Mr. and Miss Murdstone and Mrs. Copperfield

Sol Eytinge

Wood engraving

10.2 high x 7.4 cm wide

Second full-page Illustration for Dickens's David Copperfield in the Ticknor and Fields (Boston), 1867, Diamond Edition.

Scanned image 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 photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. ]

The subject of this second illustration is the parental figures in David's childhood: the cruel stepfather, Mr. Murdstone, his cold, unfeeling sister, Jane Murdstone, and David's well-meaning but weak-willed mother, Clara Copperfield. Although the grouping might suggest any one of a number of moments in the first-person, retrospective narrative, an interchange of the facing page may have been what the publisher hadin mind when inserting Eytinge's illustration:

"It's very hard," said my mother, "that in my own house —"

"My own house?" repeated Mr. Murdstone. "Clara!"

"Our own house, I mean," faltered my mother, evidently frightened, — "I hope you must know what I mean, Edward, — it's very hard that in your own hose I may not have a word to say about domestic matters." [Ch. 4, "I Fall into Disgrace," p. 28]

Reference

Dickens, Charles. The Personal History of David Copperfield. Il. Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867.

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Last modified 8 January 2011