Miss Trotwood and Mr. Dick

Sol Eytinge

Wood engraving

10 high x 7.6 cm wide

Seventh 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 seventh illustration makes visual allusion to Phiz's original conception of Mr. Dick, but offers a Betsey Trotwood who is not a mere caricature. Both figures are realistically modelled, but Eytinge has included the object that David consistently identifies with the well-meaning but muddled Mr. Dick, his magnificent kite:

"What do you think of that for a kite?" he said.

I answered that it was a beautiful one. I should think it must have been as much as seven feet high.

"I made it. We'll go and fly it, you and I," said Mr. Dick. . . . .

His face was so very mild and pleasant, and had something so reverend in it, though it was hale and hearty, that I was not sure but that he was having a good-humored jest with me. [Ch. 15, "My Aunt Makes up Her Mind about Me," p. 115]

Only after this dialogue does David descend to the ground floor of his aunt's cottage and discuss her companion's gentle lunacy, which she charitably construes as eccentricity rather than madness. Thus, David acquires yet another unconventional but quite functional family and a new start in life.

Reference

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

---

Last modified 16 January 2011