Mr. Micawber Conducts David Home
Harold Copping
1924
Chromolithography
18.2 x 12.8 cm (7 by 5 inches), framed
From Character Sketches from Dickens, facing p. 102.
Mr. Micawber, impressing the names of streets and shapes of corner houses upon me as we went along, that I might find my way back easily in the morning.
Scanned image, caption, and commentary below by Philip V. Allingham
Passage Illustrated: Mr. Micawber Introduces David to "The Modern Babylon"
"Under the impression," said Mr. Micawber, "that your peregrinations in this metropolis have not as yet been extensive, and that you might have some difficulty in penetrating the arcana of the Modern Babylon in the direction of the City Road — in short," said Mr. Micawber, in another burst of confidence, "that you might lose yourself — I shall be happy to call this evening, and instal you in the knowledge of the nearest way." — Chapter XI, "I Begin Life on My Own Account, and Don't Much Like It," p. 78 in the Household Edition.
Commentary: Wilkins Micawber and John Dickens — "Something is bound to turn up!"
The painful memories of his menial employment at Warren's Blacking Warehouse at Hungerford Stairs, Thames-side, Dickens sublimated into the scenes of his young protagonist's working at Murdstone and Grimby's wine-bottling facility at Blackfriars. Whereas the solitary young Dickens, his family in the Marshalsea Prison with his father, boarded in a rooming-house, after his mother's death David stays with the Micawber family, whose pater familias, Wilkins Micawber, one of the writer's greatest comic achievements, is in fact based on Dickens's childhood memories of his own father, the quixotic John Dickens. Having arrived in London and begun work, David meets this singularly shabby-genteel "stoutish, middle-aged person, in a brown surtout and black tights and shoes, with no more hair upon his head . . . than there is upon an egg." His eventful meeting with Micawber occurs in instalment four. — Chapter XI, "I Begin Life on My Own Account, and Don't Like It," serial instalment August 1849.
Studies of Wilkins Micawber in Other Editions (1867 through 1910)
Left: A Barnard character study of the nattily dressed Londoner in a shabby metropolitan street: Mr. Micawber (1912). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition portrait of the Micawbers: Mr. Micawber and His Family (1867). Right: Kyd (Clayton J. Clarke) captures Micawber's characteristic shabby-genteel look in the Player's Cigarette Card No. 41: Mr. Micawber (1910).
Left: Phiz's study of the ebullient Micawber nattily dressed Londoner who has just joined the firm of Heep and Wickfield in Canterbury: Mr. Micawber delivers some valedictory remarks (Chapter XXXVI, April 1850). Right: Phiz captures Micawber's upbeat mood as he and his family are reunited in sympathy (Chapter LII, "I Assist at an Explosion") in Restoration of mutual confidence between Mr. and Mrs. Micawber (September 1850).
Relevant Material
- Barnard's portrait in photogravure: Mr. Micawber
- The Original Phiz Illustrations for the Serialised Novel, May 1849-November 1850
- The Household Edition Illustrations by Fred Barnard (Vol. II, 1872)
- The Twenty-nine Charles Dickens Library Edition Illustrations by Harry Furniss (Vol. X, 1910)
Relevant 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, 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. 4, 1862)
- John Gilbert's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1862)
- Sol Eytinge, Junior's sixteen Diamond Edition Illustrations (1867)
- W. H. C. Groome's seven 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)
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman & Hall, 1872. Vol. III
Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924. Copy in the Paterson Library, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Created 16 February 2009
Last updated 1 February 2025