Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens

details and brought imagination into closer harmony with reality. These were the illustrations to the square-shaped "Household Edition," published in 1870, just after the great novelist's death—and now reissued in this Dickens picture-book, in the hope that those who love the stories may like to possess in separate form what is, perhaps, the best pictorial accompaniment that the novels ever received. At the time of its first publication, the "Household Edition" enjoyed an enormous success. At the moment the name of Dickens was on every one's lips, and the fact that this splendidly illustrated reprint was issued in penny numbers and sixpenny parts placed it within reach of even the most humbly stocked purse. Its sale was stupendous, and the familiar green-covered pamphlets percolated through every town and village where the English tongue is spoken. The original copies may still be met with, under many a country timbered roof, carefully treasured as one of the most cherished household possessions.

      Undoubtedly, a great part of the success was due to the art of the illustrators. To begin with, there was an unusually liberal display of pictures—the edition, as a whole, containing close upon nine hundred. But more important than the number were the truth and sincerity of the interpretations—qualities which helped to give a new life to characters already secure of immortality. First and foremost, of course, the edition will always be associated with the memory of Fred Barnard, whose pictures are the outstanding feature of the present volume. Barnard seemed destined by nature to illustrate Dickens; the spirit of "Boz" ran again in his veins. And nothing in his work is more impressively ingenious than the skill with which he took the types already created by his predecessors, preserved their characteristics, so that each was unmistakably himself, and yet by the illuminating touch of genius transferred them every one from the realm of caricature to that of portraiture. Not far inferior to him was that admirable draughtsman, Charles Green, who exactly adopted Barnard's attitude to the originals. The reader who will compare Green's illustrations to "The Old Curiosity Shop" with Phiz's, will scarcely fail to notice with interest how often Green has chosen the same subject as his predecessor, and all but treated it in the same manner, save that a twisted grotesque suddenly becomes, under the magic of his wand, a natural human being. His picture of Sally Brass and the Marchioness is a remarkable instance in point: but there are many others equally eloquent of his sympathetic and interpretative method. Nor should the work of Mahony, A. B. Frost, Gordon Thomson and others be forgotten, for each in his own way has helped to make this volume, what its publishers confidently claim it to be, a collection of Dickens pictures unrivalled for humour, pathos, character, and interpretative skill. In the certainty that such a gallery of good work can hardly fail to find appreciators, the volume is now offered to all lovers of the most widely popular author of the Victorian Era.

SKETCHES BY BOZ

       Table of Contents

      ILLUSTRATIVE OF

       EVERY-DAY LIFE AND

       EVERY-DAY PEOPLE.

      THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

       BY FRED BARNARD

      

The Half-pay Captain completely effaced the old lady's name from the brass door-plate in his attempts to polish it with aqua-fortis—Our Parish, chap. ii.

      "Why the Devil ain't you looking after that plate?"—Our Parish, chap. v.

      

When he first came to look at the lodgings, he inquired most particularly whether he was sure to be able to get a seat in the Parish Church—Our Parish, chap. vii.

      "It is nearly eleven o'clock, and the cold thin rain, which has been drizzling so long, is beginning to pour down in good earnest"—Scenes, chap. ii.

       The Gravesend boat.—Scenes, chap. x.

       Different women of the House gossiping on the steps … the native Diallers—Scenes, chap. v.

       It was a wedding party and sketched from one of the interior streets near Fitzroy Square—Scenes, chap. vii.

      The Gentleman described looks extremely foolish, and squeezes her hand, and fees the Gipsy liberally—Scenes, chap. xii.

       "I may as well get board, lodgin', and washin' till then, out of the country, as pay for it myself; consequently here goes"—Scenes, chap. xvii.

       "His line is genteel comedy—his father's coal and potato. He does Alfred Highflier in the last piece, and very well he'll do it—at the price."—Scenes, chap. xiv.

      Tureens of soup are emptied with awful rapidity—Scenes, chap. x. 19

       A gin-shop—Scenes, chap. xxii.

      The Pawnbroker's Shop—Scenes, chap. xxiii.

       Children were playing on the grass; groups … chatting and laughing; but the man walked steadily up and down, unheeding and unheeded—Characters, chap. i.

      "What do you mean by that, Scoundrel?" exclaimed Mr. Samuel Wilkins. … "What's the matter with you, you little Humbug?" replied Whiskers—Characters, chap. iv.

       The Prisoners' van—Characters, chap. xii.

       Hurrying along a by-street, keeping as close as he can to the area railings, a Man of about forty or fifty, clad in an old rusty suit of threadbare black cloth—Characters, chap. x.

      "I received a note"—he said tremulously, in a voice like a Punch with a cold—"Yes," returned the other, "You did,"—"Exactly,"—"Yes"—Tales, Chap. i.