The Pickwick Club discussion
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The Battle of Life
The Battle of Life
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Tristram ... or would that be SantaA busy time for you and Kim. You have given us a couple more days to read. A gift unwrapped.
With a title like "The Battle of Life" there must be some type of battle involved and there sure is. Dickens plunges us into a most bloody affair, that appears to be rather futile when all is said and done. Dickens tells us that "not a hundred people in that battle, knew what they fought for, or why; ... nobody, in short, ever knew anything distinct about it, but the mourners and the slain."
Next, the reader is moved to the healing of the countryside after the battle. Dickens shows through an extended metaphor how the horror and pain of death is slowly transformed by nature. Indeed, the raw sacrifice of those in battle that once stained with blood the insects and grass slowly transitions into a peaceful fertility of the soil. Death has begotten new life. As Alfred comments, I believe ... there are quiet victories and struggles, great sacrifices of self, and noble acts of heroism" that surround and dwell amongst the people of the area that have some connection with the death and sacrifice of those soldiers of long ago.
Dickens must be up to something with this contrast. Could it be connected somehow with Alfred who is leaving his home to seek his fortune much like many of those soldiers left their homes so long ago? If so, then he is leaving behind Marion, the woman he loves, and her sister Grace whom he charges with looking after Marion. What will happen to Alfred? How will the sisters plan and spend their time in the interval that Alfred is gone? What types of "great sacrifice" can there possibly be in this story?
I feel the presence of Dickens pointing to the Battle for Life at the beginning of his story and I hear him telling me that there are many battles for life if we only just look for them.
I also appreciate the extra reading time! I too found the opening to be vividly powerful. As well as the battle scene itself, I was struck by the "deep green patches" in the fields made fertile by "heaps of men and horses" and "great worms" -- as Peter noted, a kind of battle compost. The berries leaving too deep a stain reminded me of Lady Macbeth somehow, that such senseless atrocity could/should not be easily forgotten.My edition has a heading above every other page. The one above the battle of Life discussion is "Infidelity and Faith". Alfred presumably is Faith, and the lawyers (and Dr. Jeddler?) Infidelity. I was amused by the end of Alfred's optimistic speech: "though two-fourths of its people were at war, and another fourth at law…" , as though those categories excluded the quiet heroism of his faith. The hard, dry Craggs, like a rusty gate, brought to mind Tulkinghorn.
Tristram wrote: "Furthermore, there is a young man called Alfred – do we get his family name? ..."It's Heathfield. Interesting considering the battle field... I think Alfred was apprenticed to the Doctor, Tristram. The lawyers were there to transfer the trust (not sure why they had to come to the goodbye breakfast!).
Peter wrote: "How will the sisters plan and spend their time in the interval that Alfred is gone? What types of "great sacrifice" can there possibly be in this story? ..."Grace is the more interesting sister to me (and almost seems to receive more of Alfred's attention). I hope she isn't going to be one of Dickens entirely self-sacrificing female characters... :)
Vanessa wrote: "Peter wrote: "How will the sisters plan and spend their time in the interval that Alfred is gone? What types of "great sacrifice" can there possibly be in this story? ..."Grace is the more intere..."
Eh, what? Dickens and self-sacrificing female characters? :-))
It does look that way, doesn't it? Since we have just finished TTC my antenna is up regarding how Dickens will use "double characters" whether they be sisters, look-alikes as in Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, doppelgängers or some other combination. Such a structure does give him much latitude for character and plot development.
Ready for the snow?
Ready for the snow, Peter? In Germany, at least where I live, temperatures have again risen considerably, and we now enjoy comparatively mild 10 or 11° Celsius.As to Santa, what worries me a bit is that with every year going by, I need less preparation to don a Santa costume because I need less and less stuffing around my belly. But that's a sad story, rather, and not apt to be told in this wonderful season.
Thanks for adding the Heathfield name, Vanessa, and for putting Alfred's connection to Doctor Jeddler right. As I said, I was writing from memory entirely, and that's why I might be wrong about some of the details.I also wonder why the two lawyers take part in the farewell dinner, which they do cast a shadow of meanness on in a way. Maybe it is entirely for the reason that Dickens will need them later on in the story. Up to now, I have not made out a Christmas connection, either.
I am particularly interested in Doctor Jeddler, about whom the narrator says,"A kind and generous man by nature, he had stumbled, by chance, over that common Philosopher's stone (much more easily discovered than the object of the alchemist's researches), which sometimes trips up kind and generous men, and has the fatal property of turning gold to dross and every precious thing to poor account."
