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Bill Sikes
Harry Furniss
lithograph from pen-and-ink
1910
13.9 x 9 cm, vignetted
Thirteenth illustration for The Adventures of Oliver Twist in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), facing III, 136.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"Why, what the blazes is in the wind now!" growled a deep voice. "Who pitched that 'ere at me? It's well it's the beer, and not the pot, as hit me, or I'd have settled somebody. I might have know'd, as nobody but an infernal, rich, plundering, thundering old Jew could afford to throw away any drink but water — and not that, unless he done the River Company every quarter. Wot's it all about, Fagin? D—me, if my neck-handkercher an't lined with beer! Come in, you sneaking warmint; wot are you stopping outside for, as if you was ashamed of your master! Come in!"
The man who growled out these words, was a stoutly-built fellow of about five-and-thirty, in a black velveteen coat, very soiled drab breeches, lace-up half boots, and grey cotton stockings which inclosed a bulky pair of legs, with large swelling calves; — the kind of legs, which in such costume, always look in an unfinished and incomplete state without a set of fetters to garnish them. He had a brown hat on his head, and a dirty belcher handkerchief round his neck: with the long frayed ends of which he smeared the beer from his face as he spoke. He disclosed, when he had done so, a broad heavy countenance with a beard of three days' growth, and two scowling eyes; one of which displayed various parti-coloured symptoms of having been recently damaged by a blow.
"Come in, d'ye hear?" growled this engaging ruffian. [Chapter 13, "Some New Acquaintances are introduced to the Intelligent Reader; Connected with whom, Various Pleasant Matters are Related, Appertaining to this History," 87-88]
Dickens's original illustrator, George Cruikshank in the September 1837 number of Bentley's Miscellany introducedto the novel's narrative-pictorial program the surly burglar Bill Sikes.As the gang's chief outside contractor Sikes together with his doxy, Nancy, undertakes to recapture Oliver after his apprehension in the abortive robbery of book-browsing Mr. Brownlow. Curiously, editor J. A. Hammerton has not included a descriptive passage that suggests where in the letterpress this character study should be situated; this omission suggests that Hammerton believed there was no one moment that the illustrator of The Charles Dickens Library Edition had in mind. The illustration has been situated, for no apparent reason, at the conclusion of Chapter XVIII.
Until he becomes unnerved after murdering Nancy, Sikes is much the same throughout the novel: brutal, determined, and without compassion or imagination. Although he does not include the burglar's constant companion, the "white-coated, red-eyed dog" the ill-treated cur Bull's-eye, Furniss has modelled his full-length portrait of the scowling Sikes on both realisations by Cruikshank and Mahoney, notably the thug in the dingy white beaver and long greatcoat in "You are on the scent, are you, Nancy?" (see below). Both Sikes attempting to destroy his dog (January 1839) and The Last Chance (February 1839) also offered Furniss workable models, both of which, of course, are directly based on Dickens's original descriptions of the brutal housebreaker and, ultimately, murderer. Part of Dickens's intention for Sikes seems to have been to use him to debunk the romance of the dashing professional thief established by such figures as Henry Fielding's Jonathan Wilde, William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Shepherd, Edward Bulwer Lytton's Paul Clifford, and — ultimately — John Gay's rakish highwayman Macheath in The Beggar's Opera (1728).
In the original serial illustration introducing Sikes, Oliver claimed by his affectionate friends (see below), Cruikshank depicts the tall, unshaven thug as he grabs Oliver in the back streets of Clerkenwell on his way to return Mr. Brownlow's books. There is no comparable scene in the 1871 Household Edition volume; rather, avoiding a scene already competently rendered by Cruikshank, James Mahoney shows Oliver being pursued as a pickpocket by a mob that includes the real thieves, Charley Bates and The Dodger, "Stop thief!", in Chapter 10.
Although Dickens's official illustrator for Oliver Twist in the 1837-9 serial, Cruikshank, depicts the housebreaker as the sordid, lower-class villain out of contemporary melodrama, the figure whom Felix Octavius Carr Darley describes in his series of Character Sketches from Dickens (1888) is once again much more of an individual (despite his characteristic long face and white top hat) than a type. In the chapter 22 illustration which depicts Oliver's being surprised and shot at as soon as he has entered to house that Sikes is attempting to rob, The Burglary, Cruikshank depicts the burglar in a framed portrait, as an apparently helpless Sikes watches the unfolding scene with interest. Effectively rendered, Cruikshank's ruffian is unshaven, unkempt, and full-faced. Selecting an equally dramatic moment in the story, Darley depicts Sikes in action, rather than as a static figure, whereas in the Diamond Edition of 1867, Sol Eytinge, Jr., in Bill Sikes and Nancy (see below) captures the disreputable couple's desperation and despondency after the botched robbery at Chertsey. Taking a little more pity on the down-and-out couple, in the Household Edition, realist James Mahoney focuses on Nancy's tenderness for the exhausted Skies, whom she tends as if he were her child in Then, stooping over the bed, she kissed the robber's lips (Chapter 39) — a highly ironic scene, given Sikes's subsequent treatment of the woman whom he believes has betrayed him and Fagin's gang. In the 1890 collection of Dickens's characters, The Characters of Charles Dickens pourtrayed in a series of original watercolours by "Kyd", J. Clayton Clarke romantizes the ill-shaven thug with the swaggering gait and penetrating gaze. Perhaps the quintessential realisation of Fagin's burly associate is that by Fred Darley in his Character Sketches from Dickens.
Actors who have portrayed Sikes on film include Robert Newton in the 1948 David Lean film, Oliver Reed in the 1968 musical Oliver! (replacing Danny Sewell from the original stage production), and Tim Curry (1982), Robert Loggia (voice, 1988), Michael McAnallen (1995), David O'Hara (1997), Andy Serkis (1999), Jamie Foreman (2005), Tom Hardy (2007), Burn Gorman (2009), Steven Hartley (2009), Shannon Wise (2010), Jake Thomas (2011), and Anthony Brown (2012).
Left: Cruikshank's Oliver claimed by his affectionate friends. Right: Darley's 1888 portrait of the notorious housebreaker, abducting Oliver, Sikes, Nancy, and Oliver Twist.
Left: J. Clayton Clarke's 1890 portrait "Bill Sikes. Right: Sol Eytinge, Junior's Bill Sikes and Nancy (1867).
Above: James Mahoney's 1871 initial portrait of Bill Sikes, James Mahoney's "You are still on the scent, are you, Nancy?"
Bolton, H. Philip. "Oliver Twist (1837-1839)." Dickens Dramatized. London and Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987, 104-153.
Darley, Felix Octavius Carr. Character Sketches from Dickens. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1888.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Bradbury and Evans; Chapman and Hall, 1838; rpt. with revisions 1846.
_____. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 55 vols. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1865.
_____. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
_____. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 22 vols. Illustrated by James Mahoney. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871. Vol. I.
_____. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. III.
_____. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. The Waverley Edition. Illustrated by Charles Pears. London: Waverley, 1912.
Kyd (Clayton J. Clarke). Characters from Dickens. Nottingham: John Player & Sons, 1910.
_____. The Characters of Charles Dickens pourtrayed in a series of original watercolours by "Kyd." London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck, n. d.
Vann, J. Don. "Oliver Twist." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985, 62-63.
Created 31 January 2015
Last modified 14 February 2020