S. "Why Wasn't Great Expectations Illustrated?" The Dickens Magazine. Haslemere, Surrey: Bishops Printers. Series 1, Issue 2, pp. 8-9.

Waugh, Arthur. "Charles Dickens and His Illustrators." Retrospectus and Prospectus: The Nonesuch Dickens. London: Bloomsbury, 1937, rpt. 2003. Pp. 6-52.

Created 7 November 2011

Last updated 20 November 2021