"W. Harrison Ainsworth" by W. Greatbach for "Jack Sheppard," the 1839 Richard Bentley triple-decker

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W. Harrison Ainsworth

William Greatbach (1792-1878)

Issued November 1839

Etching

11 x 8.7 cm

Facing title-page in Jack Sheppard. A Romance, Volume One.

Jack Sheppard. A Romance by W. Harrison Ainsworth, Esqu., author of Rookwood, and Crichton. [November 1839]

"Upon my word, friend," said I, "you have almost made me long to try what a robber I should make." "There is a great art in it, if you did," quoth he. "Ah! but," said I, "there's a great deal in being hanged." — Life and Actions of Guzman d'Alfarache.

Title-page and frontispiece

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Commentary

This portrait of the author as the first volume's frontispiece sets the keynote for the November 1839 triple-decker as a work of literature rather than a mere potboiler. The portrait also connects the volume publication to the magazine in which it was first serialised — Bentley's Miscellany, of which Ainsworth served as editor after Dickens resigned that post. It is interesting that the publisher used a portrait by an artist other than the book's illustrator. The portrait-artist makes Ainsworth look every inch the distinguished writer and editor, and this romanticized image of the author with tusselled hair, keen eyes, and striking profile casts him as a worthy successor to the Father of the Historical Novel, Sir Walter Scott (1772-1832). William Greatbach (1820-85) also executed an engaging portrait of the century's leading clown in Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, edited by 'Boz'.

Above: William Greatbach's Portrait of William Harrison Ainsworth for the 1839 triple-decker, and the original title-page for volume one. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Related Materials

Bibliography

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. A Romance. With 28 illustrations by George Cruikshank. In three volumes. London: Richard Bentley, 1839.

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard. Edited by Edward Jacobs and Manuela Mourao. With 31 illustrations. Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2007.

Carver, Stephen. Ainsworth and Friends: Essays on 19th Century Literature & The Gothic. Accessed 1 November 2016. https://ainsworthandfriends.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/william-harrison-ainsworth-the-life-and-adventures-of-the-lancashire-novelist/

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Bradbury and Evans; Chapman and Hall, 1846.

Greatbach, William. "William Harrison Ainsworth." Portrait of the author in William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard. A Romance. London: Richard Bentley, 1839. Vol. 1.

Greatbach, William. "Joseph Grimaldi." Portrait of the author." Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, Edited By 'Boz'. With ten illustrations by George Cruikshank. London: George Routledge and Sons. The Broadway, Ludgate. New York: 416, Broome Street, 1869.

Meisel, Martin. Chapter 13, "Novels in Epitome." Realizations: Narrative, Pictorial, and Theatrical Arts in Nineteenth-Century England. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. Pp. 247-282.

Sutherland, John. "Jack Sheppard" in The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 19893. Pp. 323-324.

Vann, J. Don. "Jack Sheppard in Bentley's Miscellany, January 1839 — February 1840." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Page 19.

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Last modified 1 July 2017