"I ask an inestimable price for it, Miss Larkins." — "indeed! What is that?" returns Miss Larkins. — "A flower of yours, that I may treasure it as a miser does gold." 1872. Twentieth illustration by Fred Barnard for the Household Edition of David Copperfield (Chapter XVIII, "A Retrospect"; image on p. 129). 10.3 x 13.7 mm (4 by 5 ⅜ inches) vignetted. Headline: "Mr. and Mrs. Micawber Again" (129). [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]
Passage Illustrated: Jumping Ahead to David's Adolescence
The time arrives. "It is a waltz, I think," Miss Larkins doubtfully observes, when I present myself. "Do you waltz? If not, Captain Bailey —"
But I do waltz (pretty well, too, as it happens), and I take Miss Larkins out. I take her sternly from the side of Captain Bailey. He is wretched, I have no doubt; but he is nothing to me. I have been wretched, too. I waltz with the eldest Miss Larkins! I don’t know where, among whom, or how long. I only know that I swim about in space, with a blue angel, in a state of blissful delirium, until I find myself alone with her in a little room, resting on a sofa. She admires a flower (pink camellia japonica, price half-a-crown), in my button-hole. I give it her, and say:
"I ask an inestimable price for it, Miss Larkins."
"Indeed! What is that?" returns Miss Larkins.
"A flower of yours, that I may treasure it as a miser does gold."
"You’re a bold boy," says Miss Larkins. "There."
She gives it me, not displeased; and I put it to my lips, and then into my breast. Miss Larkins, laughing, draws her hand through my arm, and says, "Now take me back to Captain Bailey." [Chapter XVIII, "A Retrospect," 135]
Commentary: Swiftly Dickens and Barnard pass over David's Adolescence
The chapter title emphasizes David's complementary roles of observer, recaller, and recorder. But here in this first visualisation of David's adolescence he becomes the central figure at the Larkins's ball in Canterbury. With his big hair and lean face in this Barnard illustration his image suggests that of his childhood idol, James Steerforth. These retrospective chapters (including XLIII, LIII, and LXIV) involve David's taking the reader into his confidence about his anxieties, despite his growing sense of self-confidence. We go from his infatuation with the petite Miss Shepherd from the nearby girls' school to his becoming seventeen and his more intense infatuation with the rather more mature Miss Larkins, depicted here as a dark-haired beauty "who knows officers" (134), and ably uses Captain Bailey as leverage. This is apparently David's first really "grown-up party," and therefore his romantic badinage with "My Second Love" (headline, p. 135) is entirely suitable as the chief subject of this first "retrospective" chapter.
The copy of the Household Edition from which this picture was scanned was the gift of George Gorniak, Editor of The Dickens Magazine, whose subject for the fifth series, beginning in January 2010, is this novel.
Other Illustrated Editions of this Novel (1849 through 1910)
- David Copperfield (homepage)
- Phiz's 40 serial illustrations for David Copperfield (May 1849 - November 1850)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 1, 1863)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1863)
- Sir John Gilbert's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1863)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 4, 1863)
- Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 wood engravings for the Diamond Edition (1867)
- W. H. C. Groome's seven lithographs for the Collins Clear-type Pocket Edition (1907)
- Harry Furniss's Twenty-nine lithographs for the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910).
Scanned image and text 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
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. 2 vols. London and New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911.
_______. The Personal History of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. V.
_______. David Copperfield. With 61 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. III.
_______. The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. X.
Created 14 June 2009 Last modified 25 July 2022