"Ralph makes one last appointment — and keeps it" Photogravure dark plate. 1912. 12.3 cm wide by 9.2 cm high, vignetted. Volume V, page 901 in Dickens's Nicholas Nickelby in the Co-operative Publication Society Edition. Based on an earlier plate by Fred Barnard in the Household Edition (1875). [Terry-Lynn Johnson Collection]
Passage Illustrated: Ralph Nickleby Brought to Desperation
He spoke no more; but, after a pause, softly groped his way out of the room, and up the echoing stairs — up to the top — to the front garret — where he closed the door behind him, and remained.
It was a mere lumber-room now, but it yet contained an old dismantled bedstead; the one on which his son had slept; for no other had ever been there. He avoided it hastily, and sat down as far from it as he could.
The weakened glare of the lights in the street below, shining through the window which had no blind or curtain to intercept it, was enough to show the character of the room, though not sufficient fully to reveal the various articles of lumber, old corded trunks and broken furniture, which were scattered about. It had a shelving roof; high in one part, and at another descending almost to the floor. It was towards the highest part that Ralph directed his eyes; and upon it he kept them fixed steadily for some minutes, when he rose, and dragging thither an old chest upon which he had been seated, mounted on it, and felt along the wall above his head with both hands. At length, they touched a large iron hook, firmly driven into one of the beams. [Chapter LXII, "Ralph Makes One Last Appointment — And Keeps It"]
- See Ralph makes one last appointment — and keeps it in the 1875 Household Edition
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
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. Vol. XV. Rpt. 1890.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Ed. Andrew Lang. Illustrated by 'Phiz' (Hablot Knight Browne). The Gadshill Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897. 2 vols.
Dickens, Charles. Works. Nicholas Nickleby. Photogravure-Illustrated Edition. New York and London: Co-operative Publication Society, [n. d., 1912?].
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book, 1910.
Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 24-50.
Vann, J. Don. "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, twenty parts in nineteen monthly installments, April 1838-October 1839." New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. 63.
Created 12 August 2012
Last modified 21 January 2025