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Mr. Ralph Nickleby's 'Honest' Composure
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
September 1839
Steel-engraving
9.9 cm by 8.9 cm, vignetted
Illustration for Dickens's Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Chapter XX (Instalment 6).
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"A lie!" cried a voice, as the door was dashed open, and Nicholas came into the room.
In the first moment of surprise, and possibly of alarm, Ralph rose from his seat, and fell back a few paces, quite taken off his guard by this unexpected apparition. In another moment, he stood, fixed and immovable with folded arms, regarding his nephew with a scowl; while Kate and Miss La Creevy threw themselves between the two, to prevent the personal violence which the fierce excitement of Nicholas appeared to threaten.
"Dear Nicholas," cried his sister, clinging to him. "Be calm, consider —"
"Consider, Kate!" cried Nicholas, clasping her hand so tight in the tumult of his anger, that she could scarcely bear the pain. ‘When I consider all, and think of what has passed, I need be made of iron to stand before him."
"Or bronze," said Ralph, quietly; "there is not hardihood enough in flesh and blood to face it out."
"Oh dear, dear!" cried Mrs. Nickleby, ‘that things should have come to such a pass as this!"
"Who speaks in a tone, as if I had done wrong, and brought disgrace on them?" said Nicholas, looking round.
"Your mother, sir," replied Ralph, motioning towards her. [Chapter XX, "Wherein Nicholas at length encounters his Uncle, to whom he expresses his Sentiments with much Candour. His Resolution."]
Phiz dramatically separates the wicked uncle from his brother's family; he indeed is "composed" as he carefully observes Nicholas's behaviour, but is utterly unmoved by his rhetorical excesses. The sister and her friend, the miniature portrait-painter, Miss La Creevy, try to restrain the indignant Nicholas, while Mrs. Nickleby on the sidelines, so to speak, watches the action unfold.
Left: C. S. Reinhart continues to make Uncle Ralph a blocking figure for the engenues, Kate and Nicholas: "I need not entreat your sympathy," he said, wringing her hand (1875). Right: Harry Furniss's 1910 lithograph representing the extended Nickleby family, Mr. Ralph Nickleby makes the acquaintance of his Relations, in the Charles Dickens Library Edition.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.
__________. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Ed. Andrew Lang. Illustrated by 'Phiz' (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. 2 vols.
__________. 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. 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.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2, "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-50.
Vann, J. Don. "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, April 1838-October 1839." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Page 63.
Created 11 April 2009 Last modified 24 September 2021