"Suddenly aware that he was in the presence of a stranger, Mr. Ben Allen advanced" — fifty-fourth illustration by Phiz for Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" (British Household Edition, 1874)

Suddenly aware that he was in the presence of a stranger, Mr. Ben Allen advanced by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne). British Household Edition (1874) of Dickens's Pickwick Papers, (See page 354). Engraved by one of the Dalziels for Chapter L, “How Mr. Pickwick sped upon his Mission, and how he was reinforced in the outset by a most unexpected Auxiliary,” positioned on page 369. The composite woodblock illustration is 10.4 cm high by 13.7 cm wide (3 ⅝ by 5 ¼ inches), framed. [Click on image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Pickwick the Peacemaker between Mr. Winkle, Senior, and Ben Allen

Thomas Onwhyn's "extra" illustration Mr. Bob Sawyer whose wit had lain dormant for some minutes, placed his hands upon his knees and made a face after the portraits of the late Mr. Grimaldi as clown. (15 November 1837)

‘Mr. Pickwick, sir, how do you do?’ said Winkle the elder, putting down the candlestick and proffering his hand. ‘Hope I see you well, sir. Glad to see you. Be seated, Mr. Pickwick, I beg, Sir. This gentleman is —’

‘My friend, Mr. Sawyer,’ interposed Mr. Pickwick, ‘your son’s friend.’

‘Oh,’ said Mr. Winkle the elder, looking rather grimly at Bob. ‘I hope you are well, sir.’

‘Right as a trivet, sir,’ replied Bob Sawyer.

‘This other gentleman,’ cried Mr. Pickwick, ‘is, as you will see when you have read the letter with which I am intrusted, a very near relative, or I should rather say a very particular friend of your son’s. His name is Allen.’

‘That gentleman?’ inquired Mr. Winkle, pointing with the card towards Ben Allen, who had fallen asleep in an attitude which left nothing of him visible but his spine and his coat collar.

Mr. Pickwick was on the point of replying to the question, and reciting Mr. Benjamin Allen’s name and honourable distinctions at full length, when the sprightly Mr. Bob Sawyer, with a view of rousing his friend to a sense of his situation, inflicted a startling pinch upon the fleshly part of his arm, which caused him to jump up with a shriek. Suddenly aware that he was in the presence of a stranger, Mr. Ben Allen advanced and, shaking Mr. Winkle most affectionately by both hands for about five minutes, murmured, in some half-intelligible fragments of sentences, the great delight he felt in seeing him, and a hospitable inquiry whether he felt disposed to take anything after his walk, or would prefer waiting ‘till dinner-time;’ which done, he sat down and gazed about him with a petrified stare, as if he had not the remotest idea where he was, which indeed he had not. [Chapter L, “How Mr. Pickwick sped upon his Mission, and how he was reinforced in the outset by a most unexpected Auxiliary,” 354]

Commentary: Pickwick smoothes over the consequences of Winkle's Marrying Arabella

Chapter Fifty begins with Pickwick's expressing his determination to persuade Nathaniel Winkle's father, a Birmingham wharf-owner, that he should accept the fact that his son has married Arabella Allen. At Bristol, having won Ben Allen's and Bob Sawyer's acquiescence in the matter of Arabella's marriage, Pickwick enlists Bob's aid, but Bob insists upon closing the dispensary and accompanying them. After a journey full to overflowing with Bob Sawyer's antics on the roof of the chaise, the trio arrive at the Winkle's Birmingham office, the setting of the present scene.

Thus, although he did not have one of his own steel-engravings to draw upon for this crucial scene, Phiz undoubtedly referred to Onwhyn's treatment, although Dickens himself has regarded Onwhyn as a species of pirate, piggybacking upon Dickens's successes with unsanctioned "extra" illustrations. Unfortunately Phiz's 1874 treatment lacks the character and physical comedy of the Onwhyn original.

Scenes with The Trio on the Road to Birmingham in Other Editions (1837-1910)

Left: Phiz's original engraving for the penultimate instalment of the serial novel, Bob Sawyer's Mode of Travelling (October 1837). Centre: Phiz's Household Edition woodcut reworks his original 1837 steel engraving as Mr. Bob Sawyer was seated: not in the dickey, but on the roof of the chaise (1874). Right: Harry Furniss's humorous revision of an original Phiz illustration of the bibulous physician, Bob Sawyer elevated (1910). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Related Material

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910

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

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 and Checkmark Books, 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).

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. 1.

_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 4.

_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 6.

_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.

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.

Johnannsen, Albert. "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club." Phiz Illustrations from the Novels of Charles Dickens. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1956. Pp. 1-74.

Kitton, Frederic G. Dickens and His Illustrators. 1899. Rpt. Honolulu: U. Press of the Pacific, 2004.

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 11 March 2012

Last modified 7 April 2024