"Oh, Miss Knag," said Madame Mantalini, "this is the young person I spoke to you about." [Page 94] by Charles Stanley Reinhart (1875), in Charles Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Harper & Bros. New York Household Edition, for Chapter XVII. 10.5 x 13.6 cm (4 ⅛ by 5 ⅜ inches), framed. Running head: "Madame Mantalini's First Minister" (93). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage Illustrated: Madame Mantalini introduces her talented protogé
Madame Mantalini led the way down a flight of stairs, and through a passage, to a large room at the back of the premises where were a number of young women employed in sewing, cutting out, making up, altering, and various other processes known only to those who are cunning in the arts of millinery and dressmaking. It was a close room with a skylight, and as dull and quiet as a room need be.
On Madame Mantalini calling aloud for Miss Knag, a short, bustling, over-dressed female, full of importance, presented herself, and all the young ladies suspending their operations for the moment, whispered to each other sundry criticisms upon the make and texture of Miss Nickleby’s dress, her complexion, cast of features, and personal appearance, with as much good breeding as could have been displayed by the very best society in a crowded ball-room.
"Oh, Miss Knag," said Madame Mantalini, "this is the young person I spoke to you about." [Chapter XVII, "Follows the Fortunes of Miss Nickleby," 106-107]
Other Editions' Versions of Mrs. Mantalini's Shop
Left: Phiz introduces the seamstress's cutting-room director, Miss Knag, to Kate and readers in Madame Mantalin's establishment: Madame Mantalini introduces Kate to Miss Knag (August 1838, instalment 5). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s American Diamond Editioncomposite woodblock portrait of the diligent dressmaker-milliner and her shiftless husband: Mr. and Madame Mantalini (1867). Right: Harry Furniss's 1910 lithograph representing the fashionable West End dressmaker, What Ralph Nickleby saw at Mrs. Mantalini's, in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910).
Commentary
Overdressed and vain, Mrs. Mantalini's chief of the cutting-room's young seamstresses, Miss Knag, eventually takes over the business when Mrs, Mantalini is driven into bankruptcy by her profligate husband. Reinhart has improved on the Phiz original in terms of rendering the fashionable proprietress as goddess-like, and her middle-aged "First Minister" less caricatural. Although he depicts the other seamstresses, Reinhart has uncluttered the cutting-room, and made Madame Mantalini the focal point of the composition — and suggested an opposition between Kate and Miss Knag by his disposition of their contrasting figures to either side of their serene employer.
The elegant dressmaker to the West End sharply contrasts Miss Knag in her statuesque appearance and finery. Miss Knag stands to the right as Mrs. Mantalini's right-hand woman and the chief assistant in the showroom, where Kate Nickleby, unversed in sewing, cutting, and designing, will work for the time being. The middle-aged Miss Knag cliungs to the absurd notion that she is still young, and Reinhart emphasizes her lack of youth and beauty by juxtaposing her with Madame Mantalini. When Kate begins her employment with Madame Mantalini, Miss Knag is quite kind to her because the younger woman seems clumsy and ill-suited to her position, thereby making the spinster look more competent.
Related material by other illustrators (1838 through 1910)
- Nicholas Nickleby (homepage)
- Phiz's 38 monthly illustrations for the novel, April 1838-October 1839.
- Cover for monthly parts
- Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise, engraved by Finden
- "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 18 Illustrations for the Diamond Edition (1867)
- Fred Barnard's 59 Illustrations for the British 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).
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.
Schweitzer, Maria. "Jean Margaret Davenport." Ambassadors of Empire: Child Performers and Anglo-American Audiences,
1800s-1880s. Accessed 19 April 2021. Posted 7 January 2015.
Created 26 July 2021