Abel Magwitch
J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd")
Watercolour
c. 1900
4.2 x 3 inches (10.5 cm high by 7.6 cm wide)
Dickens's Great Expectations, Garnett edition, frontispiece.
Another plate by the same artist
[Illustrations of this novel by other artists]
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow, with images and text below added by Philip V. Allingham. [Click on all the images to enlarge them, and mouse over the text for links.]
Passage Illustrated: Pip's Initial Churchyard Encounter with the Escaped Convict
“Hold your noise!” cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. “Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!”
A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared, and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.
“Oh! Don’t cut my throat, sir,” I pleaded in terror. “Pray don’t do it, sir.” [Household Edition, Chapter One, page 2]
Related Material: Abel Magwitch in Other Illustrated Editions
- Illustrations of Abel Magwitch in Dickens's Great Expectations
- Abel Magwitch: A Chronology of the Step-father in Dickens's Great Expectations
Other editions' illustrations for this same chapter (1860-1910)
Left: Pip and the Convict, frontispiece for the 1867 Diamond Edition by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Centre: In the first American serialisation, periodical illustrator John McLenan introduces the action with Pip, seated and almost transfixed: "You young dog!" said the man, licking his lips at me, "What fat cheeks you ha' got!" (24 November 1860). Right: Harry Furniss's lithographic depiction of the encounter is far more violent and sensational: Pip's Struggle with the Escaped Convict, in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), Vol. 14.
Left: F. W. Pailthorpe's "Terrible Stranger in the Churchyard." Right: H. M. Brock's "I made bold to say 'I am glad you enjoy it'".
Other Artists’ Illustrations for Dickens's Great Expectations
- F. A. Fraser (28 plates selected, 1876)
- Edward Ardizzone (2 plates selected)
- H. M. Brock (8 lithographs)
- Felix O. C. Darley (8 plates, 1867)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (8 wood engravings)
- Marcus Stone (8 wood engravings, 1862)
- John McLenan (40 wood engravings, 1861)
- Harry Furniss (28 plates, 1910)
- Charles Green (10 lithographs, 1898)
- Frederic W. Pailthorpe (21 lithographs)
Bibliography
Allingham, Philip V. "The Illustrations for Great Expectations in Harper's Weekly (1860-61) and in the Illustrated Library Edition (1862) — 'Reading by the Light of Illustration'." Dickens Studies Annual, Vol. 40 (2009): 113-169.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Illustrated by F. A. Fraser. The Household Edition. 22 volumes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876. Vo1. 11.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Volume 19 of the Edition de Grande Luxe. Ed. Richard Garnett. London: Merrill and Baker, 1900.
Created 26 February 2004
Last modified 29 June 2025