"Arthur Gride and Ralph Nickleby" — Furniss's twenty-third illustration for Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby" (1910)

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

Arthur Gride and Ralph Nickleby

Harry Furniss

1910

5 ½ by 3 ¾ inches (13.8 cm high x 9.3 cm wide), vignetted

Arthur Gride was a little old man, much bent and slightly twisted. His air was of stealthy, cat-like obsequiousness, his expression a wrinkled leer of cunning, slyness, and avarice. He sat in a low chair looking up into the face of Ralph Nickleby. — p. 623.

Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing IV, 624.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use these images without prior permission for anyscholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) linkyour document to this URL in a web document or cite the VictorianWeb in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Introducing Arthur Gride

"Noggs!" cried Ralph, "where is that fellow, Noggs?"

But not a word said Newman.

"The dog has gone to his dinner, though I told him not," muttered Ralph, looking into the office, and pulling out his watch. "Humph! You had better come in here, Gride. My man’s out, and the sun is hot upon my room. This is cool and in the shade, if you don’t mind roughing it."

"Not at all, Mr. Nickleby, oh not at all! All places are alike to me, sir. Ah! very nice indeed. Oh! very nice!"

"The person who made this reply was a little old man, of about seventy or seventy-five years of age, of a very lean figure, much bent and slightly twisted. He wore a grey coat with a very narrow collar, an old-fashioned waistcoat of ribbed black silk, and such scanty trousers as displayed his shrunken spindle-shanks in their full ugliness. The only articles of display or ornament in his dress were a steel watch-chain to which were attached some large gold seals; and a black ribbon into which, in compliance with an old fashion scarcely ever observed in these days, his grey hair was gathered behind. His nose and chin were sharp and prominent, his jaws had fallen inwards from loss of teeth, his face was shrivelled and yellow, save where the cheeks were streaked with the colour of a dry winter apple; and where his beard had been, there lingered yet a few grey tufts which seemed, like the ragged eyebrows, to denote the badness of the soil from which they sprung. The whole air and attitude of the form was one of stealthy cat-like obsequiousness; the whole expression of the face was concentrated in a wrinkled leer, compounded of cunning, lecherousness, slyness, and avarice.

Such was old Arthur Gride, in whose face there was not a wrinkle, in whose dress there was not one spare fold or plait, but expressed the most covetous and griping penury, and sufficiently indicated his belonging to that class of which Ralph Nickleby was a member. Such was old Arthur Gride, as he sat in a low chair looking up into the face of Ralph Nickleby, who, lounging upon the tall office stool, with his arms upon his knees, looked down into his; a match for him on whatever errand he had come. [Chapter XLVII, "Mr. Ralph Nickleby has some confidential Intercourse with another old Friend. They concert between them a Project, which promises well for both," 623]

Commentary: The Misers in "Concert"

Editor J. A. Hammerton's comment about Gride ("an old miser and money-lender") in the "Who's Who" in the front matter does not provide much of a clue as to his relationship to Ralph Nickleby. The illustrations involving this character in the various editions, 1839 through 1910, suggest that the relationship between the middle-aged money-lender and the septuagenarian is one of mutual interests and closely guarded confidences as they huddle conspiratorially in Ralph's back office, unaware that Newman Noggs is following their close conversation. Despite his considerable wealth, Gride like Nickleby is a bachelor, but he lacks the money-lender's qualms of conscience. Dickens introduces him purely as a plot complication at this point. Having gained possession of the will of Madeline Bray's grandfather, Gride attempts to cheat her out of her inheritance. By marrying her (as he has the power to force Walter Bray's acceptance of the arrangement by leveraging his debts), the greedy and devious Gride will gain control over the girl's fortune. Gride's wringing his hands in Furniss's illustration may betoken his eagerness to possess the adolescent heiress as well as her fortune.

Parallel Illustrations from Earlier Editions (1839-1876)

Left: Phiz introduces Gride as plotting but subservient to Ralph in The Consultation [between Arthur Gride and Ralph Nickleby] (June 1839). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition study of the novel's miserly villains: Ralph Nickleby and Arthur Gride (1867). Right: C. S. Reinhart's 1875 woodblock engraving of the aged miser and the middle-aged money-lender: "And how have you been?" said Gride. in the American Household Edition.

Related material by other illustrators (1838 through 1910)

Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (illustrator). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-nine 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 12 September 2021