"Welcome home, dear Walter!" — forty-first illustration by W. L. Sheppard for Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (American Household Edition, 1873)

"Welcome home, dear Walter!" by W. L. Sheppard. Forty-first illustration for Dickens's Dombey and Son in the American Household Edition (1873), Chapter XLIX, "The Midshipman Makes A Discovery," page 281. Page 281's Heading: "Pleasant Conclusion to the Captain's Story." 10.5 x 13.6 cm (4 ⅛ by 5 ⅜ inches) framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Florence and Walter Reunited at The Little Midshipman

She had no thought of him but as a brother, a brother rescued from the grave; a shipwrecked brother saved and at her side; and rushed into his arms. In all the world, he seemed to be her hope, her comfort, refuge, natural protector. “Take care of Walter, I was fond of Walter!” The dear remembrance of the plaintive voice that said so, rushed upon her soul, like music in the night. “Oh welcome home, dear Walter! Welcome to this stricken breast!” She felt the words, although she could not utter them, and held him in her pure embrace.

Captain Cuttle, in a fit of delirium, attempted to wipe his head with the blackened toast upon his hook: and finding it an uncongenial substance for the purpose, put it into the crown of his glazed hat, put the glazed hat on with some difficulty, essayed to sing a verse of Lovely Peg, broke down at the first word, and retired into the shop, whence he presently came back express, with a face all flushed and besmeared, and the starch completely taken out of his shirt-collar, to say these words:

“Wal'r, my lad, here is a little bit of property as I should wish to make over, jintly!” [Chapter XLIX, "The Midshipman Makes A Discovery," 281]

Commentary: Returned to Life — Reifying the Novel's One True Romance

Harry Furniss's Edwardian illustration celebrating Walter's unexpected homecoming: Captain Cuttle and Walter's Return (1910).

The dissolution of the Dombey marriage results in Florence's quitting her father's house and seeking refuge with Uncle Sol Gills at The Little Midshipman, which she finds under "new management." Having found a tender welcome from the generous Captain Cuttle, who becomes her second father, she now experiences the sudden reappearance of the supposedly-drowned Walter Gay: the fortuitous arrival of Florence at the little shop coincides approximately with his providential return from the West Indies. Only he and two of his shipmates survived the shipwreck, and have just returned to London. For her first night, the considerate Captain prepares a room for Florence at the top of the house. Now, having taken some time to prepare her the next evening for the amazing but welcome news, Captain Cuttle turns to the tale of the wreck.

Walter's shadow on the wall in Phiz's illustration for the January 1848 (fifteenth) instalment had announced to the serial readers the impending reunion, and those anxious readers would have pondered the meaning of the initial plate for almost the entire chapter. Sheppard takes a different approach. Instead of generating suspense by hinting at Walter's arrival, the American illustrator shows Florence in Walter's arms as Captain Cuttle presents him as the climax to his narrative about the "unfort'nate vessel" (280). He doffs his hat to the scene of the young people reunited at last, and seems to salute the handsome Walter as he wipes his forehead with his toast. Walter, as befits the hero of this middle-class romance, is not garbed as a sailor but as a bourgeois youth in a respectable jacket, shirt, and tie. On the floor between the lovers and their host lies the small footstool or footrest also seen in Phiz's original illustration, perhaps suggestive of the rest that the long-suffering lovers deserve after their respective trials.

Pertinent Scenes from the Original and British Household Editions (1848 and 1877)

Left: Fred Barnard's scene in the Household Edition of the reunited lovers in the window-seat: Blessed twilight stealing on, and shading her so soothingly and gravely as she falls asleep! (1877). Right: The original serial illustration for Chapter 49, in which Phiz strongly hints at the return of Walter Gay: The Shadow in the Little Parlour (January 1848).

Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son (1846-1910)

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Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. L. Sheppard. The Household Edition. 18 vols. New York: Harper & Co., 1873.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862. Vols. 1-4.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. III.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard [62 composite wood-block engravings]. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. With illustrations by H. K. Browne. The illustrated library Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, c. 1880. II.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 61 wood-engravings. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow, 1900, rpt. 1934. 2 vols. in one.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. IX.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). The Clarendon Edition, ed. Alan Horsman. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.

Created 22 February 2022