The Old Curiosity Club discussion

Dear Fellow-Curiosities,

Chapter 8 shows us “Mr. Boffin in Consultation” and gives us the opportunity to learn something more about the background story of the Harmon family – who is not as harmonious as its name suggests – and about how Mr. Boffin became a client of Mortimer Lightwood’s. Maybe his only one? The business seems to suggest this because when Mr. Boffin arrives at Lightwood’s dismal office, the young clerk makes a great show of looking up Mr. Boffin’s name in the list of daily appointments and then enters him into the ledger of callers, and then we have this fine detail here:

”‘Strict system here; eh, my lad?’ said Mr Boffin, as he was booked.

‘Yes, sir,’ returned the boy. ‘I couldn’t get on without it.’

By which he probably meant that his mind would have been shattered to pieces without this fiction of an occupation. Wearing in his solitary confinement no fetters that he could polish, and being provided with no drinking-cup that he could carve, he had fallen on the device of ringing alphabetical changes into the two volumes in question, or of entering vast numbers of persons out of the Directory as transacting business with Mr Lightwood. It was the more necessary for his spirits, because, being of a sensitive temperament, he was apt to consider it personally disgraceful to himself that his master had no clients.”

Mr. Lightwood not being in his office yet, Mr. Boffin has some time to talk with the ambitious young clerk and in his naïve way, he asks him how long it might possibly take him to become a judge one day. He then gives him “a couple of pound” to help him on with his career, which he now believes “as good as settled”. It’s nice how Dickens uses details like these not only for the sake of comic relief and of chiselling out minor characters like Lightwood’s clerk, whose name is Blight, but also to give us a more detailed understanding of Mr. Boffin’s straightforward optimism and his readiness to offer help.

Finally, Mortimer arrives, and the two men start looking into the Harmon-Boffin affairs. It soon becomes clear that Mr. Boffin is not really genuinely pleased with the prospect of being the residuary legatee to the Harmon fortune because, of course, he and his wife would have wished young Harmon to be still alive, and apart from that Mr. Boffin also seems well aware that a lot of money does not necessarily imply a lot of happiness. He gives the example of Old Harmon, who was “a awful Tartar” and who gave himself up to his fortune and “found it a great lot to take care of”. He then remembers how his wife and he used to stand up for young Harmon, who was still a boy at that time, and what sad a day it was when the little boy was sent away to a boarding school, the old father not even willing to pay a sixpence coach-money for his baggage. Mrs. Boffin had nightmares for a long time, seeing the sad and desperate face of the little child and worrying about him, but by and by it became better. When Mr. Lightwood, in his seemingly callous manner – a manner which displeases Mr. Boffin – says that everything wears to rags, implying that also Mrs. Boffin’s worries did, Mr. Boffin says something very moving, namely:

”‘I won’t go so far as to say everything,’ returned Mr Boffin, on whom his manner seemed to grate, ‘because there’s some things that I never found among the dust. […]’”

Mr. Boffin concludes by saying that the money he now inherits is not at all satisfactory to him, seeing that it does not come to young Harmon, and he also offers a tithe of the property as a reward for anyone who gives valuable clues as to Harmon’s murderer. Mr. Lightwood remonstrates, saying that such a generous reward will make people come forward with false hints and accusations – yet another hint at the corrupting influence of money – but Mr. Boffin is still determined to set this amount of money aside for clearing up the Harmon murder, leaving all the particulars to Lightwood’s discretion, however. Apart from that, Mr. Boffin wants his lawyer to settle matters in a way that, upon his own death, Mrs. Boffin will come into the property, with all the rights to manage it as she deems best.

At the end of their interview, Mr. Wrayburn arrives, and he and Mr. Boffin have a kind of quarrel because upon being told that Mr. Wrayburn should apply himself to the law and work hard, like the bee, this gentleman says that he strongly objects to being given the bee as an example to emulate.

”‘Ye-es,’ returned Eugene, disparagingly, ‘they work; but don’t you think they overdo it? They work so much more than they need—they make so much more than they can eat—they are so incessantly boring and buzzing at their one idea till Death comes upon them—that don’t you think they overdo it? And are human labourers to have no holidays, because of the bees? And am I never to have change of air, because the bees don’t? Mr Boffin, I think honey excellent at breakfast; but, regarded in the light of my conventional schoolmaster and moralist, I protest against the tyrannical humbug of your friend the bee. With the highest respect for you.’”

Rather put out by Mr. Wrayburn’s manner and words, Mr. Boffin leaves the office and in the street is accosted by John Rokesmith, who has evidently been on the lookout for him. Rokesmith asks Boffin to employ him as a private secretary, but Boffin, still under the impression of his former visit at his lawyer’s, is quite suspicious of Rokesmith’s eagerness to enter into service with him, and he tells him that he will consider the matter for a couple of days. I don’t know how you feel about it, but I think that Mr. Boffin is right in his doubts because Mr. Rokesmith is extremely vague about his antecedents and his motives. What may he be up to?

The next chapter gives us “Mr. and Mrs. Boffin in Consultation”. It starts in the Boffin household, where Mrs. Boffin says that now they have come into property, it will not do for them to continue their old way of life in their old social circles. Although this may sound a bit arrogant, there is hardly anything in Mrs. Boffin’s behaviour that would suggest that the money they came into has gone into her head. On the contrary, Mrs. Boffin, as well as her husband, seems to be determined to turn their newly-won money to good use, their first intention being to adopt a little boy and call him John Harmon and to enable this boy to profit from their money. In order to achieve this goal, they get their coach ready and pay a visit to their local clergyman, Mr. Milvey. While they are on their way, the narrator muses on the Boffins, saying something like this:

” These two ignorant and unpolished people had guided themselves so far on in their journey of life, by a religious sense of duty and desire to do right. Ten thousand weaknesses and absurdities might have been detected in the breasts of both; ten thousand vanities additional, possibly, in the breast of the woman. But the hard wrathful and sordid nature that had wrung as much work out of them as could be got in their best days, for as little money as could be paid to hurry on their worst, had never been so warped but that it knew their moral straightness and respected it. In its own despite, in a constant conflict with itself and them, it had done so. And this is the eternal law. For, Evil often stops short at itself and dies with the doer of it; but Good, never.

