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I turned a corner, and met her.
W. H. C. Groome
1907
11.6 x 7.6 cm (4 ½ by 3 inches), framed
Lithograph
Dickens's David Copperfield, referencing page 394; facing page 417.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The garden was cool and solitary. I walked about, wondering what my feelings of happiness would be, if I could ever become engaged to this dear wonder. As to marriage, and fortune, and all that, I believe I was almost as innocently undesigning then, as when I loved little Em’ly. To be allowed to call her ‘Dora’, to write to her, to dote upon and worship her, to have reason to think that when she was with other people she was yet mindful of me, seemed to me the summit of human ambition—I am sure it was the summit of mine. There is no doubt whatever that I was a lackadaisical young spooney; but there was a purity of heart in all this, that prevents my having quite a contemptuous recollection of it, let me laugh as I may.
I had not been walking long, when I turned a corner, and met her. I tingle again from head to foot as my recollection turns that corner, and my pen shakes in my hand.
"You — are — out early, Miss Spenlow," said I.
‘It’s so stupid at home," she replied, "and Miss Murdstone is so absurd! She talks such nonsense about its being necessary for the day to be aired, before I come out. Aired!" (She laughed, here, in the most melodious manner.) ‘On a Sunday morning, when I don’t practise, I must do something. So I told papa last night I must come out. Besides, it’s the brightest time of the whole day. Don’t you think so?"
I hazarded a bold flight, and said (not without stammering) that it was very bright to me then, though it had been very dark to me a minute before.
"Do you mean a compliment?" said Dora, "or that the weather has really changed?"
I stammered worse than before, in replying that I meant no compliment, but the plain truth; though I was not aware of any change having taken place in the weather. It was in the state of my own feelings, I added bashfully: to clench the explanation.
I never saw such curls — how could I, for there never were such curls!—as those she shook out to hide her blushes. As to the straw hat and blue ribbons which was on the top of the curls, if I could only have hung it up in my room in Buckingham Street, what a priceless possession it would have been! [Chapter XXVI, "I Fall into Captivity," 394]
She had the most delightful little voice, the gayest little laugh, the pleasantest and most fascinating little ways. . . . She was rather diminutive althogether. [392]
The version of Dora and her spaniel offered by Groome seems more consistent with Dickens's text than Eytinge's, for example. Dora here, however, is not the dark-haired, demure, tiny beauty of Phiz's in I Fall into Captivity and Our Housekeeping. Although readers may have a sense of Dora has petite (based on those repetitions of :little" in the initial description) and even childlike in appearance, that impression has been much conditioned by Phiz's serial depictions of her. Dora (a name suggesting "treasured" or "precious") is not so much a physical entity as a child-like, coaxing, wheedling, and occasionally petulant voice whom we and David first encounter on a long weekend at the suburban home of her father, David's employer. When the widower introduces David to Dora, it is love at first sight: "I loved Dora Spenlow to distraction!" (390). David's first impression of her is that she is "girlish, bright-eyed, lovely" (391). Yes, of course, she possesses a graceful form and a captivating manner — readers would expect no less of a Dickensian heroine — but is she of medium height, or short, blonde or brunette? And, likewise, of what breed and dimensions is Dora's intimate associate Jip (short for "Gipsy")?
Thus, Groome has made his decision about appearance independent of both Phiz and Dickens, aside, of course, from the profusion of curls, the straw hat, and the ribbons. Groome's image of Dora and her dog, although departing from the Phiz illustrations, is nonetheless eminently satisfying. She is thin, elegantly dressed, and blonde. Her pet is the ideal breed and size for a pampered lapdog: a parti-coloured spaniel, not entirely docile. Surprisingly, Groome has made her almost equal in height to David, whom she fails to regard directly. She is cloest to Barnard's depiction of her in the garden meeting in the Household Edition (1872).
Left: George Arents' Cigarette Card No. 22, from Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, a series of 40: Dora Spenlow (c. 1880-1890). Centre: Sol Eyting, Jr.'s Diamond
Edition portrait of Dora, her companion, and her annoying dog, with the pagoda doghouse:
Left: Harry Furniss's Charles Dickens Library Edition study of David's meeting Dora for the first time: David meets Dora and — Miss Murdstone (1910). Right: Barnard depicts Dora meeting David in the garden, with a great deal of emphasis on the context: Dora (1872).
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield, with 61 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. 3.
_______. David Copperfield. Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-type Press, 1907.
Created 7 July 2022