"The Emigrants" (1898) by Maurice Greiffenhagen, 1862-1931

[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Maurice Greiffenhagen —> Next]

The Emigrants

Maurice Greiffenhagen

1898

Lithograph

13 by 8.8 cm framed

Dickens's American Notes for General Circulation

The Gadshill Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens (1898)

See commentary and passage illustrated below

[Click on image to enlarge it]

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 person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated

Five men, as many women, and a little girl. All their worldly goods are a bag, a large chest and an old chair: one, old, high-backed, rush-bottomed chair: a solitary settler in itself. They are rowed ashore in the boat, while the vessel stands a little off awaiting its return, the water being shallow. They are landed at the foot of a high bank, on the summit of which are a few log cabins, attainable only by a long winding path. It is growing dusk; but the sun is very red, and shines in the water and on some of the tree-tops, like fire.

The men get out of the boat first; help out the women; take out the bag, the chest, the chair; bid the rowers 'good-bye;' and shove the boat off for them. At the first plash of the oars in the water, the oldest woman of the party sits down in the old chair, close to the water's edge, without speaking a word. None of the others sit down, though the chest is large enough for many seats. They all stand where they landed, as if stricken into stone; and look after the boat. So they remain, quite still and silent: the old woman and her old chair, in the centre the bag and chest upon the shore, without anybody heeding them all eyes fixed upon the boat. [Chapter 11, "From Pittsburgh to Cincinnati in a Western Steamboat," page 191]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. American Notes and Pictures from Italy. Edited by Andrew Lang. Illustrated by Maurice Greiffenhagen. The Gadshill Edition. 32 vols. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Charles Scribner's, 1898. Volume 28.

Created 30 December 2014