Lent by Her Grace the Duchess of St. Albans.
A part of "Little Dorrit" was composed in France, and on July 2, 1856, Dickens informed the artist that he was returning to Boulogne the next day, and desired him to make the illustration of "The Pensioner Entertainment" "as characteristic as ever you please, my little dear, but quiet." This plate proved a decided success. When, early in 1857, the novelist was again in London, "Phiz" forwarded for his inspection a sketch for the etching entitled "An Unexpected After-dinner Speech," which, however, did not quite realise Dickens's idea; whereupon the artist received a letter (printed for the first time in Mr. Thomson's Memoir) suggesting certain improvements, afterwards duly carried out. "In the dinner scene," he wrote, "it is highly important that Mr. Dorrit should not be too comic. He is too comic now. He is described in the text as 'shedding tears,' and what he imperatively wants is an expression doing less violence in the reader's mind to what is going to happen to him, and much more in accordance with that serious end which is so close before him. Pray do not neglect this change."
Dickens seems to have been much pleased with the artist's original drawings of "Flora's Tour of Inspection" and "Mr. Merdle a Borrower," which he characterised as "very good subjects—both." Of the latter he said: "I can't distinctly make out the detail, but I take Sparkles to be getting the tortoise-shell knife from the box. Am I right?"
Only a few of the drawings for "Little Dorrit" have been available for my inspection. Two of these, viz., "Mr. Merdle a Borrower" and "Under the Microscope" (now in Mr. J. F. Dexter's collection), are executed in pencil and wash, the second design not being reversed in the etching. As usual, the pictorial wrapper for the monthly parts was designed by "Phiz." The central picture represents Little Dorrit emerging from the gates of the Marshalsea; above is placed the despondent figure of Britannia in a bath-chair, attended by figures emblematical of the Circumlocution Office, while at the base of the design is seen a mixed assemblage of people, including some of the more prominent characters in the story.
A Tale of Two Cities, 1859.Although "A Tale of Two Cities" was written specially for the pages of All the Year Round, it appeared concurrently in the familiar monthly numbers, with illustrations by "Phiz." The artist, in writing to his son Walter, said: "A rather curious thing happened with this book. Watts Phillips, the dramatist, hit upon the very same identical plot: they had evidently both of them been to the same source in Paris for their story. Watts's play ['The Dead Heart'] came out with great success, with stunning climax, at about the time of Dickens's sixth number. The public saw that they were identically the same story, so Dickens shut up at the ninth number, instead of going on to the eighteenth as usual." Whether this explanation is correct or not, the fact remains that "A Tale of Two Cities" was brought to a conclusion in the eighth number (not the ninth, as stated by "Phiz"), being therefore less than half the usual length of Dickens's serials.
As in the case of "Little Dorrit," the artist's signature does not appear in any of the sixteen etchings contributed by "Phiz" to this novel. It has been pointed out that the French personages in the pictures are not characteristic of the period, there being but little attempt at archaeological accuracy in the costumes. Only one set of the illustrations was prepared, none being etched in duplicate; they were executed on eight quarto steels, each bearing two designs. Of the original drawings for "A Tale of Two Cities" I have seen only one (now in Mr. J. F. Dexter's collection), and this was never etched. The sketch in question, which is vigorously executed with pencil and brush, depicts the incident of the stoppage at the Fountain, and constitutes an excellent subject for illustration.
The artist's design for the monthly wrapper is composed of distinct scenes separated by dividing lines. At the top of the page is St. Paul's Cathedral as viewed from the Thames, and at the base the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame is represented, while around are displayed some of the prominent characters in the story.
"A Tale of Two Cities" is the last of the novels containing illustrations by "Phiz," for, with the completion of the final plate in that story, there came a severance of that fortuitous collaboration between novelist and artist which had been maintained during a period of twenty-three years. As there is no evidence of any actual rupture between them, it is fair to surmise that a legitimate desire on the part of Dickens for a new illustrator constituted the actual reason for that severance. "Phiz" naturally felt aggrieved at "Dickens's strangely silent manner of breaking the connection," and could only surmise the reason; for, in an undated letter to Mr. Robert Young, written presumably a short time before the publication of the succeeding story, he said: "Marcus [Stone] is no doubt to do Dickens. I have been a 'good boy,' I believe. The plates in hand are all in good time, so that I do not know what's 'up,' any more than you. Dickens probably thinks a new hand would give his old puppets a fresh look, or perhaps he does not like my illustrating Trollope neck-and-neck with him—though, by Jingo, he need fear no rivalry there! Confound all authors and publishers, say I. There is no pleasing one or t'other. I wish I had never had anything to do with the lot."