"Mr. Tupman looked round. There was the fat boy" — ninth illustration by Phiz for Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" (1874)

Mr. Tupman looked round. There was the fat boy. by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne). Household Edition (1874) of Dickens's Pickwick Papers (See page 50.). Chapter VIII, "Strongly illustrative of the Position, that the Course of True Love is not a Railway." Wood-engraving, 4 ¼ inches high by 5 ½ inches wide (11.1 cm high by 14.3 cm wide), framed, half-page, p. 49; referencing text on page 50; descriptive headline: "Mr. Tupman Resolves to know his Fate" (49). [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]

Passage Anticipated: The Fat Boy establishes himself as a Continuing Comic Character

. . . the lady [gave] a very unaffected start, and exclaimed in an affrighted tone —

"Mr. Tupman, we are observed! — we are discovered!"

Mr. Tupman looked round. There was the fat boy, perfectly motionless, with his large circular eyes staring into the arbour, but without the slightest expression on his face that the most expert physiognomist could have referred to astonishment, curiosity, or any other known passion that agitates the human breast. Mr. Tupman gazed on the fat boy, and the fat boy stared at him; and the longer Mr. Tupman observed the utter vacancy of the fat boy's countenance, the more convinced he became that he either did not know, or did not understand, anything that had been going forward. Under this impression, he said with great firmness —

"What do you want here, Sir?" [Chapter VIII, "Strongly illustrative of the position, that the course of true love is not a railway," 50]

The Original Illustrations of this scene (1836-37) & the American Household Edition (1873)

Left: The original illustration by R. W. Buss that was later replaced by the Phiz illustration in the November 1837 volume edition: The Arbour Scene. Centre: Phiz's revised version of this scene for the Household Edition, Mr. Tupman looked round. There was the fat boy. Right: American cartoonist Thomas Nast treats Tupman and Rachael Wardle comically: "He knows nothing of what happened," he whispered, page 52 in the Harper & Bros. Household Edition (1873). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Commentary: A Caricatural Study Redrafted Realistically

This 1874 composite woodblock engraving plate, a version of The Fat Boy Awake Again (May 1836), incorporates more realistic figures but minimizes the backdrop of the manor house at Dingley Dell, which bespeaks Rachael Wardle's wealth and therefore something of her attraction for Tupman. In this second version Tupman is already standing as he comforts a discommoded Rachael. Curiously, Phiz has now forgotten to include Tupman's sling, which is his pretext for remaining at Dingley Dell rather than accompanying the Pickwickians to the cricket match between All Muggleton and Dingley Dell.

Related Material

Other artists who illustrated this work, 1836-1910

Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. Formatting by George P. Landow. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Bentley, Nicolas, Michael Slater, and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. New York and Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.

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: Facts On File and Checkmark Books, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Robert Seymour, Robert Buss, and Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, November 1837. With 32 additional illustrations by Thomas Onwhyn (London: E. Grattan, April-November 1837).

_____. 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 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.

_____. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. Vol. 1.

_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Thomas Nast. The Household Edition. 16 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873. Vol. 4.

_______. Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'). The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874. Vol. 6.

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

Guiliano, Edward, and Philip Collins, eds. The Annotated Dickens.2 vols. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986. Vol. I.

Steig, Michael. Chapter 2. "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. 24-50.

Created 8 March 2012

Last updated 9 April 2024