"The Characters in the Story" — Furniss's engraved title-page for Dickens's "David Copperfield" (1910)

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The Characters in the Story

Harry Furniss

1910

14.3 x 9.1 cm vignetted

Dickens's The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield, Vol. 10 of the Charles Dickens Library Edition, facing the frontispiece of David and the persons and events of his life that he revisits in dream and memory.

In the Charles Dickens Library Edition, Furniss complements his usual engraved title-page, Characters in the Story, with twenty-eight "original plates" of the collection's characters and situations. These thumbnail images relate directly to Furniss's full-page illustrations in this volume — as well as to the characters depicted in what one might term David Copperfield's Dream. [Commentary continues below.]

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Commentary for Characters in the Story

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. In fact, in contradiction of his usual practice, Furniss between the Frontispiece and The Characters in the Story offers complementary visual overtures to the work which Dickens acknowledged as the favourite child of his imagination, the one story in which (more than in any other from his pen) the protagonist is a definite projection of Dickens himself. Furniss makes the identities of the figures much clearer in the frontispiece by elaborating on the background so that, for example, he associates the figures of the child David Little Em'ly and Daniel Peggotty and his sister with the houseboat on the Yarmouth shore, lower right. And although Aunt Betsy Trotwood is apparently the commanding figure in the upper right-hand corner of Characters in the Story; in the frontispiece, on the other hand, Furniss shows her more characteristically, next to Mr. Dick and his kite in the left-hand register, centre.

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. , 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 and Experiences of David Copperfield. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. 10.

Last modified 2 December 2019