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The Thriving City of Eden as it Appeared on Paper
Phiz
September 1843
Steel-engraving
12.5 cm high by 9.5 cm wide, vignetted
Seventeenth regular monthly illustration for Charles Dickens's Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, facing page 268 (1844 edition) in the twenty-first chapter; descriptive headline: "A Plan of Eden."
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Mr. Scadder was so satisfied by this explanation, that he shook the General warmly by the hand, and got out of the rocking-chair to do it. He then invited the General’s particular friends to accompany him into the office. As to the General, he observed, with his usual benevolence, that being one of the company, he wouldn’t interfere in the transaction on any account; so he appropriated the rocking-chair to himself, and looked at the prospect, like a good Samaritan waiting for a traveller.
"Heyday!" cried Martin, as his eye rested on a great plan which occupied one whole side of the office. Indeed, the office had little else in it, but some geological and botanical specimens, one or two rusty ledgers, a homely desk, and a stool. "Heyday! what’s that?"
"That’s Eden," said Scadder, picking his teeth with a sort of young bayonet that flew out of his knife when he touched a spring.
"Why, I had no idea it was a city."
"Hadn’t you? Oh, it’s a city."
“A flourishing ciy, too! An architectural city! There were banks, churches, cathedrals, market-places, factories, hotels, stores, mansions, wharves; an exchange, a theatre; public buildings of all kinds, down to the office of the Eden Stinger, a daily journal; all faithfully depicted in the view before them.
“Dear me! It’s really a most important place!" cried Martin turning round.
“Oh! it’s very important," observed the agent.
“But, I am afraid," said Martin, glancing again at the Public Buildings, "that there’s nothing left for me to do."
“Well! it ain’t all built," replied the agent. "Not quite." [Chapter XXI, "More American Experiences. Martin takes a Partner, and makes a Purchase. Some Account of Eden, as it appeared on Paper. Also of the British Lion. Also of the kind of Sympathy professed and entertained by the Watertoast Association of United Sympathizers," pp. 267 in the 1844 edition]
The ninth number's companion pieces, both captioned in parallel and contrast by Dickens himself rather than by the illustrator, "The thriving City of Eden as it appeared on paper" and "The thriving City of Eden as it appeared in fact" (12.5 by 9.7 cm), invite readers to compare Martin's response to the concept of the model town versus its actuality. The ideal in Martin's mind is a place on the American frontier where, even as an untried architect, he can make his fortune and then return to England to claim the hand of Mary Graham. Whereas in the former scene, Mark is aloof and disinterested, in the latter he is actively engaged in the "jolly" labour of subduing the wilderness — and of cheering up a dejected companion. Whereas Martin is entranced by the town plan and delighted to learn from Scadder that the new metropolis contains not a single architect, in the latter he seems to have abandoned all hope, and to be contemplating (like one of the toads that Phiz has supplied) jumping into the murky river's waters. The careful viewer will notice some telling details about the real estate office: the torn plaster, a mouse, and "the spider web where trapped flies suggest the fate of the naïve buyers" (Cohen 88). Although Phiz has been unable to convey a sense of the land-office's tiny dimensions, he has realized well the land-agent himself. Dickens's letter of 15-18 August 1843 may have specified the rocking chair and the spring-loaded knife with steel toothpick; however, since these details do not appear in the finished illustration, it is just as likely that they were after-thoughts which Dickens incorporated in the letterpress. The second part of this letter, however, dealing with the ninth instalment's second subject, indicates clearly which aspects of the composition are Boz's and which Phiz's. Since Dickens had actually visited Cairo, Illinois, on the Mississippi, he must have had some very specific notions as to how Phiz was to depict the dismal swamp of Eden. Ironically, Dickens was not aware of how quickly America was developing, and so completely underestimated the potential of the townsite: as critic R. C. Churchill remarked in the Birmingham Post, "Thee would have been plenty of work for Chuzzlewit & Co., Architects, if only they had stuck it out" (24 August 1974; cited in Churchill [1975], 65).
In the pages of Martin Chuzzlewit Dickens created four memorable characters: the hypocritical Seth Pecksniff, the virtuous and self-effacing Tom Pinch; the self-serving mid-wife, Sairey Gamp; and the inveterately optimistic Mark Tapley. Each episode and each illustration advances our understanding and appreciation of at least one of these brilliant comic creations. And, as the program of illustration makes clear, Phiz thoroughly enjoyed depicting the adventures and misadventures of these characters. However, he was not entirely at liberty to create these memorable illustrations as Dickens issued nuanced instructions about poses and situations in highly precise terms. After reading Dickens's verbal design for The thriving City of Eden as it appeared in fact, Phiz sardonically replied, "I can't get all the perspective in — unless you allow of a long subject — something less than a mile" (cited in Buchanan-Brown, 20). The plates serve as more than visual adjuncts to the letterpress in the ninth monthly number; rather, they are companion pieces, so that, for example, an optimistic and self-confident Martin dreams of lucrative contracts as he studies to townsite plan in Scadder's office, whereas Mark views the whole operation with healthy skepticism. In the next illustration, they entirely exchange perspectives, so that Marin, ill and dejected, sees their situation as hopeless, whereas Mark throws himself into the business of taming the wilderness. Michael Steig has pointed out how Phiz embeds significant details in these designs in order to comment parenthetically on his materials: "The empty spider web in the Journal office [in Jefferson Brick proposes a toast] becomes a web full of flies next to a mousetrap about to snare a victim' (Steig, Ch. 3, p. 69). Above the architectural map of Eden as it might be Phiz has placed duck decoys and a toy guillotine as warnings to the unwary about the Eden Land Corporation as a confidence scheme. As he casually studies both young Englishmen, Scadder picks his teeth, as if preparing to devour his next victim.
Allingham, Philip V. "Historical Background." The Dickens Magazine: Martin Chuzzlewit. 5.2 (August, 2008): 8.
_____. "Phiz's Illustrations, Part Two." [Ch. 16-23] The Dickens Magazine: Martin Chuzzlewit. 5.2 (August, 2008): 9-13.
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! The Book Illustrations of Hablot Knight Browne. London, Newton Abbot, and Vancouver: David and Charles, 1978.
Churchill, R. C. "Martin Chuzzlewit." A Bibliography of Dickensian Criticism, 1836-1975<.span>. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. Vol. 20. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1975. Pp. 61-65.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
Hammerton, J. A. Ch. 15, "Martin Chuzzlewit." The Dickens Picture-Book: A Record of the Dickens Illustrations with 600 Illustrations and a Frontispiece by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. Pp. 266-293.
Harvey, John R. Ch. 6, "Dickens and Browne: Martin Chuzzledwit to Bleak House." Victorian Novelists and Their Illustrators. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1970.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington and London: Indiana U. P., 1978.
_____. "Martin Chuzzlewit's Progress by Dickens and Phiz." Dickens Studies Annual 2 (1972): 119-149.
Vann, J. Don. "William Harrison Ainsworth. Mervyn Clitheroe, twelve parts in eleven monthly installments, December 1851-March 1852, December 1857-June 1858." New York: MLA, 1985. Page 30.
Last modified 10 March 2019