"Nicholas comes in upon an awkward scene" — Furniss's nineteenth illustration for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1910)

[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Henry Furniss —> Nicholas Nickleby —> Charles Dickens —> Next]

Nicholas comes in upon an awkward scene

Harry Furniss

1910

5 ¾ by 3 ¾ inches (14.5 cm high x 9.5 cm wide), vignetted

Nicholas recognized the clumsy servant, and the young lady who had just swooned away. "She has fainted, Sir," he said, darting eagerly forward. "Brother Charles," said Ned Cheeryble, hurrying into the room, "what is the — ah! what —" (527)

Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing IV, 512.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use these images 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: Nicholas attempts to come to the young lady's assistance

Nicholas stammered out an awkward apology, and was precipitately retiring, when the young lady, turning her head a little, presented to his view the features of the lovely girl whom he had seen at the register-office on his first visit long before. Glancing from her to the attendant, he recognised the same clumsy servant who had accompanied her then; and between his admiration of the young lady’s beauty, and the confusion and surprise of this unexpected recognition, he stood stock-still, in such a bewildered state of surprise and embarrassment that, for the moment, he was quite bereft of the power either to speak or move.

"My dear ma’am — my dear young lady," cried brother Charles in violent agitation, "pray don’t — not another word, I beseech and entreat you! I implore you — I beg of you — to rise. We — we — are not alone."

As he spoke, he raised the young lady, who staggered to a chair and swooned away.

"She has fainted, sir," said Nicholas, darting eagerly forward.

"Poor dear, poor dear!" cried brother Charles ‘Where is my brother Ned? Ned, my dear brother, come here pray."

"Brother Charles, my dear fellow," replied his brother, hurrying into the room, "what is the — ah! what —"

"Hush! hush! — not a word for your life, brother Ned," returned the other. "Ring for the housekeeper, my dear brother — call Tim Linkinwater! Here, Tim Linkinwater, sir — Mr. Nickleby, my dear sir, leave the room, I beg and beseech of you."

"I think she is better now," said Nicholas, who had been watching the patient so eagerly, that he had not heard the request. [Chapter XL, "In which Nicholas falls in Love. He employs a Mediator, whose Proceedings are crowned with unexpected Success, excepting in one solitary Particular," 527]

Commentary

Whereas the earlier illustrators of the novel (Phiz, Eytinge, Reinhart, and Barnard) from 1839 through 1875 have focussed on Charles Cheeryble's introducing Nicholas to his brother and the office staff in Chapter 35, Furniss has realised the all-important moment several chapters later when the brothers entertain a mysterious young lady in their offices, and attempt to keep her identity a secret from Nicholas.

In this illustration, Nicholas has just discovered the mysterious young lady in Mr. Charles Cheeryble’s office when he enters to deliver a letter. Mr. Cheeryble tries to get the young lady, who has apparently fainted, to rise. Nicholas recognizes her from the Employment Office as the fashionably dressed young woman who had inquired about a possible governess's position.

Nicholas's employers act mysteriously in their attempts to dismiss Nicholas, and Tim Linkinwater's reluctance to say anything about the young lady intensifies the mystery surrounding her unexpected appearance at the elderly bachelors' offices. Nicholas becomes progressively more and more curious about her. Tim tells Nicholas that the woman's servant visits the offices every night, while he and Nicholas are going over accounts. Accordingly, Nicholas enlists Newman Noggs to become his private detective and to follow the servant to discover where the young lady is staying. Two nights later, after watching the local pump like a "meditative ogre," Noggs provides Nicholas with information about the lady, whom he calls "Cecilia Bobster." This intelligence proves incorrect: she is in fact Madeline Bray, daughter of a tyrannical invalid whose bankruptcy compels him to live within the Rules of the King's Bench Prison. The illustration thus serves to introduce the plot between the miser Arthur Gride and Madeline's father, the debtor Walter, to marry Madeline to the elderly Gride to free Bray from the prison.

Other Editions' Versions of the Madeline Bray (1839-1910)

Left: Phiz brings in the romantic interest for the Nicholas plot: Nicholas Recognizes the Young Lady Unknown (April 1839). Right: C. S. Reinhart's 1875 American Household Editioncomposite woodblock engraving of Nicholas's meeting Madeline: "I must speak to her — I will! I will not leave this house without.".

Left: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition study of the novel's belatedly introduced secondary heroine: Walter Bray and Madeline (1867). Right: Fred Barnard's 1875 woodblock engraving of the Nicholas and Madeline: "I must beseech you to contemplate again the fearful curse to which you have been impelled.", in the British Household Edition, Ch. 53.

Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators

Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (illustrator). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-eight illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume 15. Rpt. 1890.

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: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.

__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. IV.

__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.

Created 30 August 2021