Through his most inveterate purposes, the dead Jailer of Harmony Jail had known these two faithful servants to be honest and true. While he raged at them and reviled them for opposing him with the speech of the honest and true, it had scratched his stony heart, and he had perceived the powerlessness of all his wealth to buy them if he had addressed himself to the attempt. So, even while he was their griping taskmaster and never gave them a good word, he had written their names down in his will. So, even while it was his daily declaration that he mistrusted all mankind—and sorely indeed he did mistrust all who bore any resemblance to himself—he was as certain that these two people, surviving him, would be trustworthy in all things from the greatest to the least, as he was that he must surely die.”

I’ll do like Mr. Boffin does, now, i.e. he always bluntly asks, Do you like it? Well, do you like these rather explicit comments on the characters made by the narrator? They sometimes sound rather moralizing and intrusive to me.

The story now introduces us to the Reverend Milvey and his little, busy wife – a man who has a hard time making ends meet for himself and his large family, and who still goes out of his way to help his parishioners. In a rather quirky scene, Mrs. Milvey and her husband consider possible candidates for the Boffins’s offer to take a young orphan, but I could not help finding their conversation rather alienating because I got the sense that Mrs. Milvey was more interested in finding a boy that would suit the Boffins’s needs and was not exclusively interested in the potential orphan’s point of view. To be quite honest, it reminded me a little bit of this scene from “The Simpsons”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZCSj...

The Milveys tell the Boffins that they will need a day or so to come up with a suitable boy, and the Boffins now go on their second errand – visiting the Wilfers and offering them to have Bella live with them and partake of their fortune as they think it unfair to see he debarred from what was supposed to be hers. Mrs. Wilfer has a wonderful way of turning the tables in that she makes it seem as though Bella were conferring a favour onto the Boffins by accepting their offer, and there are a lot of skirmishes between Bella and her younger sister Lavinia, as well as the moody friend of the family, George Sampsons, who has the interesting habit of putting his cane into his mouth as a kind of stopper – all this provides Dickens with a lot of opportunities to conjure up humour.

I especially liked those two bits:

”The friend of the family [i.e. Sampson] was in that stage of tender passion which bound him to regard everybody else as the foe of the family.”

”‘If,’ quoth Mr George Sampson, moodily pulling his stopper out, ‘Miss Bella’s Mr Boffin comes any more of his nonsense to me, I only wish him to understand, as betwixt man and man, that he does it at his per—’ and was going to say peril; but Miss Lavinia, having no confidence in his mental powers, and feeling his oration to have no definite application to any circumstances, jerked his stopper in again, with a sharpness that made his eyes water.”

It’s maybe an interesting parallel that with George Sampson we now have the second thwarted lover within the first few chapters of the novel, Mr. Venus being clearly the first. I would not like to count Bella among them because her marriage might have been thwarted by fate, but she would definitely not qualify as a lover – being more interested in the filthy lucre.

We also get the first direct reference to the title of the novel here, when Mr. Boffin makes inquiries about the Wilfers’s lodger, calling him “Our Mutual Friend”. It’s also funny to see how Mrs. Wilfer takes umbrage at the, to her, low expression “lodger”. Bella finally accepts the Boffins’s offer, but it remains to be seen how the relationship between the Wilfers and the Boffins will develop. We might not expect too much gratitude from the mother, but let’s see about the daughter.

Chapter 10 is all about a wedding and “A Marriage Contract”, as its title already tells us. I think the narrator here prepares the opening for another storyline as he introduces two characters in more detail who have up to now been known as the mature young man and the mature young woman. These two, Alfred Lammle and Sophronia Akershem, are now going to be joined in deadlock, ahem wedlock under the direction of their oldest friends, the Veneerings.

The first part of the chapter is written in the vein of the social satire in which we were introduced into the Veneering circle, and so it is great, great fun reading but you more and more get the impression that the Veneerings and their entourage will remain caricatures to criticize the articial shallowness of nouveaux riches people who made a fortune in Shares, which was a new development at the time:

”The mature young gentleman is a gentleman of property. He invests his property. He goes, in a condescending amateurish way, into the City, attends meetings of Directors, and has to do with traffic in Shares. As is well known to the wise in their generation, traffic in Shares is the one thing to have to do with in this world. Have no antecedents, no established character, no cultivation, no ideas, no manners; have Shares. Have Shares enough to be on Boards of Direction in capital letters, oscillate on mysterious business between London and Paris, and be great. Where does he come from? Shares. Where is he going to? Shares. What are his tastes? Shares. Has he any principles? Shares. What squeezes him into Parliament? Shares. Perhaps he never of himself achieved success in anything, never originated anything, never produced anything? Sufficient answer to all; Shares. O mighty Shares! To set those blaring images so high, and to cause us smaller vermin, as under the influence of henbane or opium, to cry out, night and day, ‘Relieve us of our money, scatter it for us, buy us and sell us, ruin us, only we beseech ye take rank among the powers of the earth, and fatten on us’!”