It's probably not so much utilitarianism that Dickens is making a jab at, like with the character of Mr. Gradgrind in Hard Times, but somehow there must be something wrong in Dr. Jeddler. Maybe, Dickens is sceptical about scepticism? Nevertheless, the beginning of this chapter - which reminded me of a similar beginning in Emile Zola's novel La Fortune des Rougon - made me, too, feel sceptical about the human comedy. What the Doctor says about the battlefield seems quite sensible to me:
"'I am too old to be converted, even by my friend Snitchey here, or my good spinster sister, Martha Jeddler; who had what she calls her domestic trials ages ago, and has led a sympathising life with all sorts of people ever since; and who is so much of your opinion (only she's less reasonable and more obstinate, being a woman), that we can't agree, and seldom meet. I was born upon this battle-field. I began, as a boy, to have my thoughts directed to the real history of a battle-field. Sixty years have gone over my head, and I have never seen the Christian world, including Heaven knows how many loving mothers and good enough girls like mine here, anything but mad for a battle- field. The same contradictions prevail in everything. One must either laugh or cry at such stupendous inconsistencies; and I prefer to laugh.'"
Especially the last few sentences: Humans are all for peace and harmony, and yet there seems to be a fascination in every one of us when it comes to stories of heroism and valour. Of course, nowadays people are less ready to succumb to belligerent rhetorics but still, our lives are full of contradictions, and I can perfectly subsribe to the Doctor's conclusion that this can lead us to regard life as either a cruel comedy or a bleak tragedy.
Tristram wrote: "I am particularly interested in Doctor Jeddler, about whom the narrator says,"A kind and generous man by nature, he had stumbled, by chance, over that common Philosopher's stone (much more easily..."
Your last sentence "to regard life as either a cruel comedy or a bleak tragedy" strikes me as both very insightful and ominous. To me, your words pose one of the key mysteries as to how we as readers must finally come to terms with the work of Dickens. I especially wonder about Dickens's humour. Certainly there are glorious comedic characters and scenes throughout Dickens's work, but I always feel a grey cloud hovering in the near distance. Perhaps that feeling comes more as we move into his later novels which are more tragic, but even in the early work, and, indeed, this Christmas book we are now reading from the mid 1840's, has an edge of gloom to me.
Peter wrote: "Are you ready for the snow"Yes. Very ready, please send some my way.
Tristram wrote: "Ready for the snow, Peter? In Germany, at least where I live, temperatures have again risen considerably, and we now enjoy comparatively mild 10 or 11° Celsius.As to Santa, what worries me a bit ..."
Your Santa story reminds me of one of my least favorite Christmas songs, yes there are a few I find stupid. This one is "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". I have wondered for a long time who mommy is kissing and no matter who I come up with she shouldn't be kissing him.
My first thought was to just go with mommy is kissing the real Santa Claus, but I can't imagine Santa has time to be kissing people when he has quite a lot houses to go to that evening, besides, I am assuming her husband is home, so she probably shouldn't be kissing anyone. Besides if she wants to kiss him they should go to another room. Not the one her husband is in though.
My second thought - well it's the one I am assuming the song is about, she is kissing daddy dressed in a Santa suit. Now comes the problem, why is he dressed in a Santa suit and kissing mommy in the first place? If it is to make the kid believe he really is Santa kissing mommy probably isn't good for your child to see.
The last is that the husband really likes dressing up as Santa and kissing mommy, so they should have waited until they were in a room that their child couldn't see into.
Kim wrote: "Peter wrote: "Are you ready for the snow"Yes. Very ready, please send some my way."
Ready, set ... start shovelling, or fire up the paper on the driveway.
See! Now I have you talked into it! Let me know if it works this time. :-) I wonder if Everyman remembers how to do it, people his age forget a lot of things.
This book had four different illustrators for the first edition and I don't know yet how many other people may have given it a try after that, I haven't got that far yet. Our original illustrators were Daniel Maclise, Richard Doyle, John Leech, and Clarkson Stanfield.Our first is by Daniel Maclise, it is the frontispiece:
Grace and Marion Jeddler Dancing
Daniel Maclise
1846
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: Part the First.
The second is also by Daniel Maclise:
Title page
Daniel Maclise
1846
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: Part the First
Next we have Richard Doyle:
Part the First
Richard Doyle
1846
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: Part the First
This illustration is by Clarkson Stanfield:
War
Clarkson Stanfield
1846
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: Part the First
Another by Clarkson Stanfield:
Peace
Clarkson Stanfield
1846
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: Part the First
And now we move on to John Leech:
The Parting Breakfast
John Leech
1846
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: Part the First
Kim wrote: "Another by Clarkson Stanfield:Peace
Clarkson Stanfield
1846
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: Part the First "
The illustrations by Clarkson Stanfield and Richard Doyle are interesting in that we get to see the typeset with a very large illustration on the same page. This style seems more in line with the manner in which a children's book would be formatted. The traditional Cruikshank and Browne illustrations had their own dedicated page.
I must say that for a Christmas book the initial illustrations of dead people and horses along with a wasted cannon does not put one in a holiday mood. I wonder if Dickens's intended audience was adult? The content of the initial illustrations suggests the target audience was adult, yet the page format with illustrations suggests a format for children. As we move into the story we may well shed the depressing illustrations for more seasonal ones. Let's hope so.
This one if by Fred Barnard:
The ploughshare still turned up from time to time some rusty bits of metal. . .
