"One of the inconveniences of having long legs" by Frederic W. Pailthorpe — nineteenth illustration for "Oliver Twist" (1886)

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One of the inconveniences of having long legs

Frederic W. Pailthorpe

1886

10.6 cm high by 9.1 cm wide (4 inches by 3 ½ inches), vignetted

Nineteenth illustration for Oliver Twist in F. W. Pailthorpe's twenty-one hand-tinted engravings for the 1838 three-volume Richard Bentley (first) edition. This illustration is keyed to vol. 3, p. 243.

[Click on image to enlarge it. See below for passage illustrated, commentary and comparisons with other illustrators' work; mouse over the text for links.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Banter at the Gang's Jacob's Island Hangout

There was a short silence, after which Toby Crackit, seeming to abandon as hopeless any further effort to maintain his usual devil-may-care swagger, turned to Chitling and said,

“When was Fagin took then?”

“Just at dinner-time — two o’clock this afternoon. Charley and I made our lucky up the wash-us chimney, and Bolter got into the empty water-butt, head downwards; but his legs were so precious long that they stuck out at the top, and so they took him, too.” [Chapter L, "Pursuit and Escape," page 256 in the 1846 edition]

Commentary

Morris Bolter (the thief formerly known as "Noah Claypole") has been attempting to make himself indispensable to Fagin by spying on Nancy and attending the the Artful Dodger's Old Bailey trial for pickpocketing. Formerly unknown to the authorities in London, he was the ideal informant. But now Fagin has been apprehended by the Bow Street Runners for the part he played in Nancy's murder, and his confederates have been scooped up by the constabulary. Tom Chitling recounts for Toby Crackit's entertainment how the smaller chaps had that afternoon made good their escape from the thieves' kitchen by wiggling up the wash-house chimney. The inept Noah, undoubtedly ignorant of possible escape routes, had attempted to hide in the water-butt. However, his long legs made this means of avoiding arrest somewhat impractical. In Pailthorpe's picture of Chitling's flashback, the Bowstreet Runners (in their signature top-hats and striped vests) seem vastly amused by Noah's poor choice of hiding place, and, laughing, prepare to drag him out. The colourful and dynamic illustration therefore constitutes Noah Claypole's nemesis. The equivalent Cruikshank scene occurs on the 1846 wrapper in the vignette involving the Monks and the boys tumbling down the staircase in the right-hand margin.

Related Material

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.

Cohen, Jane Rabb. "George Cruikshank." Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980. Pp. 15-38.

Darley, Felix Octavius Carr. Character Sketches from Dickens. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1888.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Bradbury and Evans; Chapman and Hall, 1846.

_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 55 vols. Illustrated by. F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1865.2 vols.

_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Vol. XI.

_______. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 22 vols. Illustrated by James Mahoney. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871. Vol. I.

_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. III.

_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. The Waverley Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. Illustrated by Charles Pears. London: Waverley, 1912.

Forster, John. "Oliver Twist 1838." The Life of Charles Dickens. Ed. B. W. Matz. The Memorial Edition. 2 vols. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1911. Vol. 1, book 2, chapter 3. Pp. 91-99.

Grego, Joseph (intro). Cruikshank's Water Colours. [27 Oliver Twist illustrations, including the wrapper and the 13-vignette title-page produced for F. W. Cosens; 20 plates for William Harrison Ainsworth's The Miser's Daughter: A Tale of the Year 1774; 20 plates plus the proofcover the work for W. H. Maxwell's History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798 and Emmetts Insurrection in 1803]. London: A & C Black, 1903. OT = pp. 1-106]. Book in the Rare Book Collection of the University of Toronto.

Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. 1899. Rpt. Honolulu: U. Press of the Pacific, 2004. Pp. 1-28.

Lynch, Tony. "London Bridge." Dickens's England: An A-Z Tour of the Real and Imagined Locations. London: Batsford, 2012. Pp. 131-132.

Pailthorpe, Frederic W. (Illustrator). Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. London: Robson & Kerslake, 1886. Set No. 118 (coloured) of 200 sets of proof impressions.

Created 14 February 2015

Last updated 6 December 2021