"The Tower of the Chimes" by Daniel Maclise from Dickens's "The Chimes" (1844)

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The Tower of the Chimes

Daniel Maclise

1844

Wood engraving

15.8 cm by 9.7 cm (6 ⅛ by 2 ¾ inches), vignetted.

Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Chimes: "Third Quarter," facing engraved title-page.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

He saw the tower, whither his charmed footsteps had brought him, swarming with dwarf phantoms, spirits, elfin creatures of the Bells. He saw them leaping, flying, dropping, pouring from the Bells without a pause. [continued below].

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Realised: The Spirits of The Chimes

So, when and how the darkness of the night-black steeple changed to shining light; when and how the solitary tower was peopled with a myriad figures; when and how the whispered "Haunt and hunt him," breathing monotonously through his sleep or swoon, became a voice exclaiming in the waking ears of Trotty, "Break his slumbers;" when and how he ceased to have a sluggish and confused idea that such things were, companioning a host of others that were not; there are no dates or means to tell. But, awake and standing on his feet upon the boards where he had lately lain, he saw this Goblin Sight. ["The Third Quarter," pp. 93-95]

Commentary: A Pre-Raphaelite Riot

In this "beaux-arts" response to Dickens's highly rhetorical dream vision over ninety pages away, Trotty, the dreamer-protagonist, is absent, and animated goblins rather than grave, elderly, bearded Spirits of the Bells cavort in the bell tower of the old Church (probably St. Dunstan's, London) in great numbers. Instead of Dickens's ornate and detailed description of the august supernatural agents whom Trotty sees, Maclise gives the reader a Pre-Raphaelite riot of activity.

From the Household Edition (1878), Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910), Pears' Centenary Edition (1912)

Left: Harry Furniss's version of the same terrifyingly beautiful vision, Trotty in the Belfry (1910). Centre:E. A. Abbey's American Household Edition version emphasizes the Gothic, nightmarish side of the vision: What Trotty Saw in the Belfry (1876). Right: Charles Green's scene involves only the ancient, druidical Spirits of the Chimes: The Spirits of the Bells (1912).

Related Materials and Details

The Christmas Books of Charles Dickens
Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s single illustration for The Chimes (1867)
A. E. Abbey's Household Edition illustrations for The Christmas Books (1876)
Fred Barnard's Household Edition illustrations for The Christmas Books (1878)
Harry Furniss's illustrations for Dickens's The Chimes (1910)
Charles Green's illustrations for Dickens's The Chimes (1912)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Chimes. Introduction by Clement Shorter. Illustrated by Charles Green. The Pears' Centenary Edition. London: A & F Pears, [?1912].

_____. The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang An Old Year Out and a New Year In. Illustrated by John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield, and Daniel Maclise. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1844 [Printed title-page dated "1845."].

_____. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 22 vols. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1878. Vol. XVIII.

_____. The Christmas Books. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book Company, 1910, VIII, 79-157.

_____. Christmas Stories. Illustrated by E. A. Abbey. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1876. Vol. V.

Created 20 February 2001

Last modified 21 October 2023