Fred Barnard's seventeenth illustration for Dickens's Christmas Books
Commentary:
Barnard's initial illustration for The Battle of Life reifies Dickens's general proposition that, years after a battle fought on farmland, military objects turned up in ploughing will look alien to later generations. This strategy — of inventing a likely scene to demonstrate the truth of the observation — is very different from the subject matter chosen for illustration by Maclise, Doyle, Stanfield, and Leech in the 1846 edition of The Battle of Life in that their visual complements are generally of actual scenes and narrative remarks in the story, such as Grace and Marion's dancing together in the frontispiece.
Instead of the sun setting on a corpse-strewn field of battle Fred Barnard imagines an eighteenth-century scene of peaceful commerce and a little archaeological curiosity. In front of the village tavern a ploughman displays for his cronies a portion of a gorget he has just unearthed, while the landlord (right), barmaid (left), laborers, and a middle-aged member of the middle class in respectable coat, breeches, and tricorn hat look on, fascinated. The original artists were, therefore, more literal in the passages they illustrated, although the ornamented "Title", as well as "War" and "Peace" verge on the allegorical. Oddly enough, unlike the remaining illustrations in the novella, these 1846 illustrations do not depict moments in the narrative, but merely scenes suggested by the narrator's comments about the physical setting. In the case of a collaboration, the author and illustrator usually determined the passages in the text selected for illustration, although Dickens appears to have had very specific notions about which moments he wished to have illustrated, so that he necessarily limited his illustrators' choices and treatments of subject. As Paul Goldman points out,
..."self-evidently when an illustrator was working years after the death of an author, it is of interest to see exactly where in a text the artist decides to place emphasis. It is not always a straightforward matter, either, for the belief that illustrators invariably opt for a moment of high drama is not always borne out. Regularly illustrators are more sensitive and penetrating than this and will, on occasion, choose a moment just after or indeed just before a significant event. "[Goldman 27]
In the entirely new (rather than merely "revised") illustrations for the fourth Christmas Book Barnard chose to avoid simply reinterpreting the work of Dickens's original illustrators. In place of their ornate but cartoon-like and irregularly shaped images dropped into the letterpress, Barnard offers realistic scenes with modeled figures. He misses the opportunity to present two related images simultaneously as the original illustrators occasionally do, as in "Part the First" for example, but more than compensates by providing interesting studies of the rather one-dimensional characters. In the case of this initial illustration, the textual passage which Barnard is particularizing or elaborating on is this:
The husbandmen who ploughed those places, shrunk from the great worms abounding there; and the sheaves they yielded, were, for many a long year, called the Battle Sheaves, and set apart; and no one ever knew a Battle Sheaf to be among the last load at a Harvest Home. For a long time, every furrow that was turned, revealed some fragments of the fight. For a long time, there were wounded trees upon the battle-ground; and scraps of hacked and broken fence and wall, where deadly struggles had been made; and trampled parts where not a leaf or blade would grow. For a long time, no village girl would dress her hair or bosom with the sweetest flower from that field of death: and after many a year had come and gone, the berries growing there, were still believed to leave too deep a stain upon the hand that plucked them. . . . The ploughshare still turned up from time to time some rusty bits of metal, but it was hard to say what use they had ever served, and those who found them wondered and disputed. An old dinted corselet, and a helmet, had been hanging in the church so long, that the same weak half-blind old man who tried in vain to make them out above the whitewashed arch, had marveled at them as a baby. ["Part the First," The British Household Edition]
In this initial illustration, Barnard is following the adage that "every picture tells a story," a dictum that has governed realists from the Dutch masters of the seventeenth century through the eighteenth century French genre painters such as Chardin. The picture, ironically, tells the story of the discovery of an historical artifact, a piece of armour from a long-distant battle — but none of the figures in Barnard's picture actually appears in the story, although certainly peasant types appear in the opening scenes in Dr. Jeddler's orchard. The lone middle-class representative is not Dr. Jeddler, as one may readily determine by comparing the figure here with that of the father of Grace and Marion in "'By-the-bye,' and he looked into the pretty face, still close to his, 'I suppose it's your birthday'".
In contrast to Barnard's prosaic realism as the village worthies gather to speculate on the use of the unearthed object, Stanfield in his evocation of the seventeenth-century conflict on that very ground, "War", depicts the immediate aftermath of the Civil War battle, with a dead horse, a broken cannon, battle standards, and the corpses of two soldiers in the foreground in "the scene of that day's work and that night's death and suffering" (1846 edition). Stanfield does not sensationalize the grisly scene, leaving the mounds of courses but dimly apprehended in the shadowy background, which includes the ironic image of a gothic cathedral on the horizon as the sun sets. The upper register of Doyle's "Part the First" also visually alludes to that battle, the aftermath of which exists at the top of the frame, contrasting the happy scene of Dr. Jeddler and his two daughters a century later (p. 3) in "The Age of Reason."
