Night found him, at last, still harping on the same theme, and still perusing the same unprofitable reflections
Fred Barnard
1875
13.8 x 10.5 cm (5 ⅜ by 4 ⅛ inches), framed, p. 224. For Chapter 34.
Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, The Household Edition, p. 224.
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
In exact proportion as Ralph Nickleby became conscious of a struggling and lingering regard for Kate, had his detestation of Nicholas augmented. It might be, that to atone for the weakness of inclining to any one person, he held it necessary to hate some other more intensely than before; but such had been the course of his feelings. And now, to be defied and spurned, to be held up to her in the worst and most repulsive colours, to know that she was taught to hate and despise him: to feel that there was infection in his touch, and taint in his companionship — to know all this, and to know that the mover of it all was that same boyish poor relation who had twitted him in their very first interview, and openly bearded and braved him since, wrought his quiet and stealthy malignity to such a pitch, that there was scarcely anything he would not have hazarded to gratify it, if he could have seen his way to some immediate retaliation.
But, fortunately for Nicholas, Ralph Nickleby did not; and although he cast about all that day, and kept a corner of his brain working on the one anxious subject through all the round of schemes and business that came with it, night found him at last, still harping on the same theme, and still pursuing the same unprofitable reflections.
"When my brother was such as he," said Ralph, "the first comparisons were drawn between us — always in my disfavour. He was open, liberal, gallant, gay; I a crafty hunks of cold and stagnant blood, with no passion but love of saving, and no spirit beyond a thirst for gain. I recollected it well when I first saw this whipster; but I remember it better now."
He had been occupied in tearing Nicholas’s letter into atoms; and as he spoke, he scattered it in a tiny shower about him.
"Recollections like these," pursued Ralph, with a bitter smile, "flock upon me — when I resign myself to them — in crowds, and from countless quarters. As a portion of the world affect to despise the power of money, I must try and show them what it is."
And being, by this time, in a pleasant frame of mind for slumber, Ralph Nickleby went to bed. [Chapter XXXIV, "Wherein Mr. Ralph Nickleby is visited by Persons with whom the Reader has been already made acquainted," 222-223]
Both Household Edition illustrators, C. S. Reinhart in New York and Fred Barnard in London, have chosen to focus not on Nicholas's apprehension of his sister's situation through an overheard coffee-house conversation, the scene which Phiz had described in January 1839 serial instalment of the novel (see below). However, whereas Barnard provides a dramatic confrontation of Hawk and Nicholas in the former's carriage, and then follows up with psychological study of the guilt-ridden miser, Reinhart merely shows Hawk's supercilious treatment of the man whom he has wronged.
The placement of the portrait of the Cain-like Ralph, chafing in the darkness of his emotionally barren office under painful recollections of his favoured brother (Nicholas's father) is curious. Although the passage illustrated falls at the close on Chapter 34, the illustration of the self-pitying Ralph faces the third page of the following chapter, as if the editor intended that an analeptic treatment of the wood-cut should reflect upon Nicholas's righteous indignation towards Hawk and his scheming uncle. Nicholas is his father's son in his contempt for baseness. However, the reader has yet to learn of the plot secret surrounding Smike's origins, which may be one of the other subjects upon which Ralph guiltily ruminates, even as Nicholas establishes himself and Smike (in fact, his cousin and Ralph's rejected son) in London.
Left: Phiz's serial illustration depicts Nicholas's learning of the danger to which Ralph Nickleby has exposed his niece: Nicholas Attracted by the Mention of His Sister's Name in the Coffee-Room (January 1839). Right: C. S. Reinhart's illustration in the American Household Edition also communicates Ralph's response to Nicholas's letter: The paper fluttered from his hand and dropped upon the floor. (1875).
Barnard, J. "Fred" (il.). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-nine illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. XV. Rpt. 1890.
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. I.
__________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.
__________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 4.
__________. "Nicholas Nickleby." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, being eight hundred and sixty-six drawings by Fred Barnard et al.. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.
Created 18 September 2021
