"David Copperfield" — Furniss's ink-and-wash frontispiece for Dickens's "David Copperfield" (1910)

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David Copperfield

Harry Furniss

1910

13.3 x 8.8 cm, framed

Dickens's The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield, The Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing X, the title-page.

In this visual overture, Furniss complements his usual engraved title-page, Characters in the Story, the first of the twenty-nine "original plates" of the collection's characters and situations, with another set of miniatures. Since the nexus of the many scenes and situations called forth in the thumbnails in the ink-and-wash character study is the figure of the half-dozing young writer, through this study of the artist Furniss is connecting the eponymous character and the author, then about thirty-seven years old. [Commentary continues below.]

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Anticipated

And now my written story ends. I look back, once more — for the last time — before I close these leaves.

I see myself, with Agnes at my side, journeying along the road of life. I see our children and our friends around us; and I hear the roar of many voices, not indifferent to me as I travel on.

What faces are the most distinct to me in the fleeting crowd? Lo, these; all turning to me as I ask my thoughts the question! [p. 878]

And now, as I close my task, subduing my desire to linger yet, these faces fade away. But one face, shining on me like a Heavenly light by which I see all other objects, is above them and beyond them all. And that remains.

I turn my head, and see it, in its beautiful serenity, beside me.

My lamp burns low, and I have written far into the night; but the dear presence, without which I were nothing, bears me company.

O Agnes, O my soul, so may thy face be by me when I close my life indeed; so may I, when realities are melting from me, like the shadows which I now dismiss, still find thee near me, pointing upward! [Chapter LXIV, "A Last Retrospective," pp. 881-82]

Commentary: The Dominating Consciousness

Whereas the identities of only a few of the figures in Characters in the Story are obvious, David is surrounded in the frontispiece portrait by second wife Agnes (upper right), a portrait of his first wife, Dora (left of centre), Mr. Micawber at his feet, and, in the lower right Dan'l Peggotty and the family houseboat. In the left-hand bottom corner, Furniss has placed a pair of drowned corpses in the surf, representing both James Steerforth and Ham Peggotty. Little Em'ly and young David play on the beach near the Yarmouth house-boat, Mr. Dick stands at attention with with his oversized kite, and Uriah Heep takes a tumble. Aunt Betsy Trotwood is apparently the commanding figure in the upper right-hand corner; the companion picture, David Copperfield shows her more characteristically, next to Mr. Dick and his kite.

Not all of the forty-six characters in the thumbnails are readily identifiable, but some of the more memorable characters stand out: the ebullient Wilkins Micawber holds up a glass in the centre of the left-hand column, and a gesticulating Dan'l Peggotty dominates the lower-left corner. The figure of the dreaming writer recalls R. W. Buss's A Souvenir of Dickens (otherwise, Dickens's Dream), which seems to have influenced Furniss's conception of the only Dickens protagonist who is also a writer.

Furniss presents the dreaming David in his thirties to suggest his creator. And, indeed, the frontispiece is a visual allusion to a celebrated portrait of Charles Dickens, Robert William Buss' Dickens' Dream (1875). This is the first of David's twenty-one appearances in Furniss's narrative-pictorial series; this visual dominance is highly appropriate since from the opening lines of the sprawling narrative the eponymous character's consciousness informs all actions and all other characters in the novel.

Relevant Illustrations for this Novel (1849 through 1910)

Hablot Knight Browne's Frontispiece (November 1850 double-number)
Hablot Knight Browne's Title-page Vignette: The Peggotty House-boat (Nov. 1850)
Hablot Knight Browne's Monthly Wrapper, No. XV (July 1850)
Hablot Knight Browne's Title-page, Vol. 1 (1858)
Hablot Knight Browne's Title-page, Vol. 2 (1858)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 1, 1867)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 2, 1867)
Sir John Gilbert's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 3, 1863)
O. C. Darley's Frontispiece in the New York edition (Vol. 4, 1867)
Fred Barnard: Uncaptioned Tail-piece (1872)
Fred Barnard: Title-page and vignette (1872)
Clayton J. Clarke (Kyd): David Copperfield (1910)

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford and New York: Oxford U. P., 1988.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Personal History of David Copperfield, illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Centenary Edition. London & New York: Chapman & Hall, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. 2 vols.

_______. The Personal History of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. V.

_______. David Copperfield, with 61 illustrations by Fred Barnard. Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872. Vol. III.

_______. The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. X.

Hammerton, J. A., ed. The Dickens Picture-Book: A Record of the the Dickens Illustrations. London: Educational Book, 1910.

Steig, Michael. Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U.P., 1978.

Created 2 December 2019

Last modified 3 March 2022