Mr. and Mrs. Mantalini in Ralph Nickleby's Office
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
February 1839
Steel-engraving
11.4 high cm by 10.5 cm wide, vignetted
Source: J. A. Hammerton, The Dickens Picture-Book, p. 160.
Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Passage Illustrated: Dunning a Loan Shark
Mr. Mantalini waited, with much decorum, to hear the amount of the proposed stipend, but when it reached his ears, he cast his hat and cane upon the floor, and drawing out his pocket-handkerchief, gave vent to his feelings in a dismal moan.
"Demnition!" cried Mr, Mantalini, suddenly skipping out of his chair, and as suddenly skipping into it again, to the great discomposure of his lady's nerves. "But no. It is a demd horrid dream. It is not reality. No!" [Ch. XXXIV, "Wherein Mr. Ralph Nickleby is visited by Persons with whom the Reader has been already made acquainted," Part 11, February 1839]
Commentary: Mrs. Mantalini Outmanoeuvres her Husband
The slapstick domestic comedy of the ill-matched Mantalinis combines with the melodramatic plot involving the wealthy Ralph Nickleby, from whom they hope to borrow enough money to regain control over the Mayfair dress-making and millinery business from Miss Knag. At this point, Ralph learns through the Mantalinis of Nicholas's having confronted Sir Mulberry Hawk outside a Park Lane hotel to defend his sister's honour. The moment realized, then, should be that in which the operatically overwrought Mr. Mantalini bewails his fate (being "allowanced") — his hat and cane are lying discarded upon the floor exactly as described in the letterpress. Already, however, Ralph has begun to respond to Mrs. Mantalini, who leans forward, about to implore Ralph's assistance in restraining her husband's excesses. Phiz strategically places Newman Noggs upper right, overhearing the entire conversation from inside a frame.
Illustrations of Mantalinis from Other Editions (1839, 1875, and 1910)
Left: Sol Eytinge, Junior's Diamond Edition portrait contrasts the couple's manner when they visit Ralph: Mr. and Mrs. Mantalini/span> (1867). Centre: Fred Barnard presents Mantalini's manipulative nature through his theatrically proposing suicide in the Household Edition: The dressing-room door being hastily flung open, Mr. Mantalini was disclosed to view, with his shirt collar symmetrically thrown back: putting a fine edge to a breakfast knife by means of his razor strop. (1875). Right: Harry Furniss's study of the amply whiskered Italian poser, diving for coins on the floor of Ralph Nickleby's office: Mr. Mantalini plays at "Tom Tiddler's Ground" (1910).
Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators
- Nicholas Nickleby (homepage)
- "Hush!" said Nicholas, laying his hand upon his shoulder. (Vol. 1, 1861)
- The Rehearsal (Vol. 2, 1861)
- "My son, sir, little Wackford. What do you think of him, sir?" (Vol. 3, 1861)
- Newman had caught up by the nozzle an old pair of bellows . . . (Vol. 4, 1861).
- Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s 16 illustrations for The Diamond Edition (1867)
- Fred Barnard's 59 Illustrations for the Household Edition (1875)
- C. S. Reinhart's 52 Illustrations for the American Household Edition (1875)
- Harry Furniss's 29 illustrations for Nicholas Nickleby in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
- Kyd's four Player's Cigarette Cards (1910)
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.
_______. Nicolas Nickleby. Illustrated by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition, ed. Andrew Lang. The Works of Charles Dickens in Thirty-four Volumes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. Vols. IV and V.
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., Late Ticknor and Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1875 [re-print of 1867 Diamond Edition, Vol. IV].
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1875. I.
_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-nine illustrations by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. IV.
__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. IV.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 24-50.
Vann, J. Don. "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, April 1838-October 1839." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. 63.
Created 4 May 2009; last updated 16 August 2021