Interestingly, the fact that the Veneerings get “greenhouse plants” for the wedding not only shows that they are well-off but it also suggests that everything about them is artificial and will probably not stand the test of time and duress. This does not bode too well for the marriage of the two mature young people here, either. The narrator excels at giving us a very cynical account of the wedding preparations and the celebration itself – the wedding procedure interestingly hardly being focused on at all –, and we learn, for instance, that Mr. Podsnap has a habit of standing before the fireplace, like the Colossus at Rhodes, which made me think of the famous fireplace duel in Great Expectations. Twemlow is still wondering who is to be counted among the Veneerings’ eldest friends, the Analytical Chemist is still showing his disgust at the proceedings, and Lady Tippins is becoming more and more an echo of Edith Dombey’s mother, e.g. in this extremely mean, but funny sentence:

”[…] but you could easily buy all you see of her, in Bond Street […]”

During the wedding celebration, which is grotesque and dismal and characterized by the antagonism between Lady Tippins and an aunt of the bride’s, Twemlow has some vague memories of his former love, and we get a clever comment from the narrator, dwelling on the deceptions of lost love:

”So, Twemlow goes home to Duke Street, St James’s, to take a plate of mutton broth with a chop in it, and a look at the marriage-service, in order that he may cut in at the right place to-morrow; and he is low, and feels it dull over the livery stable-yard, and is distinctly aware of a dint in his heart, made by the most adorable of the adorable bridesmaids. For, the poor little harmless gentleman once had his fancy, like the rest of us, and she didn’t answer (as she often does not), and he thinks the adorable bridesmaid is like the fancy as she was then (which she is not at all), and that if the fancy had not married some one else for money, but had married him for love, he and she would have been happy (which they wouldn’t have been), and that she has a tenderness for him still (whereas her toughness is a proverb). Brooding over the fire, with his dried little head in his dried little hands, and his dried little elbows on his dried little knees, Twemlow is melancholy. ‘No Adorable to bear me company here!’ thinks he. ‘No Adorable at the club! A waste, a waste, a waste, my Twemlow!’ And so drops asleep, and has galvanic starts all over him.”

And then, all of a sudden, there is a change in mood when we visit the Lammle on their honeymoon. They are wandering along the beach, not at all like a happy couple, and they have found out that each of them is a deceived deceiver in that each of them, themselves poor but making a show of wealth, married the other one for their supposed property.

”Mr and Mrs Lammle have walked for some time on the Shanklin sands, and one may see by their footprints that they have not walked arm in arm, and that they have not walked in a straight track, and that they have walked in a moody humour; for, the lady has prodded little spirting holes in the damp sand before her with her parasol, and the gentleman has trailed his stick after him. As if he were of the Mephistopheles family indeed, and had walked with a drooping tail.”

The Mephistophelian air of Mr. Lammle seems to imply that there is much evil to expect of him, and his menacing words to his wife also bear out this impression. They decide that they will never forgive the Veneerings for having brought about this union and that they will do whatever they can to further their own aims, and so we might be in for some villainy from their direction. It’s also interesting to note how the surroundings seem to mock these two as they talk about their future:

”The tide is low, and seems to have thrown them together high on the bare shore. A gull comes sweeping by their heads and flouts them. There was a golden surface on the brown cliffs but now, and behold they are only damp earth. A taunting roar comes from the sea, and the far-out rollers mount upon one another, to look at the entrapped impostors, and to join in impish and exultant gambols.”

Ironically, their determination to make the best out of their situation and to get back on the Veneerings seems to be the Marriage Contract referred to in the title of the chapter.

I must admit, having completed seven chapters now, this is one of the most complex novels I've read.

Or, perhaps I am just getting older and struggle a bit with keeping tabs on more characters than chapters.

Tristram wrote: "Dear Fellow-Curiosities,

Chapter 8 shows us “Mr. Boffin in Consultation” and gives us the opportunity to learn something more about the background story of the Harmon family – who is not as harmon..."

Tristram

As always, your summaries are delightful and open up much for discussion. Thank you.

Harmon - harmonious - and Blight, which is more obvious, are more examples of Dickens's naming his characters and defining them in one simple stroke of a pen. Humour, irony, sarcasm and compliment all find their way into his names. I'm still working my way around the name Rokesmith. Does anyone have any ideas yet?

Once again in this chapter money casts its long shadow. I cannot think of another Dickens novel where one issue, one concept, one symbol has such a stranglehold over the plot. Money. Whether it is the "old Tartar" saving of a few pennies at the expense of a child or Mr Boffin willing to spend thousands of pounds in an attempt to secure justice, money is embedded in every chapter of the novel.

I think there is a double meaning when Mortimer says "Mr. Boffin, everything wears to rags." Dust heaps and rags are a central image in the novel. On the one hand we have a dust heap being the source of great wealth. On the other hand Mortimer's comments are meant to mean that everything, over time, becomes less than it was, until all is simple waste.

The issue of money and the concept of marriage are presented as proceeding hand in hand. As much as the Boffins have love and concern for each other, the newly-wed Lammles harbour hate and cynicism for the Veneerings, society, and, I would suggest, even themselves.

Chapter 10's title is, as Tristram noted, ""Marriage Contract." There are many contracts evolving in the novel, both marital and professional. Does not Rokesmith want a job? We did see Rokesmith sign a contract before. Rokesmith is called Our Mutual Friend. Hmmmm. The plot thickens.

Tristram wrote: " To be quite honest, it reminded me a little bit of this scene from “The Simpsons”:"

I have yet to find an episode of Dickens that doesn't remind you of some scene from the Simpsons! [g]

Everyman wrote: "Tristram wrote: " To be quite honest, it reminded me a little bit of this scene from “The Simpsons”:"

I have yet to find an episode of Dickens that doesn't remind you of some scene from the Simpso..."

True.

Tristram wrote: "The next chapter gives us “Mr. and Mrs. Boffin in Consultation”. It starts in the Boffin household, where Mrs. Boffin says that now they have come into property, it will not do for them to continue..."

The Boffin's are an interesting couple. More and more it seems that they may become a fulcrum of the novel. They have gained money and the awareness of what is expected of people with money. While they do appear to understand the necessity of living up to their position, they are also eager and willing to share it. They intend to use some of the money to solve the murder. They are looking for a child to enrich and share their lives with, and they are intent on reaching out to Bella.

