“What a good little thing you are, my dear!”
Arthur A. Dixon
1906
Lithographic reproduction of a watercolour
12.2 cm high by 8.1 cm wide (4 ⅞ by 3 ¼ inches), framed.
Fourth illustration for Little Dorrit, Collins' Pocket Edition (1906), facing p. 286, referencing p. 287.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Passage Illustrated: Kind-Hearted Flora Finching, Clennam's Former Fianceé
Flora was so sorry to have kept her waiting, and good gracious why did she sit out there in the cold when she had expected to find her by the fire reading the paper, and hadn’t that heedless girl given her the message then, and had she really been in her bonnet all this time, and pray for goodness sake let Flora take it off! Flora taking it off in the best-natured manner in the world, was so struck with the face disclosed, that she said, ‘Why, what a good little thing you are, my dear!’ and pressed her face between her hands like the gentlest of women.
It was the word and the action of a moment. Little Dorrit had hardly time to think how kind it was, when Flora dashed at the breakfast-table full of business, and plunged over head and ears into loquacity. [Chapter XXIV, “Fortune-Telling,” pp. 286-287]
Commentary: Introducing Flora Finching
Pertinent illustrations in five other editions: 1857, 1863, 1867, 1873. and 1910
Left: Harry Furniss's treatment of the odd couple: Mistress Affery's Alarm, for Chapter 17 in the 1910 edition. Centre: Phiz's original serial illustration which introduces the ill-sorted couple, Mr. and Mrs. Flintwich (April 1856). Right: Furniss's detailed dual portraitof two of the novel's most negative characters: Jeremiah Flintwich and Mrs. Clennam, for Book I, Chapter 5, "Family Affairs," in the 1910 Charles Dickens Library edition.
Pertinent Diamond and Household Edition Illustrations, 1863-73
Left: Felix Octavius Carr Darley frontispiece for the fourth "Household" Edition volume (1863), Closing in — Book II, Ch. XXX. Right: Sol Eytinge, Junior's study in contrasts, Mr. and Mrs. Flintwinch (1867). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: James Mahoney's Household Edition illustration for Book Two, Ch. 23, in which Arthur Clennam has Affery conduct Flora Finching on a tour of the old, decaying mansion, "You can't be afraid of seeing anything in this darkness, Affery." (1873) [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Related Material: The Other Illustrated Editions (1863 — 1910)
- Illustrations by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne) for Little Dorrit (December 1855 — June 1857)
- James Mahoney's 58 illustrations for Dickens's Little Dorrit (1873)
- Harry Furniss's 29 illustrations for Dickens's Little Dorrit (1910)
- Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit (1857): Site Map
- Felix Octavius Carr Darley — three engraved frontispieces, volumes 1, 2, and 4: 1863)
- Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr. — 16 plates from the Ticknor and Fields' Diamond Edition (1867)
Bibliography
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Authentic Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901 [rpt. 30 May 1857 volume].
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1873. Vol. V.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by A. A. Dixon. With an engraved title by Harry Furniss. London and Glasgow: Collins Clear-Type Press, 1906.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. XII.
Created 7 September 2026