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The old man of the name of Tulkinghorn
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
January 1853
Etching
4 5/8 x 4 1/4 inches (12.1 cm by 10.9 cm)
Facing p. 331 (ch. 33, "Interlopers") of Dickens's Bleak House
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow.
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow; additional text by Philip V. Allingham.
But in that house [Chesney Wold], in that same moment, there happens to be an old man of the name of Tulkinghorn. And that old man, coming with his quiet footstep to the library, has his hand at that moment on the handle of the door — comes in — and comes face to face with the young man as he is leaving the room.
One glance between the old man and the lady, and for an instant the blind that is always down flies up. Suspicion, eager and sharp, looks out. Another instant, close again.
"I beg your pardon, Lady Dedlock. I beg your pardon a thousand times. It is so very unusual to find you here at this hour. I supposed the room was empty. I beg your pardon!"
"Stay!" She negligently calls him back. "Remain here, I beg. I am going out to dinner. I have nothing more to say to this young man!"
The disconcerted young man bows, as he goes out, and cringingly hopes that Mr. Tulkinghorn of the [Lincoln's Inn] Fields is well. [Chapter XXXIII, 331; Project Gutenberg etext (see bibliography below)]
Mr. Guppy, attempting to prove a connection between the law-writer "Nemo" (Captain Hawdon) and Lady Dedlock as part of his investigation of Esther Summerson's parentage, is one of the "interlopers" to whom Dickens alludes in the title for Chapter XXXIII. Guppy has already has already failed to obtain her letters to Hawdon as he believes that they were destroyed in Krook's spontaneous immolation (Chapter XXXII). The other "interlopers" alluded to in the chapter title are the Smallweeds who, at Krook's death, have acquired title to his premises at Cook's Court because it turns out that Mrs. Smallweed is Krook's sister, and therefore his heir.
Phiz establishes the superior nature of the situation in which Guppy has inserted himself by the Dedlock family portraits staring down upon the occupants of the library, their descendant Sir Leicester, and his stately wife, whose secret liaison in youth Guppy may yet reveal. She little realizes that Tulkinghorn is conducting a similar investigation, and is shortly about to acquire the necessary evidence through Grandfather Smallweed's extorting it out of Mr. George in the next chapter.
More than one "interloper" in the Dedlocks' exclusive circle threatens Lady Dedlock's security as potential blackmailers manoeuver to acquire the evidence they require. But they have not counted on Detective Bucket and the malevolent maid Hortense, or on Lady Deadlock herself, for that matter. Guppy is clearly out of his depth, and both the money-lender and the attorney will overreach themselves.
Left: Fred Barnard's 1873 Household Edition illustration of the trio: "Who copied that?" (headpiece for Chapter One). Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s portrait of the Dedlocks and their confidential attorney in the full-page Diamond Edition woodblock engraving: Tulkinghorn on the Leads (1910). Right: Harry Furniss emphasizes Tulkinghorn as a secretive, devious loner in Tulkinghorn on the Leads (1910).
"Bleak House — Sixty-one Illustrations by Fred Barnard." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Gordon Thomson, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. McL. Ralston, J. Mahoney, H. French, Charles Green, E. G. Dalziel, A. B. Frost, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1907.
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). London: Bradbury & Evans. Bouverie Street, 1853.
_______. Bleak House. Project Gutenberg etext prepared by Donald Lainson, Toronto, Canada (charlie@idirect.com), with revision and corrections by Thomas Berger and Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D. Seen 9 November 2007.
_______. Bleak House. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1863. Vols. 1-4.
_______. Bleak House. Project Gutenberg etext prepared by Donald Lainson, Toronto, Canada (charlie@idirect.com), with revision and corrections by Thomas Berger and Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D. Seen 9 November 2007.
_______. Bleak House. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. XI.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 6. "Bleak House and Little Dorrit: Iconography of Darkness." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 131-172.
Vann, J. Don. "Bleak House, twenty parts in nineteen monthly instalments, October 1846—April 1848." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985. 69-70./
Created 14 November 2007
Last modified 10 March 2021