Mr. Boffin' desire to learn may seem somewhat naive and addle-headed but it does prove he has curiosity and a desire to expand his horizons. Boffin desires to reach out and embrace the world in a positive manner whereas the majority of the other characters we have met are motivated by greed, jealousy, false pretence and hypocrisy.

Tristram wrote: "A gull comes sweeping by their heads and flouts them."

Even the gull knows they're faking it. Only the humans are too stupid not to notice.

And, yes, here's a bird for you, Peter!

Everyman wrote: "Tristram wrote: "A gull comes sweeping by their heads and flouts them."

Even the gull knows they're faking it. Only the humans are too stupid not to notice.

And, yes, here's a bird for you, Peter!"

Thanks Everyman. Duly noted.

Tristram wrote: "Chapter 10 is all about a wedding and “A Marriage Contract”, as its title already tells us. I think the narrator here prepares the opening for another storyline as he introduces two characters in m..."

There do seem to be many plot lines, as you mention, by the end of chapter ten. They include A mystery about a corpse , the enmity between Gaffer and his former partner, Charley moving into better situation with Lizzie's help, Bella about to move up socially courtesy of Mrs Boffin, and her blush (what's that about) , the unsavory relationship of Wegg and Venus, Rokesmith inserting himself into the Boffins' life and maybe the Wilfurs', and last...the Lemmles are conniving to do something to the Veneerings. Dickens has certainly fashioned a lot of moving pieces. How will he bring it all together?...that's the question.

Peter wrote: "Tristram wrote: "Dear Fellow-Curiosities,

Chapter 8 shows us “Mr. Boffin in Consultation” and gives us the opportunity to learn something more about the background story of the Harmon family – who..."

I have some thoughts about a few names. Maybe the "Roke in Rokesmith is "rock"...a smith is a worker of metal...and rock is mineral. We find another material in Lightwood. In his very first sentence, Dickens does refer to the two bridges as in terms of iron and stone.

The word "laminate" keeps running through my head when I think of the name Lammle, because it is so similar in meaning to veneer, but I don't believe laminates were used then" An Middle English word """lammo meant thin cover (I think; looked up earlier). Anyway, there may be a connection.

Tristram wrote: " Chapter 8 shows us “Mr. Boffin in Consultation” ... Mr. Wrayburn ...says that he strongly objects to being given the bee as an example to emulate."

I'm so glad you included this scene in your synopsis, Tristram! The first time I read it, it had me snorting with laughter. I could just see Mr. Boffin's face as he tried to figure out why a common metaphor would cause such a reaction. Okay, Wrayburn was being a rude, literal jerk, but I still think it's a great scene, and it makes me laugh to imagine it.

Tristram wrote: "The next chapter gives us “Mr. and Mrs. Boffin in Consultation."

It will be no surprise to anyone who has come to know my tastes over the last several novels that the Boffin chapters are my favorites. There is such warmth and humor in them. Like The Andy Griffith Show which I referenced in a previous thread, Dickens has a knack for portraying simple people with affection, where other writers might easily slip into ridicule.

I find it admirable that the Boffins want to use their windfall to help an orphan boy, and benefit Bella. Not many would have that sense of fair play. As for Mrs. Milvey's musings on the "right" orphan, I don't really have a problem with it. There were many children in need of help and, if it's to be a lifetime commitment, compatibility is very important. But Dickens' description of the process was great fun!

Tristram wrote: "Chapter 10 is all about a wedding and “A Marriage Contract”..."

Well, the Lammles got a rude awakening following their nuptials, didn't they? I daresay the two of them deserve each other. One wonders if Mr. Veneering has any idea of the chaos he leaves in his wake.

LindaH wrote: "Peter wrote: "Tristram wrote: "Dear Fellow-Curiosities,

Chapter 8 shows us “Mr. Boffin in Consultation” and gives us the opportunity to learn something more about the background story of the Harmo..."

Ah! Thank you Linda. One of the delights of Dickens's massively populated novels is enjoying the names of so many characters with surnames both sly and subtle.

The Boffin Progress

Chapter 9

Marcus Stone

Dickens commended Stone for the realisation of the Boffins, enjoying immensely Boffin's oddity as "an oddity of a very honest kind, that people would like" (quoted in Kitton, 198). The object of the Boffins' coach ride is the residence of the Reverend Frank Milvey, whom they wish to consult about their project of adopting an orphan.

Text Illustrated:

"In order that these visits might be visits of state, Mrs. Boffin's equipage was ordered out.

This consisted of a long hammer-headed old horse, formerly used in the business, attached to a four-wheeled chaise of the same period, which had long been exclusively used by the Harmony Jail poultry as the favourite laying-place of several discreet hens. An unwonted application of corn to the horse, and of paint and varnish to the carriage, when both fell in as part of the Boffin legacy, had made what Mr. Boffin considered a neat turn-out of the whole; and a driver being added, in the person of a long hammer-headed young man who was a very good match for the horse, left nothing to be desired. He, too, had been formerly used in the business, but was now entombed by an honest jobbing tailor of the district in a perfect Sepulchre of coat and gaiters, sealed with ponderous buttons.

Behind this domestic, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin took their seats in the back compartment of the vehicle: which was sufficiently commodious, but had an undignified and alarming tendency, in getting over a rough crossing, to hiccup itself away from the front compartment. On their being descried emerging from the gates of the Bower, the neighbourhood turned out at door and window to salute the Boffins. Among those who were ever and again left behind, staring after the equipage, were many youthful spirits, who hailed it in stentorian tones with such congratulations as 'Nod-dy Bof-fin!' 'Bof-fin's mon-ey!' 'Down with the dust, Bof-fin!' and other similar compliments. These, the hammer-headed young man took in such ill part that he often impaired the majesty of the progress by pulling up short, and making as though he would alight to exterminate the offenders; a purpose from which he only allowed himself to be dissuaded after long and lively arguments with his employers."