Maclise's "Title", on the other hand, is not an attempt to evoke an actual, historical event, but an obvious psychomachia or spiritual allegory, with angel archers (right) aiming their weapons at overwhelmed demons (left) as an angelic warrior with butterfly wings skewers a serpent and sets his foot upon a fallen demon as his banner, held aloft on a spear, proclaims "The Battle of Life." Whereas the 1846 edition, therefore, has an ambivalent attitude to the past, with quaint eighteenth-century family and village scenes contrasting the bloody battles of the seventeenth century, Barnard disregards the battle — and its implications in the novella's title — and focuses on the main temporal setting.
Another by Fred Barnard:
"'Bye-the-bye,' and he looked into the pretty face, still close to his, 'I suppose it's your birthday.'"
Fred Barnard
1878
Text Illustrated:
Barnard's picture of Dr. Jeddler and his teenaged daughters in the orchard on Marion's birthday — which coincidentally falls on the anniversary of "the great battle [that] was fought on this ground" in the previous century — realizes the following passage:
— it was Doctor Jeddler's house and orchard, you should know, and these were Doctor Jeddler's daughters — came bustling out to see what was the matter, and who the deuce played music on his property, before breakfast. For he was a great philosopher, Doctor Jeddler, and not very musical.
"Music and dancing to-day!" said the Doctor, stopping short, and speaking to himself. "I thought they dreaded to-day. But it's a world of contradictions. Why, Grace, why, Marion!" he added, aloud, "is the world more mad than usual this morning?"
"Make some allowance for it, father, if it be," replied his younger daughter, Marion, going close to him, and looking into his face, "for it's somebody's birthday."
"Somebody's birth-day, Puss!" replied the Doctor. "Don't you know it's always somebody's birthday? Did you never hear how many new performers enter on this — ha! ha! ha! — it's impossible to speak gravely of it — on this preposterous and ridiculous business called Life, every minute?"
"No, father!"
"No, not you, of course; you're a woman — almost," said the Doctor. "By-the-by," and he looked into the pretty face, still close to his, "I suppose it's your birthday."
"No! Do you really, father?" cried his pet daughter, pursing up her red lips to be kissed.
"There! Take my love with it," said the Doctor, imprinting his upon them; "and many happy returns of the — the idea! — of the day. The notion of wishing happy returns in such a farce as this," said the Doctor to himself, "is good! Ha! ha! ha!" — "Part the First," British Household Edition
Commentary:
The British Household Edition of The Christmas Books, which provides realistic images with modeled figures in the manner of the Sixties school illustrators, fails to match the visual interest of the original 1846 small-scale illustrations. Compare, for example, Dr. Jeddler's interviewing his daughters in the garden in the original series with Barnard's version of the same scene. Richard Doyle's "Part the First" shows the cheerful county doctor, dressed in the appropriate fashion of a professional man of the late eighteenth century (including a wig), conversing with his dark-haired and blonde-haired daughters in the orchard (as indicated not merely by the trees, but by the basket of apples, center). The pleasant scene is sharply contrasted by the aftermath of the Civil War conflict above, which, like Stanfield's "War" gives only a very general notion of the chronological setting. Although Barnard's second illustration for The Battle of Life: A Love Story accurately realizes the moment and even involves the philosophical physician's chucking Marion's chin, the original composition has the playfulness and humor typical of the earlier period of Victorian illustration — and it is precisely these endearing qualities that Barnard's far more realistic and academic treatment lacks
Although Barnard's realism is effective in his Carol illustrations in the 1878 British Household Edition, it fails to match the vitality of the original illustrations of The Christmas Books in the later titles. Although Barnard, working thirty years after the first editions, is faithful to the texts of The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man, his work seems mirthless and even cold when placed beside the lively pictures of the mid-1840s. Barnard, in fact, required situations and characters far stronger than those of the 1846 domestic melodrama, which eschews humor for sentimentality and is entirely lacking the supernatural dimension that one finds in varying degrees intervening in the plots of the other four Christmas Books.
Only The Battle of Life among the Christmas Books is what one might term a period piece, and indeed among Dickens's works of volume length it is one of a very few historical fictions, the other examples being Barnaby Rudge, set about 1780, and A Tale of Two Cities, the action of which covers the two decades of the American and French Revolutions, approximately 1775 to 1795. The chronological setting of the novella at first seems only incidental — certainly, it is not an "historical" fiction in the sense of having actual events embedded within it, as is the case with Dickens's two historical novels. Dickens chose an eighteenth-century setting for two reasons, the first of which was that such a setting made Marion's disappearance render more plausible, the second that his childhood favorite The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) inspired this Christmas Book. The characters are very much like Victorian characters, and Marion's sacrificing her marriage to Alfred in favor of her younger sister is typical of the personal sacrifices that Victorian society expected of its members. The original illustrations (particularly "Peace" by seascape painter Clarkson Stanfield through their simplicity and costumes capture well the agrarian England that existed prior to the coming of railways and the Industrial Revolution. In this regard, Stanfield's "Peace" underscores the annual harvest's importance in the lives of the rural population most effectively, although the action and the figures could equally appear in a mid-nineteenth century harvest scene; unfortunately, Barnard, focusing on figures rather than backdrops, has nothing to match its quiet beauty and serene landscape.
