Mr. Nadgett produces the result of his private inquiries. (1872), forty-third illustration by Fred Barnard for Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit (Chapter 38), page 297. The Anglo-Bengalee's private detective, Mr. Nadgett, makes his confidential report to Mr. Montague, formerly "Montague Tigg," in Ch. XXXVIII, "Secret Service," specifically about Jonas Chuzzlewit's activities; however, Dickens is careful here not to show his cards too soon. Highly cautious and apprehensive about the possibility of being overheard, Detective Nadgett insists on Montague's reading his multi-page account silently rather than have him just deliver it orally. Mr. Montague's highly ornate dressing-gown and cap, reflections of his commercial power and his firm's exotic name, are entirely Barnard's invention; in the February 1844 Hablot Knight Browne illustration, Tigg is in shirt-sleeves, preparing to get dressed to go the offices of the Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Life Assurance Company. 9.4 x 13.8 cm, or 3 ¾ high by 5 ½ inches, framed, engraved by the Dalziels. Running head: “Mr. Augustus Moddle," 297. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Tigg Montague receives Nadgett's confidential report
Mr. Nadgett picked out a certain chair from among the rest, and having planted it in a particular spot, as carefully as if he had been going to vault over it, placed another chair in front of it; leaving room for his own legs between them. He then sat down in chair number two, and laid his pocket-book, very carefully, on chair number one. He then untied the pocket-book, and hung the string over the back of chair number one. He then drew both the chairs a little nearer Mr Montague, and opening the pocket-book spread out its contents. Finally he selected a certain memorandum from the rest, and held it out to his employer, who, during the whole of these preliminary ceremonies, had been making violent efforts to conceal his impatience.
"I wish you wouldn’t be so fond of making notes, my excellent friend," said Tigg Montague with a ghastly smile. "I wish you would consent to give me their purport by word of mouth."
"I don’t like word of mouth," said Mr. Nadgett gravely. "We never know who’s listening."
Mr. Montague was going to retort, when Nadgett handed him the paper, and said, with quiet exultation in his tone, "We’ll begin at the beginning, and take that one first, if you please, sir."
The chairman cast his eyes upon it, coldly, and with a smile which did not render any great homage to the slow and methodical habits of his spy. But he had not read half-a-dozen lines when the expression of his face began to change, and before he had finished the perusal of the paper, it was full of grave and serious attention. [Chapter XXXVIII, "Secret Service," 30. Running Head: "A Good Hand at a Secret," 301]
Relevant Illustrations from Other Editions, 1844-1910
Left: Hablot Knight Browne's version of the interview between Tigg Montague and Jonas Chuzzlewit, realizing the moment when the swindler utters the word "poison," Mr. Nadgett Breathes, as Usual, an Atmosphere of Mystery (Chapter 38, February 1844). Centre: Felix Octavius Carr Darley's companion study of Seth Pecksniff and Montague Tigg in the opening chapters, when the military-looking sharper is continually cadging loans for Chevy Slyme, And was straightway let down stairs (Frontispiece, Vol. 1, 1862). Right: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s perceptive portrait of the shabby, secretive, and observative private detective, Mr. Nadgett (Chapter 27, 1867). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Above: Harry Furniss's somewhat derivative realisation of the scene in which Tigg Montague, the insurance company director, receives his investor Jonas Chuzzlewit just after receiving Nadgett's report, Jonas Chuzzlewit and Montagu Tigg (1910). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Barnard, Fred. Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens. London: Chapman and Hall, 1908.
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Dickens, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1844.
_____. Martin Chuzzlewit. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 55 vols. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1863. Vol. 2 of 4.
_____. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Junior. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.
_____. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, with 59 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition, 22 volumes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. 2. [The copy of the Household Edition from which these pictures were scanned was the gift of George Gorniak, proprietor of The Dickens Magazine, whose subject for the fifth series, beginning in January 2008, was this 1843-44 novel.
_____. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 7.
Hammerton, J. A. "Chapter 15: Martin Chuzzlewit." The Dickens Picture-Book. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 17. Pp. 267-294.
Kyd [Clayton J. Clarke]. Characters from Dickens. Nottingham: John Player & Sons, 1910.
"The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit: Fifty-nine Illustrations by Fred Barnard." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-Six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. Mahoney, Charles Green, A. B. Frost, Gordon Thomson, J. McL. Ralston, H. French, E. G. Dalziel, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. Printed from the Original Woodblocks Engraved for "The Household Edition." London: Chapman and Hall, 1908. Pp. 185-216.
Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924.
Steig, Michael. "From Caricature to Progress: Master Humphrey's Clock and Martin Chuzzlewit." Ch. 3, Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U.P., 1978. Pp. 51-85. [See e-text in Victorian Web.]
Steig, Michael. "Martin Chuzzlewit's Progress by Dickens and Phiz. Dickens Studies Annual 2 (1972): 119-149.
29 January 2008
Last modified 26 November 2024