Scenes and Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens. (Chapman
and Hall. 10s. 6d. net.)—Here we have a collection of between eight and nine hundred illustrations of Dickens, "printed from the original woodblocks engraved for the Household Edition." Eleven artists are represented, but nearly three- fifths of this number are due to the pencil of F. Barnard. The - familiar pictures which we associate with "Pickwick" are here,—it would be too much to intrude upon us any other - figure of the hero than that which has made itself familiar - to the readers of now nearly seventy years. E. G. Dalziel, illustrating the "Reprinted Pieces," "The Uncommercial Traveller," and the "Christmas Stories," has fifty-eight ; and J. Mahoney, with "Oliver Twist," "Little Dorrit," and "Our Mutual Friend," one hundred and forty-four. The , other names are Charles Green, Hablot K. Browne, (" Phiz"), A. B. Frost, Gordon Thomson, J. McL. Ralston, H. French, F. A. Frazer, and Luke Pales. We shall not venture to institute any kind of comparison. It is sufficiently obvious that one pencil could not satisfy for all Dickens, for "Pickwick," say, and "The Tale of Two Cities." Of all the eleven, Mr. F. Barnard is the most versatile, for he takes the latter of these two, and also "Martin Chnzzlewit," which is on quite a different plane of thought. We must own that we have a certain sympathy with the "superior people" who think that Dickens was something of a caricaturist. However this may be, the collection before us . is a very welcome one, varying, we may say, greatly in merit, but always interesting.
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