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Mr Dombey leaves Edith before her mirror
Harry Furniss
1910
12.7 x 8.9 cm, partially vignetted
Dickens's Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation, the Charles Dickens Library Edition, IX, facing 577.
Mr. Dombey betook himself to his old chamber of cogitation, carrying away with him a vivid picture in his mind of all these things.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
‘Go, Sir!" she said, pointing with an imperious hand towards the door. "Our first and last confidence is at an end. Nothing can make us stranger to each other than we are henceforth."
"I shall take my rightful course, Madam," said Mr. Dombey, "undeterred, you may be sure, by any general declamation."
She turned her back upon him, and, without reply, sat down before her glass.
"I place my reliance on your improved sense of duty, and more correct feeling, and better reflection, Madam," said Mr. Dombey.
She answered not one word. He saw no more expression of any heed of him, in the mirror, than if he had been an unseen spider on the wall, or beetle on the floor, or rather, than if he had been the one or other, seen and crushed when she last turned from him, and forgotten among the ignominious and dead vermin of the ground.
He looked back, as he went out at the door, upon the well-lighted and luxurious room, the beautiful and glittering objects everywhere displayed, the shape of Edith in its rich dress seated before her glass, and the face of Edith as the glass presented it to him; and betook himself to his old chamber of cogitation, carrying away with him a vivid picture in his mind of all these things, and a rambling and unaccountable speculation (such as sometimes comes into a man’s head) how they would all look when he saw them next. [Chapter 40, "Domestic Relations," 582-83]
Left: Phiz's dramatisation of a different side of Edith's character as he
focuses on her relationship with her step-daughter:
Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Phiz. (Hablot K. Browne). London: Chapman and Hall, 1848.
_______. 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. 61 wood-engravings. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.
_______. Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. IX.
Last modified 4 January 2021