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Passage Illustrated: Introduction to "The Five Sisters of York"

After a murmur of approbation from the other passengers, during which the fastidious lady drank a glass of punch unobserved, the grey-headed gentleman thus went on:

"A great many years ago — for the fifteenth century was scarce two years old at the time, and King Henry the Fourth sat upon the throne of England — there dwelt, in the ancient city of York, five maiden sisters, the subjects of my tale.

"These five sisters were all of surpassing beauty. The eldest was in her twenty-third year, the second a year younger, the third a year younger than the second, and the fourth a year younger than the third. They were tall stately figures, with dark flashing eyes and hair of jet; dignity and grace were in their every movement; and the fame of their great beauty had spread through all the country round.

"But, if the four elder sisters were lovely, how beautiful was the youngest, a fair creature of sixteen! The blushing tints in the soft bloom on the fruit, or the delicate painting on the flower, are not more exquisite than was the blending of the rose and lily in her gentle face, or the deep blue of her eye. The vine, in all its elegant luxuriance, is not more graceful than were the clusters of rich brown hair that sported round her brow.

"If we all had hearts like those which beat so lightly in the bosoms of the young and beautiful, what a heaven this earth would be! If, while our bodies grow old and withered, our hearts could but retain their early youth and freshness, of what avail would be our sorrows and sufferings! But, the faint image of Eden which is stamped upon them in childhood, chafes and rubs in our rough struggles with the world, and soon wears away: too often to leave nothing but a mournful blank remaining.

"The heart of this fair girl bounded with joy and gladness. [Chapter VI, "," ]

Commentary

Dickens may have resorted to interpolated tales simply to make the word-count necessary for a monthly instalment. However, the dour figure of the monk and the blighting of youth by the shadow of death seem to reflect Dickens's concerns with the fortunes of his picaresque protagonist at this point. And the presence of the illustration at the very head of the May 1838 monthly part underscores Dickens's wishing to draw readers' attentions to the short story at the very start of that instalment. The authorial trick of having characters on a journey contribute oral tales is as old as Chaucer, of course, and Dickens does not even bother to shift the narrative voice: the teller of the tale is not markedly different from the omniscient narrator of the novel. But the illustration accompanying the story emphasizes the beauty and solidarity of the five sisters, in juxtaposition to the antagonist, the black-clad Benedictine monk who persists in demanding that the sisters "take the veil" and renounce the world for the cloister. The illustration by implication suggests how a death in the family may undermine the natural optimism and joie de vivre of youth (whether of the sixteen-year-old Alice in the tale, or of Nicholas and Kate Nickleby in the main plot). The historical context plays a minor role in the story because the fifteenth-century setting justifies Dickens's including the monk and his message of retreat from the world, and the renunciation of art (the sisters' embroidery, which later becomes the basis for the Five Sisters window in York Cathedral, which was apparently Dickens's inspiration for the dialectical tale that pits the optimism of Alice against the pessimism of the monk). But in the illustration Phiz takes full advantage of the mediaeval setting to make his composition a costume-piece, and thereby provides a delightful change from the mundane costumes and domestic settings of the early nineteenth century.

Relevant Illustration from the American Household Edition (1875)

When the Same Black Monk Passed Slowly on (1875), in which Reinhart focuses on the Monk rather than the five sisters.

Commentary: An Illustration of One of Two Interpolated Tales

Whereas Dickens's first novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, made use of the interpolated oral tale on nine occasions across its serialisation (from May 1836 in the second number through September 1837 in its seventeenth number) Dickens resorted to such peripheral short fiction only in the second monthly number of Nicholas Nickleby (May 1838) to fill up the gap between Nicholas's departure from The Saracen's Head through to his arrival at Dotheboys Hall, near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire. "The Five Sisters of York" contrasts the more genial traveller's tale in its whimsical "Genius of Despair and Suicide," which certainly has greater potential for illustration. The second story, then, exhibits Dickens's well-known "streaky bacon" plot construction, which alternates scenes of melodrama and of farce, and creates reader interest by providing pathos and humour, and by touching on themes dealt with in the main plot. Cast out of the civilised world of family and urban society and forced to earn his living working for a petty tyrant, Nicholas could well give into despair, as the Baron Von Koëldwethout with his sharp hunting-knife is tempted to do in order to escape domestic tyranny and social isolation. Of course, we may also view the complementary short stories as last-minute insertions to help fill out the instalment: "I have yet 5 slips to finish and on;'t know what to put in them for I have reached the point I meant to leave off with" ["Dickens to Forster," ?15 April 1838, quoted in Thomas, 25]. After the intensity of "The Five Sisters," the witty treatment of depression and its satire of the Gothic tale comes as a welcome diversion. Unfortunately, Dickens seems to have felt no further need to "make length," for the third Dickens novel contains no further interpolated tales.

Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators

• Nicholas Nickleby (homepage)
• "Hush!" said Nicholas, laying his hand upon his shoulder. (Vol. 1, 1861)
• The Rehearsal (Vol. 2, 1861)
• "My son, sir, little Wackford. What do you think of him, sir?" (Vol. 3, 1861)
• Newman had caught up by the nozzle an old pair of bellows . . . (Vol. 4, 1861).
• Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s 18 illustrations for The Diamond Edition (1867)
• Fred Barnard's 59 Illustrations for the Household Edution (1877)
• C. S. Reinhart's 52 Illustrations for the American Household Edution (1875)
• Harry Furniss's 29 illustrations for Nicholas Nickleby in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910)
• Kyd's four Player's Cigarette Cards (1910)

Bibliography

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.

Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 24-50.

Thomas, Deborah A. "Chapter 2: Imaginative Overindulgence." Dickens and the Short Story. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. 7-31.

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. 63.

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Created 9 April 2002

Last modified 7 April 2021