"Very glad to make your acquaintance, miss," said Squeers, raising his hat an inch or two
Fred Barnard
1875
13.6 x 10.5 cm (5 ⅜ by 4 ⅛ inches), framed. For Chapter 5.
Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, The Household Edition, p. 21.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"Dear Nicholas," whispered Kate, touching her brother’s arm, "who is that vulgar man?"
"Eh!" growled Ralph, whose quick ears had caught the inquiry. "Do you wish to be introduced to Mr. Squeers, my dear?"
"That the schoolmaster! No, uncle. Oh no!" replied Kate, shrinking back.
"I’m sure I heard you say as much, my dear," retorted Ralph in his cold sarcastic manner. "Mr. Squeers, here’s my niece: Nicholas’s sister!"
"Very glad to make your acquaintance, miss," said Squeers, raising his hat an inch or two. "I wish Mrs. Squeers took gals, and we had you for a teacher. I don’t know, though, whether she mightn’t grow jealous if we had. Ha! ha! ha!"
If the proprietor of Dotheboys Hall could have known what was passing in his assistant’s breast at that moment, he would have discovered, with some surprise, that he was as near being soundly pummelled as he had ever been in his life. Kate Nickleby, having a quicker perception of her brother’s emotions, led him gently aside, and thus prevented Mr. Squeers from being impressed with the fact in a peculiarly disagreeable manner.
"My dear Nicholas," said the young lady, "who is this man? What kind of place can it be that you are going to?"
"I hardly know, Kate," replied Nicholas, pressing his sister’s hand. "I suppose the Yorkshire folks are rather rough and uncultivated; that’s all." [Chapter V, "Nicholas starts for Yorkshire. Of his Leave-taking and his Fellow-Travellers, and what befell them on the Road," 24-25]
Left: Fred Barnard's British Household Edition realisation of the Yorkshire schoolroom: The First Class in English Spelling and Philosophy (1875). Centre: Detail of Squeers from C. S. Reinhart's American Household Edition illustration of Squeers' classroom management: "This is the first class in English spelling and philosophy, Nickleby" (1875). Right: Clayton J. Clarke's Player's Cigarette Card No. 44: Mr. Squeers (1910).
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. XV. Rpt. 1890.
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.
__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.
__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 4.
__________. "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 4 April 2021
