"The Characters in the Story" — Furniss's engraved title-page for Dickens's "Barnaby Rudge" (1910)

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The Characters in the Story

Harry Furniss

1910

14.3 x 9.1 cm vignetted

Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, the Charles Dickens Library Edition, VI, facing the frontispiece.

In the Charles Dickens Library Edition, Furniss complements his usual engraved title-page, Characters in the Story, with twenty-nine lively illustrations of the collection's characters and situations. These thumbnail images relate directly to Furniss's full-page illustrations in this volume. [Commentary continues below.]

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Commentary

Furniss has placed in the margins of the illustrated title-page for Barnaby Rudge figures who will appear in the remaining twenty-seven illustrators; these several dozen characters introduce the historical novels's extensive cast. but emphasize the principals. Immediately recognizable in the upper right quadrant is Barnaby himself, holding the Gordon battle-standard. Other characters that stand out by virtue of either position, posture, or size are the drunken Hugh, the obtuse John Willet, and the Romeo-and-Juliet lovers Edward Chester and Emma Haredale (upper left) being admonished by her uncle, Mr. Haredale.

Related Material, Including Other Illustrated Editions of Barnaby Rudge

Charles Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge (homepage)
Cattermole and Phiz — First illustrators: A Team Effort by "The Clock Works" (1841)
Cattermole's Seventeen Illustrations (13 Feb.-27 Nov. 1841)
Phiz's Original Serial Illustrations (13 Feb.-27 Nov. 1841)
F. O. C. Darley's frontispieces and extra illustrations for the novel (1862 and 1888)
Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s Diamond Edition Illustrations (1867)
Fred Barnard's 46 illustrations for the Household Edition (1874)
A. H. Buckland's illustrations for The Collins' Clear-type Press Pocket Edition (1900)

Bibliography

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. Barnaby Rudge in Master Humphrey's Clock. Illustrated by Phiz and George Cattermole. 3 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1841; rpt., Bradbury and Evans, 1849.

________. Barnaby Rudge — A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. VII.

_______. Barnaby Rudge. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. VI.

Steig, Michael. Chapter 3, "From Caricature to Progress: Master Humphrey's Clock and Martin Chuzzlewit." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 51-85.

Stevens, Joan. "'Woodcuts Dropped into the Text': The Illustrations in The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge." Studies in Bibliography. Vol. 20 (1967), 113-134.

Created 27 November 2019

Last modified 14 February 2021