Commentary:

"Mr. Marcus Stone claims the credit of bringing into repute the now universal [i. e., by 1899] custom of duplicating drawing upon woodblocks by means of photography, his illustrations for Anthony Trollope's story, "He Knew He was Right, being the first thus treated. The adoption of this plan secures the preservation of the original designs, and therefore renders them available for comparison with the engraved reproductions. Mr. Stone, nevertheless, is by no means satisfied with the engraver's treatment of his work, nor is this surprising when we critically examine such deplorable examples of wood-engraving as instanced in the illustrations entitled "The Garden on the Roof" and "Eugene's Bedside." In one of the designs [for Our Mutual Friend], that representing Boffin's Progress," it will be noticed that the wheels on the "off"-side of the Boffin chaise are omitted, an oversight (explains Mr. Stone) for which the engraver is really responsible. [Kitton 200-201]

According to an interview originally published in London's Morning Post and reprinted in The Dickensian 8 (August 1912), Marcus Stone asserted that, when illustrating both Great Expectations in the 1862 Library Edition and Our Mutual Friend two years later, he would receive proofs directly from Dickens then choose his own subjects for each installment. "I then sent them [the drawings] on for his [Dickens's] approval, and I have no recollection that he ever rejected one," reminisced the artist. Stone also recalled that, when he would receive his drawings back from the novelist, each would have a title inscribed underneath, a recollection which (if accurate) suggests that the captions for the plates in Our Mutual Friend represent the author's rather than the artist's intention. However, as Philip Collins in Dickens: Interviews and Recollections (London: Macmillan, 1981) concludes, Stone's aging memory must have blended the circumstances surrounding the illustration of the later novel with those for the former since the text of Great Expectations with which he was working was not monthly proofs at all, but the story as it appeared in All the Year Round (1 December 1860-3 August 1861) and in volume form shortly thereafter.

Paul Schlicke in "Illustrations and Book Illustration" in The Oxford Companion to Dickens is charitable in describing Stone's work on Dickens as "wholly undistinguished" since, despite the solidity of his figures, the young artist often chooses scenes lacking in dramatic possibilities and offers so little of the telling background detail that is characteristic of most of Dickens's chosen illustrators. In the Chapman and Hall Library Edition of 1862, "Stone works within the sentimental-realist tradition of the black-and-white graphic artists of the 1860s".

In another piece entitled "Dickens and His Illustrators" (this appearing in Charles Dickens 1812-1870: A Centenary Volume, edited by E. W. F. Tomlin), modern art critic Nicolas Bentley is not nearly so charitable:

The defense of youth as an excuse for Stone's inadequacy would be easier to sustain--he was twenty-four when he illustrated Our Mutual Friend--were it not that the talents of Millais, Holman Hunt, Richard Doyle, Keene and others were considerably more precocious than his own. The fact is that whatever other talents he may have developed--later in life he achieved some degree of fame and fortune as a painter of maudlin pot-boilers with a Regency flavour--as an illustrator he was no better than a hack."

Mr. and Mrs. Boffin in consultation

Chapter 9

James Mahoney

Household Edition, 1875

Text Illustrated:

Mrs Boffin clapped her hands again, rocked herself again, beat her feet upon the floor, and wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes.

‘And what, my old lady,’ inquired Mr Boffin, when he also had sympathetically laughed: ‘what’s your views on the subject of the Bower?’

‘Shut it up. Don’t part with it, but put somebody in it, to keep it.’

‘Any other views?’

‘Noddy,’ said Mrs Boffin, coming from her fashionable sofa to his side on the plain settle, and hooking her comfortable arm through his, ‘Next I think—and I really have been thinking early and late—of the disappointed girl; her that was so cruelly disappointed, you know, both of her husband and his riches. Don’t you think we might do something for her? Have her to live with us? Or something of that sort?’

‘Ne-ver once thought of the way of doing it!’ cried Mr Boffin, smiting the table in his admiration. ‘What a thinking steam-ingein this old lady is. And she don’t know how she does it. Neither does the ingein!’

Mrs Boffin pulled his nearest ear, in acknowledgment of this piece of philosophy, and then said, gradually toning down to a motherly strain: ‘Last, and not least, I have taken a fancy. You remember dear little John Harmon, before he went to school? Over yonder across the yard, at our fire? Now that he is past all benefit of the money, and it’s come to us, I should like to find some orphan child, and take the boy and adopt him and give him John’s name, and provide for him. Somehow, it would make me easier, I fancy. Say it’s only a whim—’

‘But I don’t say so,’ interposed her husband.

‘No, but deary, if you did—’

‘I should be a Beast if I did,’ her husband interposed again."

Commentary:

"Although Mahoney's woodcut for chapter nine ("Mr. and Mrs. Boffin in Consultation") has the rather laconic and unimaginative title, "Mr. and Mrs. Boffin in consultation," in the Harper's printing of the novel, in the Chapman and Hall printing the same illustration has a much lengthier caption that points to a very specific moment in the text:

......."Noddy!" said Mrs. Boffin, coming from her fashionable sofa to his side on the plain settle, and hooking her comfortable arm through his."........

