"You had better consult your husband." — fourth illustration by W. L. Sheppard for Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (American Household Edition, 1873)

"You had better consult your husband." by W. L. Sheppard. Fourth illustration for Dickens's Dombey and Son in the American Household Edition (1873), Chapter II, "In which Timely Provision is made for an Emergency that will sometimes arise in the best-regulated Families," page 13. 9.3 x 13.4 cm (3 ¾ by 5 ¼ inches) framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Hiring a West-nurse for Little Paul

Mrs. Chick bore off the tender pair of Toodles, and presently returned with that tougher couple whose presence her brother had commanded.

“My good woman,” said Mr. Dombey, turning round in his easy chair, as one piece, and not as a man with limbs and joints, “I understand you are poor, and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy, my son, who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced. I have no objection to your adding to the comforts of your family by that means. So far as I can tell, you seem to be a deserving object. But I must impose one or two conditions on you, before you enter my house in that capacity. While you are here, I must stipulate that you are always known as — say as Richards — an ordinary name, and convenient. Have you any objection to be known as Richards? You had better consult your husband.” [Chapter II, "In which Timely Provision is made for an Emergency that will sometimes arise in the best-regulated Families," p. 13]

Commentary: Sheppard accentuates differences in Class

Like his British Household Edition colleague, Fred Barnard, Sheppard presents a contrast between the good-natured working class couple, "the tender pair of Toodles," and the cool, calculating, self-possessed upper-middle class bourgeois. But in fact Dombey speaks out of a feeling of distaste for what he regards a less-than-serious surname when he summarily changes the nurse's surname to the undistinguished "Richards." The illustrator foregrounds the respectably clad widower and throws the Toodles and Miss Tox into the background, whereas Dickens's serial illustrator, Phiz, owing to the compactness of the steel-engraving, had to put all four figures on the same plane.

Relevant Illustrations from the 1846-47 and British Household Editions

Left: Phiz's illustration for the interview scene, in which Miss Tox assists the recentlky widowed Dombey: Miss Tox introduces the party (October 1846). Right: Fred Barnard's British Household Edition illustration for the opening chapters, A thorough contrast in all respects to Mr. Dombey (1877).

Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son (1846-1924)

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. L. Sheppard. The Household Edition. 18 vols. New York: Harper & Co., 1873.

_______. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862. Vols. 1-4.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. III.

_______. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard [62 composite wood-block engravings]. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. With illustrations by H. K. Browne. The illustrated library Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, c. 1880. Vol. II.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 61 wood-engravings. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son> Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow, 1900, rpt. 1934. 2 vols. in one.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 9.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). The Clarendon Edition, ed. Alan Horsman. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.

"Dombey and Son — Sixty-two Illustrations by Fred Barnard." Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens, Being Eight Hundred and Sixty-six Drawings by Fred Barnard, Gordon Thomson, Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz), J. McL. Ralston, J. Mahoney, H. French, Charles Green, E. G. Dalziel, A. B. Frost, F. A. Fraser, and Sir Luke Fildes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1907.

Created 5 January 2022