The historical setting of the fourth Christmas Book may owe something, too, to a growing middle-class interest in historical costumes and artifacts. Evidence of the rising middle class's interest in the past — not the classical world studied at the two universities, but the more recent and decidedly English past — was the continuing popularity of the Waverly novels of Sir Walter Scott and the new fascination with historical costume that made J. R. Planché's British Costume: A Complete History of the Dress of the Inhabitants of the British Isles (1834) and Charles Knight's The Pictorial History of England being a History of the People as well as History of the Kingdom Illustrated with many hundred Woodcuts (1837). The interest in historical accuracy in costuming and furniture goes back to such Renaissance masters as Mantegna (as seen in his The Triumphs of Caesar, 1484 and 1492, for example), but a more general interest among the English in such accuracy as pertained to the fashions of their own nation was signaled by the publication of Joseph Strutt's Dresses and Habits of the English People (1796-9) and the History paintings of Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828), and Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), and, closer to the publication of The Battle of Life the founding of The British Archaeological Association (1843), and the scrupulously researched costuming of the Shakespeare revivals of the 1830s and 1840s under Planché, Charles Kemble, and Dickens's great friend, the legendary actor-manager W. C. Macready. In book illustration as in painting, the new "people-based" visualization of history practiced by Daniel Maclise (1806-1870) "sought to 'flesh out' history, to bring it to life by recreating the past as accurately as possible" (MacCulloch). One can readily discern the accuracy of the eighteenth-century costumes that Maclise has created for the harvesters and the dancing Jeddler sisters in the highly decorative "Frontispiece", which includes highly realistic renditions of a harp and a fiddle (right). A demand for such historical accuracy in visualizations of the past would become a repeated theme in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's journal The Germ (1848-1850). As a serious academician and painter of historical subjects, Maclise may have allowed his pride in his scrupulous attention to historical detail to attempt to direct the work of his fellow artists on the novel in Dickens's absence. Michael Slater reports that the Punch cartoonist John Leech, the sole illustrator of A Christmas Carol in 1843, was upset at Maclise's presumption, and complained of his interference to Dickens's business manager, John Forster [Slater 125].
The shoes, dresses, fabrics, and hairstyles of the Jeddler family in Barnard's 1878 illustration are consonant, then, with the fashion for historical accuracy in the visual and performing arts. On the other hand, Barnard's depiction of Dr. Jeddler also owes something to the original narrative-pictorial sequence, particularly Richard Doyle's "Part the First", in which the philosophical country doctor strikes a Pickwickian pose, with his right hand under the tails of his coat, a pose that he borrowed from Seymour's celebrated serial illustration of "Mr. Pickwick Addresses the Club"; Fred Barnard would also have been influenced by Phiz's 1870s reiteration of this pose in "Sam stole a look at the inquirer" in the Household Edition of the novel.
KimA tip of Santa's hat and thank you for providing the illustrations and commentaries. It is important to remember, as the commentary tells us, that Marion's birthday is the same day as "the great battle" that serves as the local backdrop to this story.
Coincidence?
Peter wrote: "Ready for the snow? ..."Yes, as long as the roads are clear -- a nice change from rain! Funnily, my youngest daughter is diving in Australia, and experiencing the opposite in baking heat. Not very Christmas-like, sort of like this story we're reading so far... :)
Tristram wrote: "I am particularly interested in Doctor Jeddler, about whom the narrator says,"A kind and generous man by nature, he had stumbled, by chance, over that common Philosopher's stone (much more easily..."
As he was born, raised, and lived on this battlefield, it's as though his character has been imbued by the landscape, or rather, what lies beneath it. His servant (Britain!) has had the opposite reaction of laughing it away, and seems sunk in depression. Hopefully some of the other characters will find some balance...
Kim wrote: "This book had four different illustrators for the first edition and I don't know yet how many other people may have given it a try after that, I haven't got that far yet. Our original illustrators ..."Thank you for this, Kim. I think I must have an early edition, because these are the illustrations I have. It also feels old, and is falling apart!
Thanks, too, for the commentary.
Stanfield in his evocation of the seventeenth-century conflict on that very ground, "War", depicts the immediate aftermath of the Civil War battle...
I wondered if this battle was from the Civil War, recalling Dickens' use of it in David Copperfield through Mr. Dicks' character. There it seemed to represent divisions within families, both small and large, and I wonder if it will here, too...
Peter wrote: "KimA tip of Santa's hat and thank you for providing the illustrations and commentaries. It is important to remember, as the commentary tells us, that Marion's birthday is the same day as "the great battle" that serves as the local backdrop to this story. Coincidence?"
No, I think not :) And I wonder if her mother died in childbirth... Grace seems to have been cast into the maternal role very early.
