"Newman Noggs Opened the Door of the Deserted Mansion." — Charles 11. C. S. Reinhart's twelfth illustration for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1875)

Newman Noggs Opened the Door of the Deserted Mansion [Page 62] by Charles Stanley Reinhart (1875), in Charles Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Harper & Bros. New York Household Edition, for Chapter XI. 9.3 x 13.4 cm (3 ¾ by 5 ¼ inches), framed. Running head: "Newman Noggs Calls on the the Ladies" (61). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Passage Illustrated: Ralph arranges substandard accommodations fior his brother's family

They went into the city, turning down by the river side; and, after a long and very slow drive, the streets being crowded at that hour with vehicles of every kind, stopped in front of a large old dingy house in Thames Street: the door and windows of which were so bespattered with mud, that it would have appeared to have been uninhabited for years.

The door of this deserted mansion Newman opened with a key which he took out of his hat — in which, by-the-bye, in consequence of the dilapidated state of his pockets, he deposited everything, and would most likely have carried his money if he had had any — and the coach being discharged, he led the way into the interior of the mansion.

Old, and gloomy, and black, in truth it was, and sullen and dark were the rooms, once so bustling with life and enterprise. There was a wharf behind, opening on the Thames. An empty dog-kennel, some bones of animals, fragments of iron hoops, and staves of old casks, lay strewn about, but no life was stirring there. It was a picture of cold, silent decay. [Chapter XI, "Newman Noggs inducts Mrs. and Miss Nickleby into their New Dwelling in the City," 62]

Commentary: Who is Newman Noggs?

Harry Furniss's detached character study of the goggle-eyed clerk in the Charles Dickens Library Edition: Newman Noggs (1910).

Newman Noggs, Ralph Nickleby's cynical, long-suffering clerk is yet another iteration of the Comic Man of domestic melodrama. Prior to becoming the curmudgeonly Raph's clerk, Noggs had his own business. However, when he went bankrupt, he became a malcontented alcoholic, whose irrational mental ticks and ironic comments mask his sympathetic nature and genuine insights into human nature.He becomes one of the picaresque hero's chief friends, the Sancho Panza to Nicholas's Don Quixote. Kyd's version of Noggs in the Player's Cigarette Card series captures well the middle-aged alcoholic's rubicund nose, which adds humour to his benign expression. According to Dickens's description of him Chapter 2, Noggs immediately strikes the reader as decidedly odd:

In obedience to this summons the clerk got off the high stool (to which he had communicated a high polish by countless gettings off and on), and presented himself in Mr. Nickleby’s room. He was a tall man of middle age, with two goggle eyes whereof one was a fixture, a rubicund nose, a cadaverous face, and a suit of clothes (if the term be allowable when they suited him not at all) much the worse for wear, very much too small, and placed upon such a short allowance of buttons that it was marvellous how he contrived to keep them on.

"Was that half-past twelve, Noggs?" said Mr. Nickleby, in a sharp and grating voice.

"Not more than five-and-twenty minutes by the —" Noggs was going to add public-house clock, but recollecting himself, substituted ‘regular time.’

"My watch has stopped," said Mr. Nickleby; "I don’t know from what cause."

"Not wound up," said Noggs.

"Yes it is," said Mr. Nickleby.

"Over-wound then," rejoined Noggs.

"That can’t very well be," observed Mr. Nickleby.

"Must be," said Noggs.

"Well!" said Mr. Nickleby, putting the repeater back in his pocket; "perhaps it is."

Noggs gave a peculiar grunt, as was his custom at the end of all disputes with his master, to imply that he (Noggs) triumphed; and (as he rarely spoke to anybody unless somebody spoke to him) fell into a grim silence, and rubbed his hands slowly over each other: cracking the joints of his fingers, and squeezing them into all possible distortions. The incessant performance of this routine on every occasion, and the communication of a fixed and rigid look to his unaffected eye, so as to make it uniform with the other, and to render it impossible for anybody to determine where or at what he was looking, were two among the numerous peculiarities of Mr. Noggs, which struck an inexperienced observer at first sight. [Chapter II, "Of Mr. Ralph Nickleby, and his Establishments, and his Undertakings, and of a great Joint Stock Company of vast national Importance," 12]

Illustrations of Ralph Nickleby's Clerk from Other Editions (1875 and 1910)

Left: Clayton J. Clarke's Player's Cigarette Card No. 46: Newman Noggs (1910). Centre: Fred Barnard's title-page vignette for the British Household Edition (1875). Centre: Phiz introduces Nickleby's sardonic clerk in Chapter 11: Newman Noggs Leaves the Ladies in the Empty House (June 1838).

Related material by other illustrators (1838 through 1910)

Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary 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 in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (il.). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-nine illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume 15. Rpt. 1890.

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1875.

__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al.. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.

Created 10 April 2021