Although the hair styles of both husband and wife, and the face and general shape of the head of Noddy Boffin here resemble their counterparts in Eytinge's dual character study "Mr. and Mrs. Boffin" for the Diamond Edition of the novel (1867, reprinted as the Illustrated Household Edition, 1870), Mahoney gives us far more detail from the text than their mere figures and Mrs. Boffin's flowered sofa (in Mahoney's woodcut, an ottoman suggestive of her aspirations to join "Society," down right). Indeed, Mahoney's vividly realized plain wooden settle, long-stemmed, clayed pipes neatly ordered on the mantelpiece, and the cat perched in front of the hearth, all imply Noddy Boffin's expressed desire to live happily, within their more than adequate means, without noveau riche ostentation, following Mrs. Boffin's dictum (dubiously applied in her desire to cut a figure in a carriage) "like our means, without extravagance". A devoted couple, the Boffins in old age have been blessed with a comfortable upper-middle class existence, epitomized by their capacious figures and comfortable sitting-room, devoid of the usual paintings and bric-a-brac of a Victorian upper-middle-class interior. Mahoney's Mrs. Boffin, like Eytinge's, is "a smiling creature, broad of figure and simple of nature . . . with buxom creases in her throat , but Mahoney's character possesses a dignity or gravity that Eytinge's plump matron lacks. Stone's treatment of the couple in "The Boffin Progress" is closer to Mahoney's, although the Chapman and Hall serial illustrator chose a scene later in the chapter, the Boffins in their carriage, as the subject for the July 1864 installment. Consistently the illustrators realize Mrs. Boffin's "walking dress of black velvet and feathers", emblematic of her mistaken notion of the kind of garb she must affect in order to join the "Fashionable Society" that inhabits their new neighborhood.

What the Boffins' hearth-side ease lacks, as a Victorian reader would have noticed immediately, is offspring, a deficit which the Boffins are now addressing in two very different ways: to adopt an infant "orphan," whom they will re-name "Johnny" in memory of John Harmon; to take John's "widow," Bella Wilfer, under their own roof and treat her to the life of affluence for which she has been yearning."

"That he knew it as well as she, she knew as well as he, when they were left together standing on the path by the garden-gate"

Chapter 9

James Mahoney

Household Edition, 1875

Text Illustrated:

‘You took me by surprise,’ said Mr Rokesmith, ‘and it sounded like an omen, that you should speak of showing the Dead to one so young and blooming.’

Now, Bella suspected by this time that Mr Rokesmith admired her. Whether the knowledge (for it was rather that than suspicion) caused her to incline to him a little more, or a little less, than she had done at first; whether it rendered her eager to find out more about him, because she sought to establish reason for her distrust, or because she sought to free him from it; was as yet dark to her own heart. But at most times he occupied a great amount of her attention, and she had set her attention closely on this incident.

That he knew it as well as she, she knew as well as he, when they were left together standing on the path by the garden gate.

‘Those are worthy people, Miss Wilfer.’

‘Do you know them well?’ asked Bella.

He smiled, reproaching her, and she coloured, reproaching herself—both, with the knowledge that she had meant to entrap him into an answer not true—when he said ‘I know of them.’

‘Truly, he told us he had seen you but once.’

‘Truly, I supposed he did.’

Bella was nervous now, and would have been glad to recall her question.

‘You thought it strange that, feeling much interested in you, I should start at what sounded like a proposal to bring you into contact with the murdered man who lies in his grave. I might have known—of course in a moment should have known—that it could not have that meaning. But my interest remains.’

Commentary:

"Mahoney's early treatment of the couple is significant here, especially since his artistic forerunners, Marcus Stone and Sol Eytinge, elected not to offer a visual commentary on the beginning of the romantic relationship between the girl whose emotional makeup is a curious combination of her mother's status-seeking avarice and her father's convivial warmth and the mysterious young man from nowhere whom Mr. Boffin has just enigmatically alluded to as "Our Mutual Friend" in conversation with Bella's parents. Boffin asserts that he is "not particularly well acquainted with Our Mutual Friend" , having "only seen him once."

The scene at the garden gate, in which each young person is tentative in addressing the other, is in sharp contrast to the image of the quarreling Lammles on their honeymoon at the Isle of Wight. We have already met Mr. Rokesmith and Miss Wilfer in the fourth chapter's illustration, "The Signing of the Contract," otherwise captioned in the Chapman and Hall publication as

When it came to Bella's turn to sign her name, Mr. Rokesmith, who was standing, as he had sat, with a hesitating hand upon the table, looked at her stealthily but narrowly.

While she wears the same dress in both illustrations, Rokesmith is wearing elegant light dress-pants, so that he forms a visual contrast to Bella's formal mourning. As opposed to the text, which reads Bella's feelings after the critical negotiation between her parents and the Boffins, the illustration affords us no clue to Bella's and John's feelings about each other. Interestingly, the profile of Rokesmith here strongly resembles that of "John Harmon" in the character study by Sol Eytinge executed for the American serialization of the novel in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. "

The Happy Pair

Chapter 10

Marcus Stone

Text Illustrated:

"But, there is another time to come, and it comes in about a fortnight, and it comes to Mr and Mrs Lammle on the sands at Shanklin, in the Isle of Wight.

Mr and Mrs Lammle have walked for some time on the Shanklin sands, and one may see by their footprints that they have not walked arm in arm, and that they have not walked in a straight track, and that they have walked in a moody humour; for, the lady has prodded little spirting holes in the damp sand before her with her parasol, and the gentleman has trailed his stick after him. As if he were of the Mephistopheles family indeed, and had walked with a drooping tail.

‘Do you mean to tell me, then, Sophronia—’

Thus he begins after a long silence, when Sophronia flashes fiercely, and turns upon him.

‘Don’t put it upon me, sir. I ask you, do you mean to tell me?’

Mr Lammle falls silent again, and they walk as before. Mrs Lammle opens her nostrils and bites her under-lip; Mr Lammle takes his gingerous whiskers in his left hand, and, bringing them together, frowns furtively at his beloved, out of a thick gingerous bush.

‘Do I mean to say!’ Mrs Lammle after a time repeats, with indignation. ‘Putting it on me! The unmanly disingenuousness!’

Mr Lammle stops, releases his whiskers, and looks at her. ‘The what?’

Mrs Lammle haughtily replies, without stopping, and without looking back. ‘The meanness.’

He is at her side again in a pace or two, and he retorts, ‘That is not what you said. You said disingenuousness.’

‘What if I did?’

‘There is no “if” in the case. You did.’

