As is the custom for a regular serialised publication for a wide audience, David Copperfield, like Dickens's earlier novels, was from the beginning a "story in pictures" whose many engravings are part of the novel and how the story is related.
Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz)
Phiz drew the original, the first two illustrations associated with David Copperfield: on the wrapper for the serial publication, for which he engraved the silhouette of a baby staring at a globe, probably referring to the working title (The Copperfield Survey of the World as it Rolled), and the frontispiece (later used in the published books), and the title page. The green wrapper is shown at the top of this article. Phiz drew the images around the central baby-over-the-globe with no information on the characters who would appear in the novel. He knew only that it would be a bildungsroman.[189] The images begin at the bottom, on the left side of the tree that has leaves on the left, and is dead on the right. A woman holds a baby on her lap. The images continue clockwise, marking events of a life, but with no reference to any specific event or specific character of the novel.[189][190]
When each issue was written, Phiz then worked with Dickens on the illustrations. "In the monthly plates, Phiz would have to translate the memories of the protagonist-narrator into a third-person objective or dramatic point of view."[189] Some of his illustrations contain details that are not in the text, but illuminate a character or situation, "forming part of [...] of what the novel is".[191] Dickens accepted and even encouraged these additional, sometimes subtle indications, which, commenting on the event, say more than the narrator says in print. The latter intends to stay behind, just like the author who, thus, hides behind the illustrator.
Dickens was particularly scrupulous about illustrations; he scrutinised the smallest details and sometimes demanded modifications, for example to replace for a very particular episode the coat that David wears by "a little jacket".[192] The illustration of the meeting between David and Aunt Betsey was particularly delicate, and Phiz had to do it several times, the ultimate choice being that of Dickens.[19] Once the desired result was obtained, Dickens does not hide his satisfaction: the illustrations are "capital", he writes to Phiz, and especially that which depicts Mr Micawber in chapter 16, "uncommonly characteristic".[193]
One puzzling mismatch between the text and accompanying illustrations is that of the Peggotty family's boat-house "cottage" on the Yarmouth sands (pictured). It is clear from the text that the author envisaged the house as an upright boat, whereas the illustrator depicted it as an upturned hull resting on the beach with holes cut for the doors and windows. Interior illustrations of the cottage also show it as a room with curved ceiling beams implying an upturned hull. Although Dickens seemed to have had the opportunity to correct this discrepancy he never did, suggesting that he was happy with the illustrator's depiction.[194]
Other illustrators
Barkis takes David to Yarmouth (Harold Copping)Daniel Peggotty by Frank ReynoldsPeggotty and David, by Jessie Willcox-SmithMicawber by "Kyd"David Copperfield was later illustrated by many artists later, after the serialization, including:
- Fred Barnard (1846–1896), who illustrated David Copperfield in the Household Edition by Chapman & Hall in the 1870s;[195]
- Kyd (Joseph Clayton Clarke) (1855–1937);
- Harold Copping (1863–1932), who illustrated Dickens stories for children;[196]
- Frank Reynolds (1876–1953);
- Jessica Willcox Smith (1863–1935) who has illustrated many abbreviated editions for children.
- Charles Keeping (1924-1988) who illustrated the complete works of Dickens for the Folio Society.
Some of these works are fullsize paintings rather than illustrations included in editions of the novels.[197] Kyd painted watercolours. Frank Reynolds provided the illustrations for a 1911 edition of David Copperfield.[198]
Although the reputation of Dickens with literary critics went through a decline and a much later rise after he died,[199] his popularity with readers followed a different pattern after his death. Around 1900, his novels, including David Copperfield, began an increase in popularity, and the 40-year copyrights expired for all but his latest novels, opening the door to other publishers in the UK; by 1910 all of them had expired.[200] This created the opportunity for new illustrators in new editions of the novels, as both Fred Barnard (Household Edition) and Frank Reynolds (1911 edition of David Copperfield) provided, for example; their styles were different from that of Phiz who provided the illustrations for the first publications of the novel in 1850 and during the author's life. As the books were read by so many (one publisher, Chapman & Hall, sold 2 million copies of Dickens's works in the period 1900–1906),[200] the characters became more popular for use outside the novels, in jigsaw puzzles and postcards. Uriah Heep and Mr Micawber were popular figures for illustrations. As World War I approached, the illustrations on postcards and the novels, abridged or full length, continued in popularity in the UK and among the soldiers and sailors abroad.[200]
