“Riderhood Watches the Sleeping Bradley” — Harry Furniss's twenty-third illustration for “Our Mutual Friend” (1910)

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Riderhood Watches the Sleeping Bradley

Harry Furniss

1910

14.7 cm x 9.5 cm, or 5 ¾ by 3 ¾ inches, framed

The Charles Dickens Library Edition, Vol. XV, Book 4, “A Turning,” Chapter I, “Setting Traps,” facing 673.

Riderhood sat down again, and feigned to watch the storm from the window. It was a grand spectacle, but not sop great as to keep his eyes, for half a minute together, from stealing a look at man upon the bed. — Our Mutual Friend, p. 667.

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Passage Illustrated: Riderhood in the Darkness and Thunder Contemplates the Sleeper

Riderhood sat down in his wooden arm-chair, and looked through the window at the lightning, and listened to the thunder. But, his thoughts were far from being absorbed by the thunder and the lightning, for again and again and again he looked very curiously at the exhausted man upon the bed. The man had turned up the collar of the rough coat he wore, to shelter himself from the storm, and had buttoned it about his neck. Unconscious of that, and of most things, he had left the coat so, both when he had laved his face in the river, and when he had cast himself upon the bed; though it would have been much easier to him if he had unloosened it.

The thunder rolled heavily, and the forked lightning seemed to make jagged rents in every part of the vast curtain without, as Riderhood sat by the window, glancing at the bed. Sometimes, he saw the man upon the bed, by a red light; sometimes, by a blue; sometimes, he scarcely saw him in the darkness of the storm; sometimes he saw nothing of him in the blinding glare of palpitating white fire. Anon, the rain would come again with a tremendous rush, and the river would seem to rise to meet it, and a blast of wind, bursting upon the door, would flutter the hair and dress of the man, as if invisible messengers were come around the bed to carry him away. From all these phases of the storm, Riderhood would turn, as if they were interruptions — rather striking interruptions possibly, but interruptions still — of his scrutiny of the sleeper. [Book Four, Chapter I, “Setting Traps,” 667]

Commentary: Meanwhile, at Plashwater Mill with its Keeper, Rogue Riderhood

Previous illustrated editions had offered Furniss several picturesque models of the Plashwater Weir-Mill Lock, where Riderhood has become the toll-keeper and lock-master. However, Mahoney focussed on the incident between Eugene Rayburn, rowing upriver, perhaps to meet Lizzie Hexam, and Rogue Riderhood. Following him is Bradley Headstone, dressing in the very clothing that Riderhood customarily wears. For the Household Edition (1875) Mahoney's treatment of the textual material is once again his response to the original series of illustrations by young Marcus Stone, Dickens's 1860s serial illustrator. However, here, Furniss abandons the picturesque treatment of Mahoney for the more psychological aspects of the sordid pair in the serial illustration In the Lock Keeper's House. Mahoney had utilized certain details of setting in Not to be Shaken Off (November 1865) and, for a viable portrait of Rogue Riderhood at this point, had used In the Lock-Keeper's House (August 1865). Although he abandons the external scene at the mill for realisation, Furniss is clearly drawing on all the earlier portraits of Rogue Riderhood and Bradley Headstone.

What distinguishes Furniss's treatment from Stone's, apart from his far more modern, staccato style, is his adapting the Dark Plate technique which Phiz had developed in steel-engraving and used to such great effect in Bleak House (March 1852 through September 1853). As with those earlier steel dark plates, here Furniss extensively employs deep shadows and a limited tonal range to convey a sense of gloom, suspense, and mystery. In particular, the foregrounding of the brooding Rogue Riderhood implies Bradley Headstone's impending doom. As opposed to the intense biting in necessary to create a dark plate with steel engraving, here Furniss has employed curving cross-hatching behind the thoughtful Riderhood and the sleeping guest to suggest a dark foreboding. Subtly, Furniss also emphasizes the powerful body under the pea-jacket to imply that Riderhood can easily overpower the younger man, diminished on the truckle-bed, should he choose to do so. Against the menacing darkness and the formidable body of the lock-keeper Furniss employs convincing details: the stab of light (left) suggesting a sudden burst of lightning ("the blinding glare of palpitating white fire," 666), the coat buttoned across the sleeper's neck, Headstone's arm drooping towards the floor, and Riderhood "in a brown study" (667), fixedly gazing on the bony sleeper. Neither writer nor illustrator reveals precisely what plan the physically formidable Riderhood is formulating, seated uneasily in that very solid, very believable wooden armchair.

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

Left: Marcus Stone's initial serial plate for the August 1865 (sixteenth) number: In the Lock Keeper's House (Book IV, Chapter 1) suggests that it was the basis for Furniss's illustration. Centre: Mahoney's version of the picturesque scene at the weir-lock: Rogue Riderhood recognised his “T'Other Governor,” Mr. Eugene Wrayburn in the same chapter. Right: Felix Octavius Carr Darley's portrait of Riderhood as the lock-keeper, shadowing Bradley Headstone, On the Track (1866). Right: [Click on these 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)

Related Material: Dark Plates for Dickens and Lever

Bibliography

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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. Bleak House. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). London: Bradbury & Evans. Bouverie Street, 1853.

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.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U.P., 1978. [discussion of dark plate etchings; e-text in Victorian Web.]

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 13 August 2025