"Part the Third" from Dickens's "The Battle of Life" (1846)

Part the Third

Richard Doyle; engraver Edgar Dalziel.

1846

Wood engraving

13.2 high by 8 cm wide (5 ⅛ by 3 ⅛ inches), vignetted.

Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: "Part the Third," 123.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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PART THE THIRD. The world had grown six years older since that night of the return. It was a warm autumn afternoon, and there had been heavy rain. [123]

Passage Anticipated: Marion and Grace Jeddler Reunited after Six Years

It was no dream, no phantom conjured up by hope and fear, but Marion, sweet Marion! So beautiful, so happy, so unalloyed by care and trial, so elevated and exalted in her loveliness, that as the setting sun shone brightly on her upturned face, she might have been a spirit visiting the earth upon some healing mission.

Clinging to her sister, who had dropped upon a seat and bent down over her — and smiling through her tears — and kneeling, close before her, with both arms twining round her, and never turning for an instant from her face — and with the glory of the setting sun upon her brow, and with the soft tranquillity of evening gathering around them — Marion at length broke silence; her voice, so calm, low, clear, and pleasant, well-tuned to the time.

‘When this was my dear home, Grace, as it will be now again —’

‘Stay, my sweet love! A moment! O Marion, to hear you speak again.’

She could not bear the voice she loved so well, at first.

‘When this was my dear home, Grace, as it will be now again, I loved him from my soul. I loved him most devotedly. I would have died for him, though I was so young. I never slighted his affection in my secret breast for one brief instant. It was far beyond all price to me. Although it is so long ago, and past, and gone, and everything is wholly changed, I could not bear to think that you, who love so well, should think I did not truly love him once. I never loved him better, Grace, than when he left this very scene upon this very day. I never loved him better, dear one, than I did that night when I left here.’

Her sister, bending over her, could look into her face, and hold her fast. ["Part the Third," pp. 159-160]

Commentary: Six Years Later. . . and Visual Discontinuities

Although the sisters have not substantially aged, the child standing beside Dr. Alfred Heathfield signifies the passing of time. And, as was the case with Part the Second (Plate 7 by Richard Doyle), the opening of the chapter foreshadows its climax. The illustration, then, assures readers that the little novel in the manner of Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of wakefield (1766) will end happily, despite Marion's mysterious disappearance at the close of "Part the Second." And the 1846 readers did not have long to wait, for at fifty-two pages (pp. 123-175), interrupted by just three illustrations, "Part the Third" is almost as short as "Part the First" (pp. 3-51), which has four plates and forty-eight pages. "Part the Second" (pp. 55-119) is by far the longest chapter at sixty pages, four illustrations, and considerable plot development.

Continuity is provided by the figure of Dr. Jeddler, overwrought at witnessing his daughters' reunion, and his cottage in the background. The entirely new elements are the little girl (centre, bottom register) and The Nutmeg Grater Inn at the top. Textually, Dickens offers "no disclosure at the beginning of the third Part. Instead, we get two images of the Nutmeg-Grater pub and inn. It's evident, once again, that neither artist consulted with the other. Doyle inn [depicted here] . . . has a cheerful fronted structure with an overhanging second story sporting two sketchily pointed windows — perhaps he imagined an Elizabethan manse overhauled with more eighteenth-century simple planes. The bench that surrounds the old oak sheltering house is clearly there" (Patten 225). As Patten notes, Stanfield's version of the inn, picturesque though it may be, follows neither Doyle's design nor Dickens's description.

Related Materials

The Dedication, Illustrations, and Illustrators for The Battle of Life (1846)
Robert L. Patten's Dickens, Death and Christmas, Chapter 8: "Chirping" and Pantomime, and Chapter 9: Battling for His Life
Pears' Centenary Edition of The Battle of Life (1912)
The Christmas Books of Charles Dickens
Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s single illustration for The Battle of Life (1867)
A. E. Abbey's Household Edition illustrations for The Christmas Books (1876)
Fred Barnard's Household Edition illustrations for The Christmas Books (1878)
Harry Furniss's illustrations for Dickens's The Battle of Life (1910)

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Battle of Life: A Love Story. Illustrated by John Leech, Richard Doyle, Daniel Maclise, and Clarkson Stanfield. Engraved by J. Thompson, Dalziel, T. Williams, and Green. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1846.

Morley, Malcolm. "The Battle of Life in the Theatre." Dickensian 48 (1 January 1952): 76.

Patten, Robert L. Chapter 9, "Battling for his Life." Dickens, Death, and Christmas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. 200-233. [Review]

Created 20 February 2001

Last updated 3 June 2024