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Little Dorrit gathers flowers for "Bob," the turnkey
Harold Copping
1924
Photographic reproduction of line drawing
12 x 8.8 cm (4 ⅞ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted
An illustration for "Little Dorrit of the Marshalsea," p. 129.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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"Are they pretty, Bob?" She called him Bob, because he wished it.
"Lovely. Full of flowers. There's buttercups, and there's daisies, and there's —" here he hesitated, not knowing the names of many flowers — "there's dandelions, and all manner of games."
"Is it very pleasant to be there, Bob?"
"Prime," said the turnkey.
"Was father ever there?"
"Hem!" coughed the turnkey. "O yes, he was there, sometimes."
"Is he sorry not to be there now?"
"N — not particular," said the turnkey.
"Nor any of the people?" she asked, glancing at the listless crowd within. "O are you quite sure and certain, Bob?"
At this point, Bob gave in and changed the subject. But after this chat, the turnkey and little Amy would go out on his free Sunday afternoons to some meadows or green lanes, and she would pick grass and flowers to bring home, while he smoked his pipe. [Character Sketches from Dickens, 128]
Copping telegraphs several aspects of Amy Dorrit's unusual childhood in the initial scene in the turnkey's office, and its completion, the scene in the fields outside the walls of the Marshalsea. Amy as a child has little notion of the natural world beyond the walls of the Marshalsea Prison, until her "friend," an avuncular prison functionary, demonstrates surprising sensitivity. In describing (albeit in vague terms) the area beyond the walls as a meadow full of flowers, the turnkey seems to realise what Amy needs to be a complete child, and actually takes the trouble to see that she has regular opportunities to play freely in those fields beyond the stern confines of the debtors' prison.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Authentic Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901 [rpt. 30 May 1857 volume].
Dickens, Mary Angela [Charles Dickens' grand-daughter]. Dickens' Dream Children. London, Paris New, York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., 1924.
Dickens, Mary Angela et al. Children's Stories from Dickens. Introduction by Percy Fitzgerald. Illustrated by Harold Copping. London, Paris New, York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., 1893.
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 3 October 2023