"It is much better as it is!" Fifty-first illustration by Fred Barnard for the 1872 Household Edition of David Copperfield (Chapter LIII, "Another Retrospect," but positioned on p. 369). Descriptive Headline: "My Child-wife Asks for Agnes" (381). 10.6 x 13.7 cm (4 ⅛ by 5 ⅜ inches), framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it. Mouse over text for links.]
Passage Illustrated: Dora's Death-bed Request Left Unresolved
"Oh, how my poor boy cries! Hush, hush! Now, make me one promise. I want to speak to Agnes. When you go downstairs, tell Agnes so, and send her up to me; and while I speak to her, let no one come — not even aunt. I want to speak to Agnes by herself. I want to speak to Agnes, quite alone.
I promise that she shall, immediately; but I cannot leave her, for my grief.
"I said that it was better as it is!" she whispers, as she holds me in her arms. "Oh, Doady, after more years, you never could have loved your child-wife better than you do; and, after more years, she would so have tried and disappointed you, that you might not have been able to love her half so well! I know I was too young and foolish. It is much better as it is!"
Agnes is downstairs, when I go into the parlour; and I give her the message. She disappears, leaving me alone with Jip. [Chapter LIII, "Another Retrospect," 382]
Commentary: The Inevitable Death-Bed Scene
After a decline spanning a number of chapters, Dora is at last on her death-bed, and mysteriously calls for Agnes. Not only Dora but her beloved Jip will die almost simultaneously by the conclusion of this cheaper, a tour-de-force in sentimentality as only Dickens could have written it. but we are still a dozen chapters from the termination of the Bildungsroman, and much remains, including the departure of the Micawbers and the Peggottys for that new Land of Opportunity, Australia.
The juxtaposition of Micawber's dramatic, "double" denunciation of Uriah Heep, first in London and then in Canterbury, and the comic scene of his baking, with the death of Dora in the Household Edition program admirably illustrates Dickens's "streaky bacon" method of plot construction as he alternates scenes of melodrama, sentimentality, and comedy in quick succession. But here, David is not merely an interested reporter of others' actions and dialogue, but the retrospective communicator of his own anguish and regret, feelings well suggested by his posture in "It is much better as it is!", which realizes Dora's twice remarking so to David.
Related Material
- 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, 1862)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1862)
- O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1862)
- Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 Diamond Edition Illustrations (1867)
- W. H. C. Groome's 7 illustrations for the Collins Clear-type Pocket Edition, Vol. I (1907)
- Kyd's five Player's Cigarette Cards, 1910
- Harry Furniss's 29 Illustrations for Dickens's The Personal Experience and History of David Copperfield in 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.]
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.
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 17 August 2016 Last modified 20 August 2022