Left to right: (a) The Title-page and vignette of Miss Miggs; (b) Fanny Corbaux's Emma Haredale, page 92; (c) John Absolon's Dolly Varden, page 94; (d) Absolon's Barnaby Rudge, page 212. [Click on these images for larger pictures.]
Overview of the Cheap Edition's Limited Programme of Five Illustrations
The program of illustration provided by the three illustrators dismisses the political aspects of Dickens’s historical novel to focus on the romantic heroines and their contrasting antagonist, Miggs. Gone are the Gordon Riots, talk of “No Popery!” and the male figures who exemplify the political and comic plots: Gabriel Varden, his garrulous wife, and their earnest apprentice, Joe Willet; indolent Sir John Chester and his sensitive son; and the principal comic figure, the self-aggrandizing apprentice Sim Tappertit, and his riotous cronies. Indeed, three of the five plates focus entirely on Dolly’s visit to The Warren to deliver Edward Chester’s note to Emma, circumventing the limited access imposed by her controlling guardian and uncle, Mr. Haredale. Even the titular protagonist, Barnaby himself, is utterly de contextualized in the single illustration representing him in his wild attire and accompanied by a minimalized Grip.
Edward Francis Finden (1791-1857), Expert Line-engraver
Phiz's frontispiece, engraved by W. T. Green rather than the Findens, is his only illustration in the 1849 Cheap Edition.
Edward Finden (born 30 April 1791; died: 9 February 1857), a London engraver and print-maker, was the brother of fellow engraver William Finden (1787-1852). Since the two principal illustrators were established portrait painters but relative novices in book illustration, the credit for the effectiveness of the highly realistic engravings should go to Edward Francis Finden (1791-1857), a veteran line-engraver. He and his older brother received numerous publishing commissions at the time that Chapman and Hall arranged for five plates for the Cheap Edition of Barnaby Rudge (1849). So expert were the Findens that, after their initial decade in their London studio (the 1820s), they only supervised and provided finishing touches; the actual working of engraving and biting in the steel plates was accomplished by their many studio assistants. Coincidentally, their offices in Holborn, London, occupied the site of the distillery which Dickens so graphically described in the concluding chapters of Barnaby Rudge. In the 1830s, the Findens began to produce the great series of steel engravings for which they are best remembered. One of their best-known illustrated books, produced for William Beattie in collaboration with W. H. Bartlett, is The Ports, Harbours, Watering Places, and Coast Scenery of Great Britain (1842), a celebrated piece of travel literature which went through many editions in the nineteenth-century.
The 1849 Cheap Edition of Barnaby Rudge Sparsely Illustrated
Dickens's publishers, Chapman and Hall, commissioned Phiz to supply four engraved plates for the first cheap edition of The Old Curiosity Shop. Chapman and Hall also commissioned John Absolon and F. Corbaux to provide similar "extra illustrations" of Dolly Varden, Barnaby Rudge, Emma, and Miss Miggs from Barnaby Rudge for the first Cheap Edition in 1849, the pen-and-ink drawings being engraved by Finden on steel plates and marketed at a shilling a set. The novel, originally appearing in Master Humphrey's Clock in weekly periodical serialisation of forty-three numbers, appeared in volume form in November 1841; however, the Cheap Edition did not appear until 1846. The other weekly-issued novel in Master Humphrey's Clock, Barnaby Rudge, ran in forty-two weekly parts from 13 February 1841 through 27 November 1841, each having generally two illustrations. Clearly, the publishers' intention was to sell as many of the original 21-shilling publications as possible before issuing a "cheap" shilling version; the text would also appear in two extremely cheap (double-columned) formats to attract as wide a range of readers as possible: the weekly part (1.5 pence per issue) and the monthly part (at 7 pence each) were both economically priced.
Miss Miggs appears in the title-page vignette, which is not attributed to any of the three illustrators, but clearly is not in Phiz's caricatural style evident in Phiz's frontispiece (see pp. 94-95 in Chapter XX: “As she passed through a wicket . . . . It must be the wind.”) The style of the remaining four plates by Absolon and Corbaux is markedly more realistic than Phiz's, and offers no contextualising details.
- 1. Miss Miggs title-page vignette
- 2. Emma Haredale, facing page 92 in Chapter XX
- 3. Dolly Varden, facing page 94, also in Chapter XX
- 4. Barnaby Rudge for page 212, Chapter XLVI (facing page 212, which describes Barnaby).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Cohen, Jane Rabb. "Part Two: Dickens and His Principal Illustrator. 4. Hablot Browne." (Part 1). Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio U. P., 1980. 59-80.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge, A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Illustrated by J. Absalon and Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz'), and engraved by Finden. The Cheap Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1849.
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') and George Cattermole. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1849.
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. Ed. Kathleen Tillotson. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') and George Cattermole. The New Oxford Illustrated Dickens. London: Oxford University Press. 1954, rpt. 1987.
Created 7 March 2025