Mr. Pickwick Slides — twenty-fourth steel engraving for Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club; two versions by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne) for the February 1837 (eleventh monthly) number and the 1838 bound volume; Chapter XXX, “How the Pickwickians made and cultivated the Acquaintance of a couple of nice Young Men belonging to one of the Liberal Professions; how they disported themselves on the Ice; and how their Visit came to a conclusion,” facing page 313. The original illustration is 12.2 cm high by 11.5 cm wide — 4 ⅞ by 4 ⅜ inches, vignetted. The initial or A engraving of Plate 24, as Johannsen (1956) notes, has a black rather than a white miniature dog, lower centre, and there is a church steeple on the horizon. The B plate's page number (313) is less distinct, and B has four large birds in the sky. "Phiz, del is much sharper in A. In volume edition of 1838 Plate B has the legend Pickwick Slides "in the lower margin" (Johannsen, 45). "The second plate shows some of the figures in the background a bit more distinctly but not enough to lose the effect of distance" (44). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage Illustrated: Sliding on Ice with the Dingley Dell Community
‘It looks a nice warm exercise that, doesn’t it?’ he inquired of Wardle, when that gentleman was thoroughly out of breath, by reason of the indefatigable manner in which he had converted his legs into a pair of compasses, and drawn complicated problems on the ice.
‘Ah, it does, indeed,’ replied Wardle. ‘Do you slide?’
‘I used to do so, on the gutters, when I was a boy,’ replied Mr. Pickwick.
‘Try it now,’ said Wardle.
‘Oh, do, please, Mr. Pickwick!’ cried all the ladies.
‘I should be very happy to afford you any amusement,’ replied Mr. Pickwick, ‘but I haven’t done such a thing these thirty years.’
‘Pooh! pooh! Nonsense!’ said Wardle, dragging off his skates with the impetuosity which characterised all his proceedings. ‘Here; I’ll keep you company; come along!’ And away went the good-tempered old fellow down the slide, with a rapidity which came very close upon Mr. Weller, and beat the fat boy all to nothing.
Mr. Pickwick paused, considered, pulled off his gloves and put them in his hat: took two or three short runs, baulked himself as often, and at last took another run, and went slowly and gravely down the slide, with his feet about a yard and a quarter apart, amidst the gratified shouts of all the spectators.
‘Keep the pot a-bilin’, Sir!’ said Sam; and down went Wardle again, and then Mr. Pickwick, and then Sam, and then Mr. Winkle, and then Mr. Bob Sawyer, and then the fat boy, and then Mr. Snodgrass, following closely upon each other’s heels, and running after each other with as much eagerness as if their future prospects in life depended on their expedition.
It was the most intensely interesting thing, to observe the manner in which Mr. Pickwick performed his share in the ceremony; to watch the torture of anxiety with which he viewed the person behind, gaining upon him at the imminent hazard of tripping him up; to see him gradually expend the painful force he had put on at first, and turn slowly round on the slide, with his face towards the point from which he had started; to contemplate the playful smile which mantled on his face when he had accomplished the distance, and the eagerness with which he turned round when he had done so, and ran after his predecessor, his black gaiters tripping pleasantly through the snow, and his eyes beaming cheerfulness and gladness through his spectacles. And when he was knocked down (which happened upon the average every third round), it was the most invigorating sight that can possibly be imagined, to behold him gather up his hat, gloves, and handkerchief, with a glowing countenance, and resume his station in the rank, with an ardour and enthusiasm that nothing could abate.
The sport was at its height, the sliding was at the quickest, the laughter was at the loudest, when a sharp smart crack was heard. [Chapter XXX, "How the Pickwickians made and cultivated the Acquaintance of a couple of nice Young Men belonging to one of the Liberal Professions; how they disported themselves on the Ice; and how their Visit came to a conclusion," 313]
Commentary: Pickwick and Winkle participate in rural winter sports
The genial character comedy of Dickens's first novel is nowhere better exhibited than in Phiz's Mr. Pickwick Slides, which complements the textual physical comedy of the awkward Mr. Winkle on skates. This illustration first appeared in monthly Part 11 (Chapters 30-32) in the February 1837 serial instalment. The plate is outstanding among Phiz's country scenes for the effectiveness of its aerial perspective, showing the figures sharply in the middle distance and the backdrop of farm buildings, woods, and fields. Phiz divides his interest between Arabella's and the other young women's reactions to Pickwick's sliding (right) and Bob Sawyer (with cane) and Ben Allen (in spectacles) commiserating with the fallen Winkle (left foreground). In both versions, upper left, Sam Weller and Mr. Wardle cheer Pickwick on, and the Fat Boy is beside them. The lightheartedness of the illustration is about to be shattered by the cracking of the ice and Pickwick's falling through it.
Scenes surrounding Mr. Pickwick's Adventure on Thin Ice (1837-1910)
Left: Harry Furniss's lithograph for this chapter shows the aftermath of the sliding adventure, Mr. Pickwick Under the Ice (1910). Right: Phiz's composite woodblock engraving for this same incident revisits his earlier steel engraving, and brings Sam and Wardle well forward: Mr. Pickwick . . . went slowly and gravely down the slide, with his feet about a yard and a quarter apart, amidst the gratified shouts of all the spectators (1874). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Thomas Nast's American Household Edition's engraving for this chapter satirizes the medical students as much as Winkle: "I wish you'd let me bleed you." (1873). Right: Thomas Onwhyn's "extra" illustration graphs the upshot of Pickwick's accident as he entertains the company in his bedroom at Dingley Dell: “Old Wardle would not hear of his rising, so they made the bed the chair, and Mr. Pickwick presided.” Page 314 (30 September 1837). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910
- Robert Seymour (1836)
- Thomas Onwhyn (1837)
- Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1861)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (1867)
- Thomas Nast (1873)
- Harry Furniss (1910)
- Clayton J. Clarke's Extra Illustrations for Player's Cigarettes (1910)
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Bradley, Ian. The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1996.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).
Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Adventures of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. 14 vols. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Vol. 1.
Dickens, Charles. Pickwick Papers. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 6.
Dickens, Charles. Pickwick Papers Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Bros., 1873.
Guiliano, Edward, and Philip Collins, eds. The Annotated Dickens. 2 vols. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986. Vol. I.
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book Co., 1910.
Kitton, Frederic G. "Hablot K. Browne." Dickens and His Illustrators. Rept. from the 1899 edition. Honolulu: U. Press of the Pacific, 2004. Pp. 58-120.
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.
Created 26 November 2011
Last modified 27 March 2024