Title-page for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood & Other Stories" by Fred Barnard (1879)

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Title-page

1879

Wood-engraving

Vignette 7.6 cm high by 6.1 cm wide

Fred Barnard

Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The editors of the Household Edition, Volume 20, used this engraved title-page by Fred Barnard to introduce the twelve Drood illustrations by Fildes. [Click on image to enlarge it.]

Detail of the title-page vignette: Master Humphrey and His Clock for Reprinted Pieces in the Household Edition.

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 photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Focussing on Master Humphrey

And now shall I tell how that my old servant, besides giving us note of time, and ticking cheerful encouragement of our proceedings, lends its name to our society, which for its punctuality and my love is christened "Master Humphrey’s Clock"? Now shall I tell how that in the bottom of the old dark closet, where the steady pendulum throbs and beats with healthy action, though the pulse of him who made it stood still long ago, and never moved again, there are piles of dusty papers constantly placed there by our hands, that we may link our enjoyments with my old friend, and draw means to beguile time from the heart of time itself? Shall I, or can I, tell with what a secret pride I open this repository when we meet at night, and still find new store of pleasure in my dear old Clock?

Friend and companion of my solitude! mine is not a selfish love; I would not keep your merits to myself, but disperse something of pleasant association with your image through the whole wide world; I would have men couple with your name cheerful and healthy thoughts; I would have them believe that you keep true and honest time; and how it would gladden me to know that they recognised some hearty English work in Master Humphrey’s clock! ["Master Humphrey, from His Clock-case in the Chimney Corner," 4 April 1840]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Reprinted Pieces. Charles Dickens. With Illustrations by Sir Luke Fildes, R. A., E. G. Dalziel, and F. Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1879. Vol. XX.

Created 9 May 2005

Last modified 17 July 2023