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Scrooge and The Ghost
Sol Eytinge, Jr.
Wood engraving
10 cm high by 7.5 cm wide (framed)
Illustration for Dickens's Christmas Books and Sketches by Boz Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People in the Ticknor & Fields (Boston, 1867; rpt., 1875) Diamond Edition.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost.
"I don't." said Scrooge.
"What evidence would you have of my reality, beyond that of your senses?"
"I don't know," said Scrooge. . . .
At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise, that Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself from falling in a swoon. But how much greater was his horror, when the phantom taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast!
Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face. [Stave One, "Marley's Ghost," 12]
The illustration responds both to this specific, highly dramatic passage but also to the original John Leech illustration of 1843, Marley's Ghost. Realizing the small scale of the 1867 wood-engraving could not communicate Scrooge's horror or the terrifying nature of the apparition, Eytinge reworked the image for the 1868 single volume edition's Marley's Ghost. This, one of the most dramatic moments in the text, has been the subject of a number of illustrations:
Left: Charles Green's cinematic version of the same scene, Marley's Ghost (1915). Centre: John Leech's caricatural interpretation of Scrooge's encounter with the shade of his partner, dead some seven years, in Marley's Ghost (1843). Centre: Harry Furniss's more whimsical version of the same scene in the Charles Dickens Library Edition, Marley's Ghost (1910).
Left: C. E. Brock's portrait of a more genial Marley: Tailpiece to Stave One: Jacob Marley (1905). Centre: Barnard's Marley's Ghost (1878). Right: Rackham's "How now," said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever, "What do you want with me?" (1915).
Above: Abbey's atmospheric "Marley's Ghost" (1876)..
Above: Furniss's thumbnail of Marley's Ghost, Scrooge, and the expansive Spirit of Christmas Present from the top register of Characters in the Story, the engraved title-page of the 1910 edition.
Eytinge's presenting Scrooge on his knees, entreating the spectre to cease making that "dismal and appalling noise" (12) distinguishes his portrayal of the scene; in other words, Eytinge is not interested in Scrooge's initial reaction to the ghost of Jacob Marley, but in that moment when the spirit exerts his supernatural powers. However, given the dimensions of the illustration, Eytinge has been less than effective in his depiction of the fetters, with their "cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses" (11). Although an unconvincing, skeleton-faced Marley woodenly raises his arms, rather than shakes his chains, Scrooge's contrition seems quite genuine. Rethinking this illustraftion in 1868, Eytinge reversed the position of the two figures, including more furnishings and the fireplace, and, more significantly, presented the ghost far more effectively as he rattles his chains before an appalled Scrooge.
Dickens, Charles. Christmas Books and Sketches by Boz Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Rpt., Boston: James R. Osgood, 1875.
Dickens, Charles. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1878.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol in Prose: being a ghost story of Christmas. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1869 [1868].
Winter, William. "Charles Dickens" and "Sol Eytinge." Old Friends: Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard, & Co., 1909. 181-207, 317-319.
29 November 2013
Last modified 5 March 2020