Noah running for Mr. Bumble
Frederic W. Pailthorpe
1886
9 cm high by 7.8 cm wide (3 ½ inches by 3 inches)
Dickens's Oliver Twist
[Click on image to enlarge it. See below for passage illustrated, commentary and comparisons with other illustrators' work; mouse over the text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Passage Illustrated: Run for the Beadle!
“What’s to be done!” exclaimed Mrs. Sowerberry. “Your master’s not at home; there’s not a man in the house, and he’ll kick that door down in ten minutes.” Oliver’s vigorous plunges against the bit of timber in question, rendered this occurence highly probable.
“Dear, dear! I don’t know, ma’am,” said Charlotte, “unless we send for the police-officers.”
“Or the millingtary,” suggested Mr. Claypole.
“No, no,” said Mrs. Sowerberry: bethinking herself of Oliver’s old friend. “Run to Mr. Bumble, Noah, and tell him to come here directly, and not to lose a minute; never mind your cap! Make haste! You can hold a knife to that black eye, as you run along. It’ll keep the swelling down.”
Noah stopped to make no reply, but started off at his fullest speed; and very much it astonished the people who were out walking, to see a charity-boy tearing through the streets pell-mell, with no cap on his head, and a clasp-knife at his eye. [Chapter VI, "Oliver, being goaded by the taunts of Noah, rouses into action, and rather astonishes him," p. 32 in the 1846 edition]
Commentary: Complementing Cruikshank's Realisation of Oliver's Assaulting Noah
In a town seventy miles north of London, the parish beadle, Mr. Bumble, has placed eleven-year-old Oliver Twist as an apprentice with the lugubrious undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry. Oliver has no sooner arrived at the undertaker's shop than the charity boy, Noah Claypole, has the temerity to attack the character of Oliver's dead mother. Quite to Noah's surprise, Oliver thrashes his fellow apprentice.
Pailthorpe here is still in his grangerising phase, illustrating those incidents that his gifted predecessor, George Cruikshank, had not touched upon in the opening chapters. Cruikshank had realised Oliver's indignation in his assault upon the hectoring Noah, but Pailthorpe has elected to complement Cruikshank's Oliver plucks up a spirit (April 1837) in the third monthly instalment in Bentley's Miscellany: instead of repeating this dynamic scene, Pailthorpe shows the aftermath of Oliver's assault as a terrified Noah, at his mistress's direction, runs to fetch the parish beadle, Mr.Bumble, to tame the suddenly savage Oliver — whom Mrs. Sowerberry, Charlotte the maid, and Noah have temporarily incarcerated in the coal cellar. The townspeople are shocked by Noah's terrified dash through the streets to fetch the parish official, who doubles as a sort of policeman for errant youth. Notable here are Noah's long legs, which will lead to his being apprehended as one of Fagin's gang when he attempts to hide from the Bowstreet Runners in a water-butt, in One of the inconveniences of having long legs.
Parallel Illustrations from Three Other Editions (1838, 1871, and 1910)
Left: Harry Furniss's Charles Dickens Library Edition lithograph from pen-and-ink of Charlotte intervening to save Noah Oliver Aroused (1910). Right: George Cruikshank's engraving of Oliver plucks up a spirit (April 1837).
Above: James Mahoney's 1871 engraving of the enraged Oliver triumphing over the fallen bully, Oliver rather astonishes Noah..
Related Material
- Oliver Twist Illustrated, 1837-1910
- Oliver Twist as a Triple-Decker
- Oliver untainted by evil
- Like Martin Chuzzlewit, it agitates for social reform
Bibliography
Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. "George Cruikshank." Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980. Pp. 15-38.
Darley, Felix Octavius Carr. Character Sketches from Dickens. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1888.
Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 1998.
Dickens, Charles. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1838; Chapman and Hall, 1846.
_______. The Letters of Charles Dickens. Ed. Graham Storey, Kathleen Tillotson, and Angus Eassone. The Pilgrim Edition. Oxford: Clarendon, 1965. Vol. 1 (1820-1839).
_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 55 vols. Il. F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. New York: Sheldon and Co., 1865.
_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. Vol. XI.
_______. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. 22 vols. Illustrated by James Mahoney. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871. Vol. I.
_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. III.
_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. The Waverley Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. Illustrated by Charles Pears. London: Waverley, 1912.
Grego, Joseph (intro). Cruikshank's Water Colours. [27 Oliver Twist illustrations, including the wrapper and the 13-vignette title-page produced for F. W. Cosens; 20 plates for William Harrison Ainsworth's The Miser's Daughter: A Tale of the Year 1774; 20 plates plus the proofcover the work for W. H. Maxwell's History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798 and Emmetts Insurrection in 1803]. London: A & C Black, 1903. OT = pp. 1-106]. Book in the Rare Book Collection of the University of Toronto.
_______. Oliver Twist. Works of Charles Dickens. The Waverley Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. Illustrated by Charles Pears. London: Waverley, 1912.
Pailthorpe, Frederic W. (Illustrator). Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. London: Robson & Kerslake, 1886. Set No. 118 (coloured) of 200 sets of proof impressions.
Created 11 February 2015 Last modified 22 November 2021