"Cornelia took him first to the school-room" — thirteenth illustration by W. L. Sheppard for Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (American Household Edition, 1873)

Cornelia took him first to the school-room by W. L. Sheppard. Thirteenth illustration for Dickens's Dombey and Son in the American Household Edition (1873), Chapter XII, "Paul's Education," p. 69. 10.7 x 13.5 cm (4 ¼ by 5 ¼ inches) framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Paul enters a classroom at Dr. Blimber's Academy

Harry Furniss's version of Paul's interview with the egotistical schoolmaster in the Charles Dickens Library Edition (1910): Paul introduced to Dr. Blimber in Chapter XII.

“Take him round the house, Cornelia,” said the Doctor, “and familiarise him with his new sphere. Go with that young lady, Dombey.”

Dombey obeyed; giving his hand to the abstruse Cornelia, and looking at her sideways, with timid curiosity, as they went away together. For her spectacles, by reason of the glistening of the glasses, made her so mysterious, that he didn’t know where she was looking, and was not indeed quite sure that she had any eyes at all behind them.

Cornelia took him first to the schoolroom, which was situated at the back of the hall, and was approached through two baize doors, which deadened and muffled the young gentlemen’s voices. Here, there were eight young gentlemen in various stages of mental prostration, all very hard at work, and very grave indeed. Toots, as an old hand, had a desk to himself in one corner: and a magnificent man, of immense age, he looked, in Paul’s young eyes, behind it.

Mr. Feeder, B. A., who sat at another little desk, had his Virgil stop on, and was slowly grinding that tune to four young gentlemen. Of the remaining four, two, who grasped their foreheads convulsively, were engaged in solving mathematical problems; one with his face like a dirty window, from much crying, was endeavouring to flounder through a hopeless number of lines before dinner; and one sat looking at his task in stony stupefaction and despair — which it seemed had been his condition ever since breakfast time. [Chapter XII, "Paul's Education," p. 68]

Commentary: A Victorian Schoolroom

Phiz's study of the boy, his sister, and the Blimbers' dog, Diogenes: Paul's Poor Friend (January 1847).

Sheppard places Paul and his guide, Cornelia Blimber, well to the left to focus the reader's attention on the small Latin class (Dickens specifies eight, since the figure at the desk to the right is not a teacher or a monitor, but Toots) and the aloof teacher, who sits at at the front and does not seem much engaged with any of his charges. Sheppard has made the students appear "grave" and "hard at work," but none of them appears to be speaking. The artist develops only three of the characters: "the abstruse Cornela" (68), the curious, observant Paul, and a rather older student, somewhat out of place among this class of younger boys: "a magnificent man, of immense age, he looked, in Paul’s young eyes" (68). The present scene serves to underscore little Paul's being an outsider rather than a participant, neither child nor adult.

Illustrations of Dr. Blimber's School in Other Editions (1847, 1867, 1877, and 1910)

Left: Phiz's January 1847 illustration for the twelfth chapter, Doctor Blimber's Young Gentlemen as they appeared when Enjoying Themselves. Right: Fred Barnard's Household Edition illustration of Dr. Blimber in his study: >When the Doctor smiled auspiciously at his author, or knit his brows, or shook his head and made wry faces at him, as much as to say, "Don’t tell me, Sir; I know better," it was terrific. (1867).

Left: Harold Copping's 1893 study of the bespectacled spinster's helping Paul in his lessons at Dr. Blimber's Academy, Cornelia Blimber and Little Paul. Right: Sol Eytinge, Junior's family grouping of the Blimbers, The Blimbers and Mr. Feeder (1867).

Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son (1846-1910)

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.]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. L. Sheppard. The Household Edition. 18 vols. New York: Harper & Co., 1873.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862. Vols. 1-4.

__________. 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 [62 composite wood-block engravings]. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. With illustrations by H. K. Browne. The illustrated library Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, c. 1880. II.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 61 wood-engravings. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow, 1900, rpt. 1934. 2 vols. in one.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. IX.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). The Clarendon Edition, ed. Alan Horsman. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.

Dickens, Mary Angela, Percy Fitzgerald, Captain Edric Vredenburg, and Others. Illustrated by Harold Copping with eleven coloured lithographs. "Little Paul Dombey," the tenth chapter in Children's Stories from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1893. Pp. 101-109.

Created 25 January 2022