“An Interview with Mr. Eugene Wrayburn” by Harry Furniss — ninth illustration for “Our Mutual Friend” (1910)

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An Interview with Mr. Eugene Wrayburn

Harry Furniss

1910

13.7 cm x 9 cm, or 5 ½ by 3 ½ inches, vignetted

Dickens's Our Mutual Friend, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, for Book 2, “Birds of a Feather,” Chapter VI, “A Riddle without an Answer,” facing XV, 289.

Young Charlie Hexam threw up his arm with an angry start. Composedly smoking, Eugene leaned an elbow on the chimneypiece, and looked at the schoolmaster. It was a cruel look, in its cold disdain. Bradley Headstone looked at him also with a cruel look, but it had a raging jealousy and fiery wrath in it. — Our Mutual, p. 299.

[Click on the images on this page to enlarge them.]

Passage Illustrated: A Study in Class Contrasts

‘You recollect this young fellow, Eugene?’ said Mortimer.

‘Let me look at him,’ returned Wrayburn, coolly. ‘Oh, yes, yes. I recollect him!’

He had not been about to repeat that former action of taking him by the chin, but the boy had suspected him of it, and had thrown up his arm with an angry start. Laughingly, Wrayburn looked to Lightwood for an explanation of this odd visit.

‘He says he has something to say.’

‘Surely it must be to you, Mortimer.’

‘So I thought, but he says no. He says it is to you.’

‘Yes, I do say so,’ interposed the boy. ‘And I mean to say what I want to say, too, Mr. Eugene Wrayburn!’

Passing him with his eyes as if there were nothing where he stood, Eugene looked on to Bradley Headstone. With consummate indolence, he turned to Mortimer, inquiring: ‘And who may this other person be?’

‘I am Charles Hexam’s friend,’ said Bradley; ‘I am Charles Hexam’s schoolmaster.’

‘My good sir, you should teach your pupils better manners,’ returned Eugene.

Composedly smoking, he leaned an elbow on the chimneypiece, at the side of the fire, and looked at the schoolmaster. It was a cruel look, in its cold disdain of him, as a creature of no worth. The schoolmaster looked at him, and that, too, was a cruel look, though of the different kind, that it had a raging jealousy and fiery wrath in it.

Very remarkably, neither Eugene Wrayburn nor Bradley Headstone looked at all at the boy. Through the ensuing dialogue, those two, no matter who spoke, or whom was addressed, looked at each other. There was some secret, sure perception between them, which set them against one another in all ways. [Book Two, “Birds of a Feather”; Chapter VI, “A Riddle without an Answer,” pp. 298-299]

Commentary: Furniss's Capturing the Essence of an Emotionally Fraught Interview

Here, Furniss seems to be responding to Marcus Stone's original serial illustration of the confrontation between the student, Charley Hexam, and his mentor with the attorneys in their chambers. Furniss's plate requires the reader to take a proleptic approach, for the lithograph occurs ten pages ahead of the scene in the letter-press. Although the placement may be purely accidental, it alerts readers well in advance as to the significance of the scene, particularly in terms of its introducing the neurotic schoolmaster. But what, the reader wonders for ten pages, is the issue that has brought these characters together?

For some time, Lightwood has been wondering about has been bothering his friend and partner, Wrayburn. The contentious interview now reveals the cause: Eugene's relationship with the boy's older sister, nineteen-year-old Lizzie, the other child of the rough Thames waterman, Gaffer. Through her labour, she has enabled Charley to go to school. The plate and text realised make it plain that Charley's master, Bradley Headstone, has a romantic interest in Lizzie, too. The plate's composition also makes it plain that Charley is the dominating figure, for the young rebel is intent upon terminating what he fears are the gentleman's intentions to exploit his sister sexually. Both Wrayburn and Headstone remain enigmatic.

Relevant Illustrations in the Original, Diamond, and Household Editions (1864-1875)

Above: Marcus Stone's second November 1864 plate, realising the scene in the young lawyers' chambers: Forming the Domestic Virtues. (Part 7).

Left: James Mahoney's introduction of Headstone and Charley Hexam in Book Two, Chapter 1: Mr. Bradley Headstone, highly certificated stipendiary schoolmaster, drew his right fore-finger through one of the button-holes of the boy's coat, and looked at it attentively (p. 94, Household Edition, 1875). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s study of the teacher reveals his neurotic nature as he studies the viewer: Bradley Headstone and Charley Hexam for Book Two, Chapter 1, in the Diamond Edition (1867). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Related Materials

Illustrations by Marcus Stone (40 plates from the Chapman and Hall edition of May 1864 through November 1865)
Frontispieces by Octavius Carr Darley (4 photogravures from the Hurd and Houghton Household Edition of 1866)
Illustrations by Sol Eytinge, Jr. (16 plates from the Ticknor and Fields' Diamond Edition of 1867)
James Mahoney (58 plates from the Chapman and Hall Household Edition of 1875)
Harry Furniss (28 lithographs from the Charles Dickens Library Edition, Vol. XV, 1910)
Clayton J. Clarke (two studies from his designs for the Player's Cigarette Cards, 1910)

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Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

The Characters of Charles Dickens Pourtrayed in a Series of Original Water Colour Sketches by “Kyd.” London, Paris, and New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1898[?].

Cordery, Gareth, and Joseph S. Meisel, eds. The Humours of Parliament: Harry Furniss's View of Late-Victorian Culture. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2014. [Review by Françoise Baillet]

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Marcus Stone [40 composite wood-block engravings]. The Authentic Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. 21 vols. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1901 [based on the original nineteen-month serial and the two-volume edition of 1865]. Vol. XIV.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. VIII.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by James Mahoney. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume IX.

Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. XV.

Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 21: The Other Novels." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. Vol. XVII. 441-442.

Vann, J. Don. "Our Mutual Friend, twenty parts in nineteen monthly instalments, May 1864—November 1865." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985. 74.

Created 2 August 2025