Dolly Varden
Harry Furniss
1910
14 cm x 7.8 cm (5 ½ by 3 inches), vignetted
Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, The Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), facing VI, 80.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Context of the Illustration: The Vain but Charming Clerkenwell Beauty Introduced
After a long and patient contemplation of the golden key, and many such backward glances, Gabriel stepped into the road, and stole a look at the upper windows. One of them chanced to be thrown open at the moment, and a roguish face met his; a face lighted up by the loveliest pair of sparkling eyes that ever locksmith looked upon; the face of a pretty, laughing, girl; dimpled and fresh, and healthful — the very impersonation of good-humour and blooming beauty.
"Hush!" she whispered, bending forward and pointing archly to the window underneath. "Mother is still asleep."
"Still, my dear," returned the locksmith in the same tone. "You talk as if she had been asleep all night, instead of little more than half an hour. But I’m very thankful. Sleep’s a blessing — no doubt about it." The last few words he muttered to himself.
"How cruel of you to keep us up so late this morning, and never tell us where you were, or send us word!" said the girl.
"Ah Dolly, Dolly!" returned the locksmith, shaking his head, and smiling, "how cruel of you to run upstairs to bed! Come down to breakfast, madcap, and come down lightly, or you’ll wake your mother. She must be tired, I am sure — I am."
Keeping these latter words to himself, and returning his daughter’s nod, he was passing into the workshop, with the smile she had awakened still beaming on his face, when he just caught sight of his ‘prentice’s brown paper cap ducking down to avoid observation, and shrinking from the window back to its former place, which the wearer no sooner reached than he began to hammer lustily. [Chapter IV, 34]
Relevant illustration from the 1841 Edition
Above: Phiz's original introduction of the beautiful heroine into the narrative-pictorial series, It's a Poor Heart That Never Rejoices (27 February 1841).
Related Material including Other Illustrated Editions of Barnaby Rudge
- Charles Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge (homepage)
- Cattermole's 17 illustrations (13 Feb.-27 Nov. 1841)
- Phiz's Original Serial Illustrations (13 Feb.-27 Nov. 1841)
- Cattermole and Phiz: The First illustrators: A Team Effort by "The Clock Works"
- Felix Octavius Carr Darley's Six Illustrations (1865 and 1888)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s ten Diamond Edition illustrations (1867)
- Fred Barnard's 46 Illustrations for the Household Edition (1874)
- A. H. Buckland's six illustrations for the Collins' Clear-type Edition (1900)
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz and George Cattermole. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.
_______. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI.
Created 24 May 2020
Last modified 16 December 2020