"The voices in the waves are always whispering to Florence." — forty-ninth illustration by W. L. Sheppard for Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (American Household Edition, 1873)

The voices in the waves are always whispering to Florence by W. L. Sheppard. Forty-ninth illustration for Dickens's Dombey and Son in the American Household Edition (1873), Chapter LVII, "Another Wedding," page 328. Page 327's Heading: "Florence and Walter are Married." 9.3 x 13.6 mm (3 ⅝ by 5 ¼ inches) framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Florence and Walter on the deck of a merchant vessel at sea

Detail of Florence and Paul from Phiz's summative engraved title-page (April 1848), which balances the principal plotlines: Paul's childhood and death, Florence's childhood and adolescence, and Carker's Nemesis: Characters in the Story.

A few days have elapsed, and a stately ship is out at sea, spreading its white wings to the favouring wind.

Upon the deck, image to the roughest man on board of something that is graceful, beautiful, and harmless — something that it is good and pleasant to have there, and that should make the voyage prosperous--is Florence. It is night, and she and Walter sit alone, watching the solemn path of light upon the sea between them and the moon.

At length she cannot see it plainly, for the tears that fill her eyes; and then she lays her head down on his breast, and puts her arms around his neck, saying, "Oh Walter, dearest love, I am so happy!"

Her husband holds her to his heart, and they are very quiet, and the stately ship goes on serenely.

"As I hear the sea," says Florence, "and sit watching it, it brings so many days into my mind. It makes me think so much —"

"Of Paul, my love. I know it does."

Of Paul and Walter. And the voices in the waves are always whispering to Florence, in their ceaseless murmuring, of love--of love, eternal and illimitable, not bounded by the confines of this world, or by the end of time, but ranging still, beyond the sea, beyond the sky, to the invisible country far away! [Chapter LVII, "Another Wedding," 329]

Commentary: The Lovers in the Twilight bound for an Outpost of Empire

The return of Uncle Sol triggers the conclusion of the romantic plot. The day following his joyful return, Walter and Florence visit the grave of her little brother. Then, surrounded by the comic cast the couple are married, and shortly afterward set sail for distant shores, having alerted Mr. Dombey by mail of the marriage. The caption of the present illustration picks up the deeply philosophical and melancholy demise of Little Paul Dombey, and recalls an earlier Sheppard illustration of Paul and Florence on the beach at Brighton, "The sea, Floy, what is it that it keeps on saying?" in Chapter VIII, "Paul’s Further Progress, Growth and Character." Florence in growing up, marrying, and eventually having a child of her own fulfills the promise of the circle of life that is denied to her brother, who thus remains in everyone's memory perpetually a quizzical child pondering the meaning of the voices in the waves.

Rather than depict the churchyard scene or the wedding, Sheppard focuses on a romantic twilight scene at the helm of the ship bound for China. The illustration, then, is far from the domestic bliss that finalizes many a Victorian novel. Walter does not provide his bride a cottage, and she does not settle down to become a homemaker. The "honeymoon," suggests the illustrator, will strengthen their relationship as they experience foreign scenes together. The "voyage of mutual discovery" promises to broaden Florence's horizons, so severely limited by her being brought up in the cold luxury of the Dombey mansion in the midst of the great city to which this atmospheric nautical scene is such a contrast.

Artistically the illustration is interesting in its subtle use of chiaroscuro as light flitering through the grating from the cabin below illuminates the faces of the young couple as they study the distant horizon, although they are looking to starboard rather than directly ahead. Sheppard provides realistic nautical realia such as the boom, mainsail, helmsman in a Sou'wester, and furled sail (right).

Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son (1846-1910)

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 the image 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.

__________. Dombey and Son. With illustrations by H. K. Browne. The illustrated library Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, c. 1880. 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. IX.

__________. 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.

Created 28 February 2022