"Mr. Pickwick in the Pound" — Phiz's illustration for "Pickwick Papers"

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Mr. Pickwick in the Pound

Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)

October 1836

Steel Engraving

Dickens's Pickwick Papers, facing p. 161.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

See below for passage illustrated

Preparatory drawing

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 the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Pickwick Awakes to Find Himself in the Village Pound

Meanwhile Mr. Pickwick had been wheeled to the pound, and safely deposited therein, fast asleep in the wheel-barrow, to the immeasurable delight and satisfaction not only of all the boys in the village, but three-fourths of the whole population, who had gathered round, in expectation of his waking. If their most intense gratification had been awakened by seeing him wheeled in, how many hundredfold was their joy increased when, after a few indistinct cries of 'Sam!' he sat up in the barrow, and gazed with indescribable astonishment on the faces before him. [Chapter 19, "An Pleasant Day, with an Unpleasant Termination," 161]

Other approaches: Phiz's and Nast's depictions of Pickwick, passed out in the wheelbarrow, in the Household Edition (1873-74)

Nast's approach to this episode in the novel presents the scene objectively, with the focus on the delirious Pickwick and incensed Boldwood: "Who are you, you rascal?", Chapter XIX, 117.

Phiz's approach to this episode in the novel is completely consistent with his original plate: "Who are you, you rascal?" said the captain, administering several pokes to Mr. Pickwick's body with the thick stick. "What's your name?", Chapter XIX, 130.

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910

Bibliography

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.

Dickens, Charles. Pickwick Papers (1836-37). Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman & Hall.

__________. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.

__________. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The Household Edition. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. New York: Harper and Brothers 1873.

__________. Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874.

Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book Co.,1910.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978, pp. 51-85.

Last modified 15 October 2021