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Passage Anticipated

Thus Paul grew to be nearly five years old. He was a pretty little fellow; though there was something wan and wistful in his small face, that gave occasion to many significant shakes of Mrs. Wickam’s head, and many long-drawn inspirations of Mrs. Wickam’s breath. His temper gave abundant promise of being imperious in after-life; and he had as hopeful an apprehension of his own importance, and the rightful subservience of all other things and persons to it, as heart could desire. He was childish and sportive enough at times, and not of a sullen disposition; but he had a strange, old-fashioned, thoughtful way, at other times, of sitting brooding in his miniature arm-chair, when he looked (and talked) like one of those terrible little Beings in the Fairy tales, who, at a hundred and fifty or two hundred years of age, fantastically represent the children for whom they have been substituted. He would frequently be stricken with this precocious mood upstairs in the nursery; and would sometimes lapse into it suddenly, exclaiming that he was tired: even while playing with Florence, or driving Miss Tox in single harness. But at no time did he fall into it so surely, as when, his little chair being carried  down into his father’s room, he sat there with him after dinner, by the fire. They were the strangest pair at such a time that ever firelight shone upon. Mr Dombey so erect and solemn, gazing at the glare; his little image, with an old, old face, peering into the red perspective with the fixed and rapt attention of a sage. Mr Dombey entertaining complicated worldly schemes and plans; the little image entertaining Heaven knows what wild fancies, half-formed thoughts, and wandering speculations. Mr Dombey stiff with starch and arrogance; the little image by inheritance, and in unconscious imitation. The two so very much alike, and yet so monstrously contrasted. [Chapter 8, "Paul’s Further Progress, Growth and Character," page 95]

Commentary

Present in the margins of the title-page for Dombey and Son are several dozen characters, but one character stands out by virtue his position: little Paul, perched in an armchair chair, top centre. Among the other most recognizable figures among the thumbnails are Captain Cuttle and Major Bagstock — Paul's father is so pallid a character that among the memorable personages of the novel he does not stand out. However, Furniss does not. Furniss reiterates the presiding figure of Characters in the Story to underscore his importance in the story, both to his father and his sister, Florence. Furniss renders Dombey a statue on a throne, in contrast to the puzzled and inquisitive little boy sitting beside his uncommunicative, unemotional father. Paul's last appearance in the narrative-pictorial sequence occurs relatively early in the novel,in Chapter XV, Mr. Dombey at Paul's Sick-bed, but through Florence and the novel's very title he continues to make his presence felt.

Although the original series of steel-engravings by Phiz has several likenesses of Paul Dombey, most notably Paul and Miss Pipchin (Chapter 8), the same moment that Furniss has realised occurs in the Household Edition volume, in which the boy and his father are sitting in front of the fire after dinner in the same relationship to one another. It seems likely, then, that Furniss, having studied the earlier illustrations, settled upon this textual and narrative-pictorial moment as the one most appropriate for preparing the reader for the novel's characters and situations.

Relevant Illustrations from Other Editions (1846-1910)

Left: John Leech's cartoon Lord Russell as Paul Dombey (August 1847). Centre: Phiz's original fireside scene: Paul and Mrs. Pipchin (Dec., 1846). Right: W. H. C. Groome's derivative study of the father and son before the fire: "Papa! What's money?" (1900).

Left: Fred Barnard's Household Edition illustration of the father and son: Dombey and Son (1877). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s frontispiece for the novel: Dombey and Son (1867).

Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son

• Dombey and Son (homepage)
• Phiz's Illustrations for Dombey and Son, Wholesale Retail & for Exportation (Oct. 1846 - April 1848)
• O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 1, 1862)
• O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1862)
• O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1862)
• Sol Eytinge, Junior's 16 Diamond Edition Illustrations (1867)
• Fred Barnard (61 plates from the Chapman and Hall Household Edition of 1872)
• W. H. C. Groome's eight illustrators for the Collins Pocket Edition (1900)
• Kyd's five Player's Cigarette Cards for , 1910

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. Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. 9.

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Created 29 November 2019

Last modified 14 February 2021