Doctor Marigold

E. G. Dalziel

1868

Wood engraving

Framed, 13.8 x 9.1 cm

Facing II, 88, in The Illustrated Library Edition of Dickens's Works, Christmas Stories.

The 1865 Christmas framed tale Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions contained the introduction and conclusion by Dickens himself, as well as one of the inset stories, "To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt" (since reprinted in Two Ghost Stories as "The Trial for Murder" — and further extraneous material by his staff-writers at All the Year Round as the stories that her adoptive father writes for the deaf-and-dumb child. Thus, the story as it originally appeared on 12 December 1865 was a collaborative effort by his staffers. [Commentary continued below.]

[Click on image to enlarge it, and mouse over to find links.]