I'm behind already! So I'm not reading all of your comments until I've finished the section, but wanted to share this: My father and brother were both historians with the National Park Service. I lived the first four years of my life on the Gettysburg battlefield (and still live close by and visit often), and later lived with my brother for a short time in the old caretaker's house in the National Cemetery at Fredericksburg. Most of my childhood vacations were spent at Civil War sites. But I've never read anything more powerful than the opening of this story about those hallowed grounds. It made the reality of what happened there move me in a way that living at the foot of Little Roundtop and countless visits to Antietam, etc. never has. Leave it to Dickens to do in a few minutes what a lifetime of immersion hasn't been able to accomplish!
Mary Lou wrote: "I'm behind already! So I'm not reading all of your comments until I've finished the section, but wanted to share this: My father and brother were both historians with the National Park Service. I l..."Mary Lou
What a life of experience and association. I have never been to Gettysburg. You must have so many experiences and stories. Did your time there lead to more than a casual interest in the history of The Civil War?
Peter wrote: "Did your time there lead to more than a casual interest in the history of The Civil War?."Just the opposite, Peter! I've had no experiences to speak of, but all that exposure made me indifferent. I would have killed to be like my friends and just go to the beach on vacations! It had a different impact on my older brothers who lived there much longer than I did - one, as I said, also became an NPS historian, and the other was career army. For me, the battlefield was just my yard, and the cannons, monuments, and boulders my playground. I've always looked at cemeteries as lovely places to walk where I can have some quiet time to myself.
I blame part of this on my elementary school librarian. My associations being what they were, I remember in fourth grade wanting to check out a book on the battle. She told me that little girls don't read about wars and steered me to something more "appropriate". In retrospect, she should have been fired for that, but it was the early 70s. I still remember feeling at the time like I'd done something wrong by choosing that book. If I had any budding interest, that certainly squashed it.
Mary Lou wrote: "I'm behind already! So I'm not reading all of your comments until I've finished the section, but wanted to share this: My father and brother were both historians with the National Park Service. I l..."You live near Gettysburg! How did I not know this before? Or maybe I knew and forgot, why, I can almost see your house from here. Ok, maybe not, we're about 1 1/2 hours north of Gettysburg. When we used to go there, and it's been quite a long time ago, there were these really big rocks, bigger than all the others thrown in here and there, and I used to sit on the top of the rocks and read while everyone else toured the battlefield.
Kim wrote: ".we're about 1 1/2 hours north of Gettysburg. When we used to go there..."I'm about 1/2 hour south of Gettysburg now, but with my daughter outside Harrisburg, we go through frequently. Plus, my parents and sister are buried there, so I stop by the cemetery periodically. Yes - I've always loved boulders, and I'm sure it's from climbing around Devil's Den as a kid... not giving a thought to the sharpshooters who once used them for cover.
Kim wrote: "The second is also by Daniel Maclise:Title page
Daniel Maclise
1846
Full-page illustration for Dickens's The Battle of Life: Part the First "
That's kind of terrifying. I guess the wings, pointy ears, and the snake are meant to signify the ultimate battle between good and evil?
Finally done with part 1. The lawyers' names, Snitchey and Craggs, don't portend good things. Knowing Dickens is not a fan of the legal system, I can't imagine that these two will be benevolent characters. I do enjoy the way Snitchey refers to himself as "Self" - it's almost self-effacing. But I don't care for his condescending attitude towards Clemency. Grace and Marion - innocent, young things. I, too, hope they won't be stereotypical Dickens women. I'm tickled to learn that Dickens has a character named Marion, as that's my name as well (Marion Louise, in case you're wondering where Mary Lou came from). I admit, I'm a bit distracted as I read, looking for a great Dickens "Marion" quote to hang on my wall. :-)
Dr. Jeddler and his philosophy kind of annoy me. I think I'd find him to be a tremendous bore if I had to spend much time with him.
Britain and Clemency are, of course, the most interesting characters in the bunch. Clemency's nutmeg grater and thimble contain all we really need to know in life, and she's not concerned with reading much else as a result. What a delight! And I haven't quite figured Britain out yet, but I hope to.
Alfred? Yawn. I have a feeling he's going to be the hub of this story - it can't happen without him - but that the other characters reactions to him will be the real meat of the story.
Tristram mentioned this passage:
...my good spinster sister, Martha Jeddler; who had what she calls her domestic trials ages ago, and has led a sympathising life with all sorts of people ever since; and who is so much of your opinion (only she's less reasonable and more obstinate, being a woman), that we can't agree, and seldom meet.
I wonder what role Martha will play in parts 2 and 3. Can't imagine Dickens would give her this introduction if she isn't going to show up again.
Like all of you, I'm anxiously waiting for Christmas to make an appearance in this Christmas story!
I'm reading this version The Battle Of Life, which is the Pears Anniversary Edition of the Christmas Stories from 1912. It has a lot of illustrations by Charles Green - monochromatic and very naturalistic. Here's Dr Jeddler's Orchard. Apparently Dickens was upset when his publisher accidentally called this character "Dr. Taddler".
It makes a change and I do like them! (I have the text on my Kindle alongside.)
It seems odd to me at the moment, to swerve from the violence of the battle scenes, to the light-hearted whimsical frippery of the flirtatious orchard scenes, but I expect it is perhaps a metaphor for another sort of battle. Clearly both sisters are in love with the younger one's beau, (or something).
