"Mr. Pickwick at the Review" — Harry Furniss's eighth illustration for Dickens's "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" (1910)

Mr. Pickwick at the Review — Pickwick, facing p. 49. There are very few moments in a man’s existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat — Pickwick, p. 50. By Harry Furniss (1910).

Bibliographical Note

The illustration appears in the Charles Dickens Library Edition, Volume Two: Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club, Chapter IV, "A Field-day and Bivouac — More new friends; and an Invitation to the Country." Lithograph of a pen-and-ink drawing, 9.5 cm x 14.3 cm (3 ¾ by 5 ½ inches), framed, full-page, horizontal plate vertically mounted; referencing text on page 51. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. This is the first complete, uniform edition of the Works of Charles Dickens illustrated entirely by one artist, since the Diamond Edition of 1867 significantly predates Dickens's demise.

Passage Illustrated: A Crowded Scene featuring running Pickwick and sleeping Joe

Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Winkle had each performed a compulsory somerset with remarkable agility, when the first object that met the eyes of the latter as he sat on the ground, staunching with a yellow silk handkerchief the stream of life which issued from his nose, was his venerated leader at some distance off, running after his own hat, which was gambolling playfully away in perspective.

Robert Seymour's original serial illustration for this incident: Mr. Pickwick in chase of his hat (May 1836).

There are very few moments in a man’s existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat. A vast deal of coolness, and a peculiar degree of judgment, are requisite in catching a hat. A man must not be precipitate, or he runs over it; he must not rush into the opposite extreme, or he loses it altogether. The best way is to keep gently up with the object of pursuit, to be wary and cautious, to watch your opportunity well, get gradually before it, then make a rapid dive, seize it by the crown, and stick it firmly on your head; smiling pleasantly all the time, as if you thought it as good a joke as anybody else.

There was a fine gentle wind, and Mr. Pickwick’s hat rolled sportively before it. The wind puffed, and Mr. Pickwick puffed, and the hat rolled over and over as merrily as a lively porpoise in a strong tide: and on it might have rolled, far beyond Mr. Pickwick’s reach, had not its course been providentially stopped, just as that gentleman was on the point of resigning it to its fate.

Mr. Pickwick, we say, was completely exhausted, and about to give up the chase, when the hat was blown with some violence against the wheel of a carriage, which was drawn up in a line with half a dozen other vehicles on the spot to which his steps had been directed. Mr. Pickwick, perceiving his advantage, darted briskly forward, secured his property, planted it on his head, and paused to take breath. He had not been stationary half a minute, when he heard his own name eagerly pronounced by a voice, which he at once recognised as Mr. Tupman’s, and, looking upwards, he beheld a sight which filled him with surprise and pleasure. [Chapter IV, "A Field-day and Bivouac — More new friends; and an Invitation to the Country," pp. 50-51]

Commentary: A New Take on an Old Favourite

Dickens's previous illustrators, notably Robert Seymour, have merely enjoyed this opportunity to make the protagonist look ridiculous in front of a few spectators at the Chatham military review, which probably dates the action of the opening chapters back two decades, and the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, those years when Charles Dickens was a child and his father, John Dickens, a clerk in the Naval Pay Office there. Instead of having just a few onlookers witness Pickwick's discomfiture, Furniss has decided to show the whole community at the festival witness Pickwick's antics. The plate also features another Dickensian favourite, the Fat Boy, Wardle's page Joe, asleep (right). The illustrator seems to be challenging the reader to find Pickwick in this crowded scene.

Parallel Scenes by Phiz and Thomas Nast (1874 and 1873)

Left: Thomas Nast's equally cartoonish 1873 wood-engraving of the farcical scene in which the trio become trapped on the exercise field by the military parade, Mr. Pickwick displayed that perfect coolness and self-possession, which are the indispensable accompaniments of a great mind (American Household Edition, 1873). Right: Phiz's revised version of the review scene for the British Household Edition (1874): Mr. Pickwick at the Review.

Related Material

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910

Scanned image, colour correction, sizing, caption, and commentary 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

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980.

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1999.

Dickens, Charles. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). The Authentic Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1901 [rpt. of the 1868 volume, based on the 30 May 1857 volume].

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Frontispieces by Felix Octavius Carr Darley and Sir John Gilbert. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. 4 vols.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. 14 vols.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 22 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 2.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 5.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. 2.

Created 4 April 2024