Mrs. Brown instantly directed the clutch of her right hand at his hair. by W. L. Sheppard. Forty-fourth illustration for Dickens's Dombey and Son in the American Household Edition (1873), Chapter LII, "Secret Intelligence," page 297. Page 297's Heading: "Grinder in Mrs. Brown's Clutches." 10.7 x 13.7 cm (4 ⅛ by 5 ⅜ inches) framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Robbie resists giving up Carker's refuge

“Robby, my child.”

“Well, Misses Brown,” returned the Grinder.

“I say I wonder Master didn’t take you with him, dear.”

“Never you mind, Misses Brown,” returned the Grinder.

Mrs. Brown instantly directed the clutch of her right hand at his hair, and the clutch of her left hand at his throat, and held on to the object of her fond affection with such extraordinary fury, that his face began to blacken in a moment.

“Misses Brown!” exclaimed the Grinder, “let go, will you? What are you doing of? Help, young woman! Misses Brow — Brow —!”

The young woman, however, equally unmoved by his direct appeal to her, and by his inarticulate utterance, remained quite neutral, until, after struggling with his assailant into a corner, Rob disengaged himself, and stood there panting and fenced in by his own elbows, while the old woman, panting too, and stamping with rage and eagerness, appeared to be collecting her energies for another swoop upon him. [Chapter LII, "Secret Intelligence," 296]

Commentary: An Unlikely Coalition — Mrs. Brown, Alice Marwood, and Mr. Dombey

Dombey's desire to track Carker to his Continental lair and exact deadly vengeance nicely coincides with the schemes of Alice Marwood and Mrs. Brown to locate the villainous manager and turn a profit by strategic marketing of the information. As her customer, whom Sheppard shows only as a mysterious, darkened profile, listens at the partially opened door, Mrs. Brown suddenly loses patience and determines to wrest the valuable information from Carker's houseboy by force. Completely detached emotionally, perhaps because she expects her mother's tactics will be effective, Alice calmly studies the assault, ignoring Rob's pleas for her intervention. The key feature of Mrs. Bown's ill-furnished hovel in Sheppard's illustration is the bottle of gin on the cabinet-top. A single candle illuminates the scene, highlighting the faces of the three principals while the chiaroscuro throws the margins into atmospheric, menacing darkness. As soon as the Grinder gives up Carker's place of refuge, the shadowy listener will unleash the equally dark forces that will bring him down.

Other Studies of The Grinder communicating his secret from other editions (1848-1910)

Left: Phiz's serial illustration of the same scene: Secret Intelligence (Ch. 52, February 1848). Centre: Harry Furniss's depiction of the scene in which Rob the Grinder betrays Carker's location to Mrs. Brown and her vengeful daughter: Mrs. Brown and D. I. J. O. N. (1910). Right: Fred Barnard's dramatisation of the spy's furnishing Dombey's agents with the clue to Carker's destination: D. I. J. O. N. (1877).

Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son (1846-1910)

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

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. L. Sheppard. The Household Edition. 18 vols. New York: Harper & Co., 1873.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862. Vols. 1-4.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. III.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard [62 composite wood-block engravings]. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. With illustrations by  H. K. Browne. The illustrated library Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, c. 1880. II.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 61 wood-engravings. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow, 1900, rpt. 1934. 2 vols. in one.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. IX.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). The Clarendon Edition, ed. Alan Horsman. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.


Created 24 February 2022