"Again he took both my hands and put them to his lips" by A. A. Dixon for "Great Expectations" (1905)

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Again he took both my hands and put them to his lips

A. A. Dixon

1905

Watercolour reproduced by lithography

12.8 cm high x 8.5 cm wide

Illustration for the Collins Pocket Edition, facing the title-page

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. ]

Passage Illustrated

"Look'ee here!" he went on, taking my watch out of my pocket, and turning towards him a ring on my finger, while I recoiled from his touch as if he had been a snake, "a gold 'un and a beauty: that's a gentleman's, I hope! A diamond all set round with rubies; that's a gentleman's, I hope! Look at your linen; fine and beautiful! Look at your clothes; better ain't to be got! And your books too," turning his eyes round the room, "mounting up, on their shelves, by hundreds! And you read 'em; don’t you? I see you'd been a reading of 'em when I come in. Ha, ha, ha! You shall read 'em to me, dear boy! And if they're in foreign languages wot I don't understand, I shall be just as proud as if I did."

Again he took both my hands and put them to his lips, while my blood ran cold within me.

"Don't you mind talking, Pip," said he, after again drawing his sleeve over his eyes and forehead, as the click came in his throat which I well remembered — and he was all the more horrible to me that he was so much in earnest; "you can't do better nor keep quiet, dear boy. You ain't looked slowly forward to this as I have; you wosn't prepared for this, as I wos. But didn't you never think it might be me?"

"O no, no, no," I returned, "Never, never!" [Chapter 39, page 381]

Commentary

American illustrator Felix O. C. Darley's treatment of both the convict and his adopted son in this "reunion" scene is far more subtle than that of A. A. Dixon in the 1905 Collins' Pocket Edition, in which the illustrator depicts both the youth's extreme aversion at having physical contact with the convict, and the older man's beseeching look of devotion. However, despite the melodramatic overtones, Dixon's modelling of the figures and detailing of Pip's somewhat cluttered study (full of books and indications of affluence such as the furnishings and portrait on the wall) are as convincing as Darley's, although the 1905 lithograph lacks the sharpness and selectivity of the 1861 photogravure plate with its subtle effects of interior lighting and the emphasis on the contrast between the young, fashionably dressed Pip and the older, rough-and-ready traveller from Australia.

Pertinent Illustrations in Other Editions: 1876, 1885, 1903, 1910, and 1939

Left: Edward Ardizzone's "Pip has a visitor by night (1939). Center: F. A. Fraser's "I rose out of my chair, and stood with my hand upon the back of it" (1876). Right: F. W. Pailthorpe's "On the Stairs" (1885). [Click on images to enlarge them.]

Left: Charles Green's "I made him some hot rum-and-water" (1897). Center: F. O. C. Darley's "The Convict's Return" (1861). Right: Harry Furniss's "Provis" (1910). [Click on images to enlarge them.]

References

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. John McLenan. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization 4 (8 December 1860): 773.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. F. O. C. Darley. Volume 1. The Household Edition. New York: James G. Gregory, 1861.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. John McLenan. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson, 1861.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. Marcus Stone. The Illustrated Library Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1864.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. Sol Eytinge, Junior. Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. F. A. Fraser. Volume 6 of the Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. F. W. Pailthorpe. London: Robson & Kerslake, 23 Coventry Street, Haymarket, 1885.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. Charles Green. Gadshill Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. H. M. Brock. Imperial Edition. 16 vols. London: Gresham Publishing Company [34 Southampton Street, The Strand, London], 1901-3.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. A. A. Dixon. Collins Pocket Edition. London and Glasgow: Collins' Clear-Type Press, 1905.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol 14.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Il. Edward Ardizzone. Heritage Edition. New York: Heritage Press, 1939.

Last modified 24 February 2014