“Bella Wilfer and her Fortune” — Harry Furniss's twenty-second illustration for “Our Mutual Friend” (1910)

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Bella Wilfer and her Fortune

Harry Furniss

1910

13.3 cm x 9.0 cm, or 5 ⅜ by 3 ½ inches, vignetted

The Charles Dickens Library Edition, Vol. XV, Book 3, “A Long Lane,” Chapter XVI, “The Feast of The Three Hobgoblins,” facing 640.

“There’s a dear Knave of Wilfers!” exclaimed Bella to her father, then putting out her small white bare foot, “That’s the mark, sir. Come to the mark. Now, sir, you may kiss the lovely woman before she runs away, so thankful and so happy. Oh yes, little fair man!” — Our Mutual Friend, p. 642.

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Passage Illustrated: Bella Returns to Her Father at the Close of the Chapter

‘Yes!’ cried Bella, in high glee, choking him again. ‘He’s the Knave of Wilfers! Dear Pa, the lovely woman means to look forward to this fortune that has been told for her, so delightfully, and to cause it to make her a much better lovely woman than she ever has been yet. What the little fair man is expected to do, sir, is to look forward to it also, by saying to himself when he is in danger of being over-worried, “I see land at last!”

‘I see land at last!’ repeated her father.

‘There’s a dear Knave of Wilfers!’ exclaimed Bella; then putting out her small white bare foot, ‘That’s the mark, sir. Come to the mark. Put your boot against it. We keep to it together, mind! Now, sir, you may kiss the lovely woman before she runs away, so thankful and so happy. O yes, fair little man, so thankful and so happy!’ [Book Three, Chapter XVI, “The Feast of the Three Hobgoblins,” 642]

Commentary: Bella’s Moral Rehabilitation Complete with “The Three Goblins”

Although Furniss had several useful models from previous editions, he has outdone them by making his figures, Bella and R. W., so much more animated. Yet in foregrounding his principals in the renion he has left out both John Harmon and any significant background details that would establish the setting; and however delightful one finds the animated figure of the joyful father, one cannot escape the feeling that Furniss's rendering Bella as a youthful beauty is somewhat dated, based as it is on conventional notions about adolescent female beauty at the fin-de-siecle. Moreover, the picture does not complete Bella's moral rehabilitation in that it does not include the “Third Hobgoblin,” her new husband in his right identity at last.

The reader has already encountered the passage illustrated before arriving at the illustration. Bella has left the Boffin mansion after the palpable insult that Boffin has made since his remarks to both the Secretary and his ward have chastised them for abandoning a practical, mercenary approach to the question of a putative relationship. Leaving Portaland Place, Bella's destination in the City that evening had been the counting-house of Chicksey, Veneering, and Stobbes; as she approached, her father came flying out of the office without his hat, embracing her and ushering her in. And who should then turn up but John Rokesmith himself! He reiterated his marriage proposal, which she then accepted, despite Rokesmith's (supposed) lack of fortune or prospects.

But all that has already occurred well before the scene that Furniss has elected to illustrate, for we note that Bella's hair is down and she wears a nightgown.Without any other supporting details, the astute reader must fall back on the dialogue in the caption and the page number cited. Those vital clues guide the reader’s identification of the moment realized, which is not Bella’s seeking out her father at his place of employment. Rather, she, R. W., and John left have left Chicksey, Veneering, and Stobbes’s. Bella and her father, who is delighted that she has abandoned her mercenary principles, have returned to the Wilfer home in Holloway, and broken the news to Mrs. Wilfer (a sour character based here upon Dickens’s own mother, one suspects) that Bella has irrevocably parted from the Boffins. Therefore, this scene at the Wilfer home must occur after a somewhat emotionally fraught dinner during which Mrs. Wilfer makes it clear that she disapproves of Bella’s decision.

Relevant Illustrations in the Serial, Diamond, and Household Editions (1865-1875)

Left: Marcus Stone's second serial plate for the July 1865 (fifteenth) number: The Beautiful Woman Has Her Fortune Told (Book III, Chapter 16). Centre: James Mahoney's version of the scene at the Wilfer home when Bella returns as Mrs. John Harmon: “The cherub, whose hair would have done for itself, under the influence of this amazing spectacle, what Bella had just done for it, staggered back into the window-seat from which he had risen, and surveyed the pair with his eyes dilated to their utmost” in the same chapter. Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s 1867 Diamond Edition version of the father-daughter reunion: The Cherub and the Lovely Woman. [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 1872)
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)

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., 1872. 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.

Kitton, Frederic G. Dickens and His Illustrators. London: George Redway, 1899. Rpt. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2004.

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 11 August 2025