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Johnny and Moloch
John Leech
1848
11.2 by 7.6 cm (4 ¼ by 2 ⅞ inches), vignetted.
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Haunted Man, 145.
[Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Text enclosed: creation which existed there, with some faint knowledge that the sun was up. The Tetterbys were up and doing. Mr. Tetterby took down the shutters of the shop, and, strip by strip, revealed the . . . .
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 it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
The Tetterbys were up and doing. Mr. Tetterby took down the shutters of the shop, and, strip by strip, revealed the treasures of the window to the eyes, so proof against their seductions, of Jerusalem Buildings. Adolphus had been out so long already, that he was halfway on to “Morning Pepper.” Five small Tetterbys, whose ten round eyes were much inflamed by soap and friction, were in the tortures of a cool wash in the back kitchen; Mrs. Tetterby presiding. Johnny, who was pushed and hustled through his toilet with great rapidity when Moloch chanced to be in an exacting frame of mind (which was always the case), staggered up and down with his charge before the shop door, under greater difficulties than usual; the weight of Moloch being much increased by a complication of defences against the cold, composed of knitted worsted-work, and forming a complete suit of chain-armour, with a head-piece and blue gaiters. [Chapter III. "The Gift Reversed," pp. 145-146]
The spectre's discussion of the Boy's emotional deprivation precedes Leech's humorous sketch of Johnny struggling to hold his infant-sister as his father removes the shutters from the shop's windows; as the text above proclaims, "The Tetterbys were up, and doing" (145). In contrast to the Tetterby children, the urchin of the street "is the growth of man's indifference" (143). In the plate, Leech has conflated two different moments, for Mr. Tetterby has taken down the shutters before Johnny "staggered up and down with his charge before the shop door" (146). The artist may be implying that the job of children should be to look after and interact socially with other children rather than labouring in mines and factories, the producers and consumers of coal. To Victorian readers the very modern exterior of the shop and the lamp would have been reminders that this is a contemporary and middle-class fairytale.
Allingham, Philip V. "The Illustrations in Dickens's The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain: Public and Private Spheres and Spaces."Dickens Studies Annual 36 (2005), 75-123.
Dickens, Charles. The Haunted Man; or, The Ghost's Bargain. Illustrated by John Leech, Frank Stone, John Tenniel, and Clarkson Stanfield. Engraved by Martin & Corbould, T. Williams, Smith & Chellnam, and Dalziel. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848.
_____. The Haunted Man. Illustrated by John Leech, Frank Stone, John Tenniel, and Clarkson Stanfield. (1848). Rpt. in Charles Dickens's Christmas Books, ed. Michael Slater. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971, rpt. 1978. II, 235-362, 365-366.
Glancy, Ruth. "Dickens at Work on The Haunted Man." Dickens Studies Annual 15 (1986): 65-85.
Guida, Fred. "A Christmas Carol" and Its Adaptations: Dickens's Story on Screen and Television. London & Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2000.
Patten, Robert L. Chapter 10, "Bargain Haunters." Dickens, Death, and Christmas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. 234-275. [Review]
Solberg, Sarah. "'Text Dropped into the Woodcuts': Dickens's Christmas Books." Dickens Studies Annual 8 (1980): 103-118.
Created 29 December 2004
Last modified 8 June 2024