‘I did, then. And what of it?’

‘What of it?’ says Mr Lammle. ‘Have you the face to utter the word to me?’

‘The face, too!’ replied Mrs Lammle, staring at him with cold scorn. ‘Pray, how dare you, sir, utter the word to me?’

‘I never did.’

As this happens to be true, Mrs Lammle is thrown on the feminine resource of saying, ‘I don’t care what you uttered or did not utter.’

"She sits upon her stone, and takes no heed of him"

Chapter 10

James Mahoney

Household Edition, 1875

Commentary:

The Chapman and Hall woodcut for chapter ten concerns the relationship between two confidence artists who have been so persuasive that they have deceived each other, each marrying the other for a fortune neither possesses. After their marriage, facilitated by the Veneerings, the couple are on honeymoon on the Isle of Wight. In "about a fortnight" after their wedding, the couple confront the unwelcome truth about the hollowness of a relationship based on a misapprehension of "property" as they walk along the Shanklin sands:

.........Finally, she sits down crying on a block of stone, and is in all the known and unknown humours of her sex at once. Pending her changes, those aforesaid marks in his face have come and gone, now here now there, like white stops of a pipe on which the diabolical performer has played a tune. Also, his livid lips are parted at last, as if he were breathless with running. Yet he is not.

"Now, get up, Mrs. Lammle, and let us speak reasonably."

She sits upon her stone, and takes no heed of him......

Mahoney's treatment of the couple and setting of the scene most closely resemble that of Marcus Stone in "The Happy Pair", the second illustration for the July, 1864, number in the British serialization. Whereas Sol Eytinge in the Harper's New Monthly Magazine sequence chose to depict the conspiring couple after their honeymoon, and clearly revealed their facial expressions in "Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Lammle", (we're not there yet) James Mahoney has elected to avoid such clarity, leaving the construction of their facial expressions up to the viewer. While Mahoney achieves a certain verisimilitude in the rocky cliffs in the background, his focus is clearly the postures of the Lammles; on the other hand, although Marcus Stone has created an admirable seascape, with the Channel breakers and shipping in the backdrop convincingly rendered, his disaffected couple are not particularly interesting. The moment Stone realizes is somewhat earlier, for Sophronia is still holding her parasol; Mahoney has chosen the moment when she gives into despair and self-pity.

Everyman wrote: "I have yet to find an episode of Dickens that doesn't remind you of some scene from the Simpsons! [g]"

With some many episodes, it is not too difficult to make a connection to whatever topic :-)

I really like the last two pictures, Kim, maybe because I enjoyed that chapter a lot because it shows a new quality in Dickens, i.e. that of creating believable and more-dimensional villains. Both Alfred and Sophronia are soldiers of fortune who have found that they were putting their eggs into the wrong basket. They may not be likeable but they are fully believable, and it will be interesting to see how their relationship and their characters are going to evolve.

I valued Mary Lou's suggestions about the name "Lammle", which were perfectly conclusive to me. German being my native language, I somehow associated their name with "Lamm" ("lamb"), which hardly makes any sense, they being anything but innocent lambs. And yet, there is the German word "belämmert" (be-lambed), which means something like "being surprised by circumstances and standing and looking like an idiot" and which, ironically, fits them perfectly.

My favourite chapters are those in which Dickens pokes fun at the Veneerings and their friends, but even more so those in which Mr. Wegg appears. I simply love his cunning craziness.

I agree with Tristram. Both of the Lammle illustrations are very effective. They are an interesting duo and certainly fit into the money (or lack of it) motif that is so heavily woven into the novel. Characters to take note of in the future.

The Rokesmith - Bella illustration was also very good at capturing the early moments of what might be another pair of characters who fall in love. If we compare their situation to that of the Lammles we have two sets of young people who have an interest in each other. The Lammles ar strictly mercenary and are quite willing to take and destroy anything and anybody in their path to wealth. Truly destructive individuals.

On the other hand, we have Bella and Rokesmith. Bella has been an object a financial set-up in a will since childhood. In an earlier chapter she watched her father and Rokesmith sign a financial contract. Can she overcome a world of wills and legal deals to find that love is stronger than money? And who really is Rokesmith who has been referred to as our mutual friend?

And then we have the Boffins. I truly like them. The illustrations project them as being kind and caring. Dare I suggest that I find them rather Pickwickian in their presentation? Let's face it, any couple who can travel in a 4 wheeled cart that has only two wheels must be delightful, if not magical.

Tristram wrote: "I really like the last two pictures, Kim, maybe because I enjoyed that chapter a lot because it shows a new quality in Dickens, i.e. that of creating believable and more-dimensional villains. Both ..."

Giving credit where it's due, I believe it was Linda who made the comments about the name Lammle. I, too, thought of laminate -- too bad the time period wasn't right! It would have made a perfect companion for Veneering!

I found all three of these chapters to be highly amusing. I loved Boffin's description of Wegg to the confused Rokesmith: "I have in my employment a literary man--with a wooden leg--as I have no thoughts of parting from." He goes on to describe Wegg's duties: "Professionally he declines and he falls, and as a friend he drops into poetry," (95). His characterization of Mrs. Wilfer as she "sat silently giving them to understand that every breath she drew required to be drawn with a self-denial rarely paralleled in history," (105) is wonderful. I laughed out loud when the Analytic got hit in the head with a shoe at the wedding reception, and then the fury of the bride and groom on their honeymoon was just delicious.

With the Boffins searching for a young orphan boy to take in and support, Charley Hexam popped into my head. He's not technically an orphan, but his mother is dead and his father has cast him off. I'm interested to see if that could be yet another way that Dickens ties a couple of the many threads of this story together.

Cindy wrote: "His characterization of Mrs. Wilfer as she "sat silently giving them to understand that every breath she drew required to be drawn with a self-denial rarely paralleled in history," (105) is wonderful."

