Out and Out Young Gentlemen and the lithographic version of the same, from the 1903 Chapman and Hall edition of Sketches by Boz. — Phiz's second of six illustrations for Charles Dickens's Sketches of Young Gentlemen (1838). Steel engraving for Chapter II, "Out-and-Out Young Gentlemen," pp. 8-13. 10.8 cm high by 8.8 cm wide (4 ¼ by 3 ⅜ inches), facing p. 8, vignetted. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Passage Illustrated: Out-and-out Young Bourgeoisie Lounging in the London Streets
The materially out-and-out young gentleman is employed in a city counting-house or solicitor’s office, in which he does as little as he possibly can: his chief places of resort are, the streets, the taverns, and the theatres. In the streets at evening time, out-and-out young gentlemen have a pleasant custom of walking six or eight abreast, thus driving females and other inoffensive persons into the road, which never fails to afford them the highest satisfaction, especially if there be any immediate danger of their being run over, which enhances the fun of the thing materially. [Chapter II, "The Out-and-Out Young Gentleman," 9]
Commentary: Fashionable but Callous Youths "Taking it to the Street"
Phiz does not merely realize "six or eight" young swells wearing wide-brimmed hats and lounging in the street; rather, he depicts a dramatic moment when the idlers have driven a middle-aged, obviously middle-class female into the street, where she has lost control of her miniature dog and is about to be run over by a horse pulling a wagon. The driver yanks back on the reins just as the horse is about to knock the woman and her maid off their feet, much to the amusement of their cigar-smoking, ash-stick-wielding observers. Thus, Phiz has subtly made the loungers more menacing and less sensitive about how their thoughtless conduct impacts others in the street.
Scanned images and texts 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
Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens: A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990.
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
Caswell, Edward. Sketches of Young Ladies: In Which These Interesting Members of the Animal Kingdom Are Classified, According to Their Several Instincts. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 31 December 1836.
Dickens, Charles. Sketches of Young Couples. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1840.
Dickens, Charles. Sketches of Young Gentlemen. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman and Hall, 1838.
Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.
Bentley, Nicholas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. "Sketches of Young Couples." The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. P. 237.
Steig, Michael. Chapter Two: "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-85.
Created 9 May 2023