Significant British Programs of Illustration Prior to Fred Barnard's

Whereas across the Atlantic both Sol Eytinge, Jr. and Felix Octavius Carr Darley had illustrated this early Dickens novel, in Great Britain the work's principal illustrator prior to the Household Edition volume of 1875 had been Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). As became his habit, Dickens had provided his principal illustrator with highly specific directions for the thirty-nine illustrations issued over the twenty-month serialisation. Barnard had the additional benefit of Phiz's friendship, so that he would have learned much about the development of the 1838-39 series of steel-engravings from the original illustrator himself.

However, as a Bozophile Barnard probably was aware of the existence of some post-serialisation illustrations, beginning with the portrait of Charles Dickens that Finden engraved from a portrait of twenty-seven-year-old author by Daniel Maclise for the first edition's frontispiece (issued in October 1839). As a sort of road map to the picaresque story, Barnard would have consulted the fanciful and exuberant monthly wrapper. He probably had also seen and studied the extra illustrations that appeared as Chapman and Hall issued the cheap editions and the Illustrated Library Edition.

Commentary: From the "Introductory Note" to Scenes and Characters from Dickens (1908)

Commissioned by Dickens's chief publishers, Chapman and Hall, to illustrate a wholly new, uniform edition of his works, were leading British illustrators of the sixties, led by Fred Barnard, but including

Related material, including front matter and sketches, by other illustrators

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Bibliography

Barnard, J. "Fred" (il.). Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, with fifty-nine illustrations. The Works of Charles Dickens: The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1875. Volume 15. Rpt. 1890.

Barnard, Fred, et al. Scenes and Characters from Dickens. London: Chapman & Hall, 1908.

Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.

_________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862. Vols. 1-4.

_________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 39 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). London: Chapman & Hall, 1839.

_______. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. With fifty-two illustrations by C. S. Reinhart. The Household Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1875. I.

_________. Nicholas Nickleby. With 59 illustrations by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman & Hall, 1875. XV.

_________. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. IV.

_________ , and Fred Barnard. The Dickens Souvenir Book. London: Chapman & Hall, 1912.

Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 12: Nicholas Nickleby." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Co., 1910. XVII. Pp. 147-170.

Kitton, Frederic George. Dickens and His Illustrators: Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Landseer, Palmer, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes. Amsterdam: S. Emmering, 1972. Re-print of the London 1899 edition.

Lester Valerie Browne. Chapter 8., "Travels with Boz." Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. 58-69.

Schlicke, Paul, ed. The Oxford Reader'sCompanion to Dickens. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1999.

Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 14-50.

Vann, J. Don. "Nicholas Nickleby." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1985. 63.


Last modified 29 January 2021