I would certainly not like the idea of being married to Mrs. Wilfer, but as a character in a novel she is extremely entertaining. Just consider how she makes the Boffins feel that by accepting their generous offer, it would actually be Bella who would confer an inestimable favour to them. That's chutzpah, and it is delivered deadpan.

What a leap was made by the Boffins, well by Mrs Boffin in fact, in swapping the majestic coach and trappings for an orphan boy. It seemed to be on a whim. I do hope that they persevere and realise that they are dealing with a human life.

I love that word 'belämmert', Tristram. I have never come across it before, but perhaps I shall remember it because of the word 'alarm'. I love the picture that you paint in describing the meaning as - being surprised and looking like idiots. I could imagine the Lammles looking pretty idiotic. They have found one another out and the newly-wed Mrs Lammle 'flumps' down on a stone. This spoilt (as she appears to me), scheming lady has met her match.

Yet another fabulous Simpsons episode, Tristram. We have a friend who has a song for every occasion. You are even more innovative, with a Simpsons clip for every eventuality.

I love the scene at the solicitor's office where the young clerk, Blight (well done, Dickens) goes through the Appointments Diary, detailing aloud all of the ridiculously similar names of the day in order to give the impression that he is run off his feet! In the process he credits his boss with a very 'happening' business. So everyone is happy.

Hilary wrote: "We have a friend who has a song for every occasion."

Well, now you have two, Hilary. I have a soundtrack running through my head 24/7, and am always startled to learn that there are people out there who don't. Tristram's Simpson thing, though, is a new one for me. :-)

There are many places in the text that remind me of old radio comedy, with The wordplay. I keep thinking of Bing Crosby for some reason. Here is an example, severely cut:

Mr Boffin :

“Make me as compact a little will as can be reconciled with tightness, leaving the whole of the property to "my beloved wife, Henerietty Boffin, sole executrix". Make it as short as you can, using those words; but make it tight.'

Lightwood:

“Exactly so. And nothing can be more laudable. But is the tightness to bind Mrs Boffin to any and what conditions?”

Mr Boffin:

“Bind Mrs Boffin?' No! What are you thinking of! What I want is, to make it all hers so tight as that her hold of it can't be loosed

Lightwood:

'Hers freely, to do what she likes with? Hers absolutely?'

Mr Boffin:

'Absolutely?' Hah! I should think so! It would be handsome in me to begin to bind Mrs Boffin at this time of day!”

Mary Lou wrote: " I have a soundtrack running through my head 24/7, and am always startled to learn that there are..."

Lawrence Block has a book about a character, I think Keller (I think actually there are several books about him) but maybe some other character, I'm not sure, who has a soundtrack running through his head all day, too. Great fun to read.

I am finding as I go with OMF that my love of Dickens has been revived. I think that is the right word. Having never read OMF before and having little direct knowledge of the story, it so far has been a good, albeit complex read.

John wrote: "I am finding as I go with OMF that my love of Dickens has been revived. I think that is the right word. Having never read OMF before and having little direct knowledge of the story, it so far has b..."

Hi John

I have not read OMF for many years. I'm glad you feel so positive about it. I've forgotten so much about it I feel like I'm reading it for the first time too.

Hilary wrote: "I love that word 'belämmert', Tristram. I have never come across it before, but perhaps I shall remember it because of the word 'alarm'. I love the picture that you paint in describing the meaning ..."

One must nearly feel pity for the Lammles: After all, what could be more sobering and disappointing than to realize that other people have lowered themselves to the same level of deception as oneself?

I love that, Mary Lou. I'm very happy to have another 24/7 'songster' as a friend! Everyman, those sound like very entertaining books. I imagine that were one to have a song for every eventuality, yes you, Mary Lou, it might be more difficult to be in a grumpy mood. I know that when I sing 🎶 it's pretty nigh impossible to be depressed. In my case, though, there is no accounting for the mood of the audience.

Haha Tristram, they certainly are a sad little couple. If they could take a step back and realise that they are both cut from the same cloth. With practice they could become the Bonnie and Clyde of their time, minus firearms. :D

John:

I agree with you that OMF is a joy to read.

John wrote: "I am finding as I go with OMF that my love of Dickens has been revived. I think that is the right word. Having never read OMF before and having little direct knowledge of the story, it so far has b..."

Interesting. I'm finding it so far (and it's early days) the least enjoyable Dickens I've read. Oh, there are some good aspects, of course, but overall I'm just not invested in the characters or the story yet.

Hilary wrote: " I know that when I sing 🎶 it's pretty nigh impossible to be depressed. "

When I sing I'm never depressed. But can't say the same for my wife when I sing!

Everyman, I'm surprised to hear you aren't (comparatively) enjoying OMF yet - I hope that changes for you soon. This one grabbed me right from the start.

Everyman and Hilary - As King Harvest once said, "You can't dance and stay uptight." :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR47T...

So true, Mary Lou. That song written by Sherman Kelly has had so many covers done of it. Popular song and no wonder since it's a feel-good song! Thanks for the link! :-)

Ah sure Everyman, not everyone recognises an Andrea Bocelli after 9, 10, or even 11 hearings!

Hilary wrote: "Ah sure Everyman, not everyone recognises an Andrea Bocelli after 9, 10, or even 11 hearings!"

If I knew who Andrea Bocelli was, that I'm sure that would make sense to me. [g]

Everyman wrote: "Interesting. I'm finding it so far (and it's early days) the least enjoyable Dickens I've read. Oh, there are some good aspects, of course, but overall I'm just not invested in the characters or the story yet."

Have you never read any of his Christmas books, Everyman?

Tristram wrote: "Have you never read any of his Christmas books, Everyman? "

Touché, Tristram. (With the exception of "A Christmas Carol" of course!)

I'm glad there are a few other Curiosities here who actually love Dickens!

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&...

Perhaps Caruso?!
Bocelli sings 🎶