I'm enjoying the portrayal of Clemency Newcome the best :D
Jean wrote: "I'm reading this version The Battle Of Life, which is the Pears Anniversary Edition of the Christmas Stories from 1912. It has a lot of illustrations by Charles Green - monochromati..."I have to say I like the style of Green's illustration better than some of the more traditional ones, which are very busy and hard on my eyes. Green give our eyes places to rest, which is refreshing, both physically and mentally. His depiction of the people and the event, though, is a bit dull.
Thanks for the illustration, Jean! It made me notice one thing about my general idea as to Dickens illustrations - because I was quite astonished at finding the figures so close to nature, even Clemency, of whom I have a more grotesque image in my mind. It's just my twopence that Dickens has a way of writing that intrigues me to expect illustrations that are less close to naturalistic descriptions but more tongue-in-cheek or romantic-sombre (like those by Phiz or by most of the other artists we have so far been introduced to by Kim). That's probably also why I find it hard to reconcile myself with film versions of Dickens's novels, be they ever so faithful to the original text. One might say that, for me, Dickens is by far stronger than reality ;-)
Mary Lou wrote: "Clemency's nutmeg grater and thimble contain all we really need to know in life, and she's not concerned with reading much else as a result. "A good point, Mary Lou; maybe Clemency's focus on the thimble and the nutmeg grater as literary texts contrasts her with the much more learned Doctor, whose scholarly background has estranged him from life and people's worries and cares in that he regards it all as a comedy, a grim one but a comedy still. In the second part - no spoilers here, because by now, we have probably all read the second part -, Ben Britain says, good-humouredly, that Clemency does probably not have a lot of philosophical ideas in her head, and she affirms this assessment, without in the least taking offence. Britain, himself, by contrast, preens himself on his ability to fathom things - but he is not any the happier for it.
I agree that the style by Charles Green is very restful - but I agree with you Tristram that it is not quite how we envisage Dickens's characters. I usually like Phiz best of course! But these are so naturalistic (perhaps even to the point of being dull, as you say, Mary Lou). In fact they almost look like photographs. What delighted me most about this particular edition, apart from the fact that the book is over 100 years old, and still lovely to hold with no page discoloration, is the sheer number of illustrations :)
Another I just came across by Sol Eytinge Jr.
"The Breakfast" by Sol Eytinge, Jr.
Text Illustrated:
Perhaps to change the subject, Dr. Jeddler made a hasty move towards the breakfast, and they all sat down at table. Grace presided; but so discreetly stationed herself, as to cut off her sister and Alfred from the rest of the company. Snitchey and Craggs sat at opposite corners, with the blue bag between them for safety; the Doctor took his usual position, opposite to Grace. Clemency hovered galvanically about the table, as waitress; and the melancholy Britain, at another and a smaller board, acted as Grand Carver of a round of beef and a ham.
"Meat?" said Britain, approaching Mr. Snitchey, with the carving knife and fork in his hands, and throwing the question at him like a missile.
"Certainly," returned the lawyer.
Do you want any?" to Craggs.
"Lean and well done," replied that gentleman.
Having executed these orders, and moderately supplied the Doctor (he seemed to know that nobody else wanted anything to eat), he lingered as near the Firm as he decently could, watching with an austere eye their disposition of the viands, and but once relaxing the severe expression of his face. This was on the occasion of Mr. Craggs, whose teeth were not of the best, partially choking, when he cried out with great animation, "I thought he was gone!"
"Now, Alfred,' said the Doctor, "for a word or two of business, while we are yet at breakfast."
Commentary:
Whereas in "The Parting Breakfast" in the original 1846 Bradbury and Evans edition, John Leech has been able to integrate two discrete scenes (the arrival of the stage-coach, upper right, and in the foreground the breakfast celebrating Alfred's birthday and his imminent departure for medical studies). Whereas Leech shows a number of figures seated around the table, Eytinge has been able to show only the faces of those gathered for the al fresco breakfast. His only fully realized figures are those of Benjamin Britain, carving ham (left), and Clemency Newcome, serving breakfast (center). Clemency in her distinctive hat and print dress is obvious among a predominantly male company, which includes the lookalike lawyers Jonathan Snitchey and Thomas Craggs sitting across the table from one another, and Dr. Jeddler, holding forth at the far end of the table and gesturing to emphasize his philosophical notion that life is a farce. The only young man present, Alfred Heathfield, occupies a symbolic position across from his adoptive father and between the two Jeddler sisters.
In contrast to Eytinge's sole illustration for the novella, Doyle's "Part the First" (1846) prepares the reader for a plot involving the one sister's sacrificing her happiness for the other, but assiduously avoids showing either of story's young men. In his original versaion of the Eytinge illustration, John Leech utilizes the lively al fresco dining scene (also entitled "The Parting Breakfast") as exposition in that introduces among the extended family the country lawyers, Snitchey and Craggs, the whimsical fermale servant, Clemency Newcome, and the sardonic man servant, Benjamin Britain (right); moreover, in its simultaneous presentation of the arriving coach and farewell breakfast the wood-engraving by Leech is certainly more innovative pictorially than Eytinge's more static scene. Abbey's "'Meat?' said Britain, approaching Mr. Snitchey, with the carving knife and fork in his hands, and throwing the question at him like a missile" (American Household Edition, 1876) is more successful as an introduction of Clemency and Alfred, and is more pleasing as a composition through the variety of the figures' poses. There is no parallel scene in the British Household Edition volume of 1878.
