Edward G. Dalziel's Ornamental title-page for "Christmas Stories"

Ornamental title-page

Edward G. Dalziel

Wood engraving

20 cm high by 13.5 cm wide

The ornamental title-page, in the 1892 reprinting of Christmas Stories.

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The Household Edition illustration for the ornamental title-page does not match the style of Edward G. Dalziel, nor or the characters in the montage presented by Samuel Pickwick (centre) from the stories reprinted from Household Words and All the Year Round. Nor, indeed, is such a page typical of the printings of the Household Edition in the 1870s.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham

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Commentary

The characters grouped around the welcoming figure (centre), with hat raised, come from the novels upon which Dickens's most beloved comic figure stands, oversized Household Editions of the following in chronological order, top to bottom: Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey & Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Our Mutual Friend, and — as a bundle of manuscript pages, suggesting its incomplete state at the author's death — The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Conspicuous by its absence is Great Expectations, which, of course, should appear just above the bottom volume. No volume appears for Dickens's short fiction and journalism, despite the early popularity of Sketches by Boz and the later popularity of the Uncommercial Traveller. Accorded special prominence are characters and situations from A Tale of Two Cities in the top register, and four important characters from Master Humphrey's Clock: Mrs. Rudge and Barnaby (left of the clock) and Grandfather and Little Nell (right of the clock).

Other characters given prominence are Captain Cuttle from Dombey and Son, left of the pile of books, and Tom Pinch from Martin Chuzzlewit to the right. Strangely enough, some of Dickens's most memorable characterizations such as Fagin (left rear) and Scrooge (right of centre, rear) are accorded little;e status, while Mantalini, for example, stands out (just beside Tom Pinch). The overarching structure of the page is a Jacobean sideboard, implying that Pickwick is inviting readers at the fin de siècle to a literary feast of the original texts but with new illustrations, for these are not the original figures of John Leech, Hablot Knight Browne, George Cattermole, George Cruikshank, and the other visual artists who collaborated with Dickens. The two girls sitting in front of Cuttle do not appear to be Dickens characters at all; the style of their dresses implies that the illustrator intends them to represent contemporary readers. The only "authorial" presence in the group is the somewhat bland David Copperfield, standing beside Daniel Peggotty and a grownup Little Em'ly (far right).

Bibliography

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: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. Christmas Books and The Uncommercial Traveller. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. 10.

Dickens, Charles. The Uncommercial Traveller and Additional Christmas Stories. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Junior. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.

Dickens, Charles. Christmas Stories from "Household Words" and "All The Year Round". Illustrated by Townley Green, Charles Green, Fred Walker, F. A. Fraser, Harry French, E. G. Dalziel, and J. Mahony. The Illustrated Library Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1868, rpt. in the Centenary Edition of Chapman & Hall and Charles Scribner's Sons (1911). 2 vols.

Dickens, Charles. Christmas Stories. Illustrated by E. A. Abbey. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1876.

Dickens, Charles. Christmas Stories from "Household Words" and "All the Year Round". Illustrated by E. G. Dalziel. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877.

Scenes and characters from the works of Charles Dickens; being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings, by Fred Barnard, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz); J. Mahoney; Charles Green; A. B. Frost; Gorgon Thomson; J. McL. Ralston; H. French; E. G. Dalziel; F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes; printed from the original woodblocks engraved for "The Household Edition.". New York: Chapman and Hall, 1908. Copy in the Robarts Library, University of Toronto.

Last modified 21 April 2014