As to determining which of Eytinge's sisters is the younger and more attractive Marion and which the older, Grace, the reader must consult the text, without considering the visual distinction between the two established by the original illustrators. In Doyle's "Part the First," Grace (standing) adjusts the flowers in the hair of her sister (seated), so that Doyle's Grace is the blonde, Marion the brunette (although Dickens himself is silent on this point). The text establishes that Marion is "the willful beauty" — "the younger and more beautiful child," and that, during the breakfast scene, Grace, seated immediately opposite her father, cuts her sister and Alfred off from the rest of the diners. Accordingly, in "The Parting Breakfast," Eytinge probably intends the young woman right of center to be Grace — even though she is clearly plainer of visage and dark-haired. As is characteristic of his illustrations of young women, Eytinge shows both Jeddler sisters with their hair up, even though the text mentions their "streaming hair" when they are dancing in the orchard (evocatively realized in Doyle's "Frontispiece") shortly before the breakfast. By choosing this early scene, Eytinge has avoided touching on the subject that confounded Leech in the original narrative-pictorial sequence, namely, the plot involving Marion's disappearance and supposed elopement in "The Night of the Dance."
Thanks, Kim! The good old glum Ben Britain carving the ham made my day!
The Eytinge illustration seems so off, somehow. Is it me? The characters seem all blurry, and lack firmness and clear definition.This is not to endorse Kyd in any way. :-))
Peter wrote: "The Eytinge illustration seems so off, somehow. Is it me? The characters seem all blurry, and lack firmness and clear definition.This is not to endorse Kyd in any way. :-))"
Yes - like a funhouse mirror.
The Pickwick Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Battle Of Life (other topics)The Battle Of Life (other topics)
In this merriest of all seasons, family members, friends and bosses and colleagues suddenly seem to remember that there is more to life than work, school, quality time with your spouse and children and quality time with a good book. And that’s why they flood your mailbox – both virtual and metal – with invitations for Christmas parties, evenings at the Weihnachtsmarkt, social gatherings here and social gatherings there. If one of your family, or yourself, actually plays a musical instrument, it is even worse because the weeks before Christmas are a Canossa road of rehearsals, and so, to put things in a nutshell – nuts, especially filberts, being another unalienable Christmas accessory –, you might eventually forget who is to open the latest discussion thread in the Pickwick Club.
Since Kim and I do not want to keep you waiting and wondering any longer, we decided that I should open the discussion on the first part of our annual Christmas read. I did not take any notes while reading this first part, though, because I was busy preparing my son’s class’s Christmas party, which took place yesterday and for which, amongst other things, I had the honour to impersonate Santa Claus, a role for which I am clearly predestined by my portliness as well as by the ruddiness of my cheeks, something that always comes on during the mulled wine season, - now I am so tangled up syntactically that it is high time I started another sentence: Since I did not take any notes, it is going to be a rather short recap.
Here goes. Dickens starts his Christmas tale by referring to an ancient battlefield where years and years ago two mighty armies waged war against each other, without exactly saying what the reason for this war was. I was stunned by the beauty and the power of this description, especially by passages like the following:
The years went by, and people, who at first shunned the place and would not eat of the fruits that had grown in places where hundreds of dead soldiers were buried together with their horses, eventually forgot more and more about the dreadful massacre. Then we are introduced to a couple of characters, like Dr. Jeddler and his two daughters Grace and Marion. Dr. Jeddler seems to be a light version of Mr. Gradgrind: good enough at heart, but spoilt by his philosophy, which leads him to believe that nothing about human life should be taken seriously, that it is all a mug’s game. There are also two servants, Mr. Britain and the maid Clemency Newcome, both of them being comic relief characters. Furthermore, there is a young man called Alfred – do we get his family name? – and two crusty lawyers by the name of Snitchey and Craggs; as usual in Dickens, these two lawyers are of a more sinister and ambiguous stamp.
In the first chapter, we learn that Alfred, who has been Dr. Jeddler’s ward and pupil and also been apprenticed to the lawyer’s, comes of age this very day and is about to leave Dr. Jeddler’s house in order to make his fortune in the world. We also learn that Alfred has formed a romantic attachment to the Doctor’s youngest daughter, Marion. They are giving Alfred a farewell dinner, and at the end of the chapter, we see him leaving his old home on the stagecoach.
As I said, I did not take any notes this time and was writing the above recap from memory, and that is why it is rather short and sketchy. This time, I don’t have any particular discussion questions, either, but just hope that you will enjoy giving your impressions and sharing your thoughts, anyway.