‘For he has his pictures, ancient and modern’: Likenesses in Bleak House

The problem of physical and moral resemblance, the relation between original and copy, between a model and its representation, all those questions are relevant to Bleak House. This paper studies the notion of likeness in relation to the illustrations of the novel, not only Phiz’s original drawings f...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Laurent Bury
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2012-01-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/12234
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832581342791991296
author Laurent Bury
author_facet Laurent Bury
author_sort Laurent Bury
collection DOAJ
description The problem of physical and moral resemblance, the relation between original and copy, between a model and its representation, all those questions are relevant to Bleak House. This paper studies the notion of likeness in relation to the illustrations of the novel, not only Phiz’s original drawings for the first edition, but also Mervyn Peake’s abortive attempt at re-illustrating Bleak House in 1945. While Hablot K. Browne generally neglected physical resemblance and tried to offer a feeling of overall likeness involving all the various elements in his pictures (objects, décor, light and shade), Peake’s illustrations, concentrating on close-up faces and resorting to strong lighting effects, use a totally different strategy to reach the same objective: depicting a reality beyond the appearances mentioned in the text.
format Article
id doaj-art-f32db510dbe5493ba401731e18a42b83
institution Kabale University
issn 0220-5610
2271-6149
language English
publishDate 2012-01-01
publisher Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
record_format Article
series Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
spelling doaj-art-f32db510dbe5493ba401731e18a42b832025-01-30T10:20:57ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492012-01-0110.4000/cve.12234‘For he has his pictures, ancient and modern’: Likenesses in Bleak HouseLaurent BuryThe problem of physical and moral resemblance, the relation between original and copy, between a model and its representation, all those questions are relevant to Bleak House. This paper studies the notion of likeness in relation to the illustrations of the novel, not only Phiz’s original drawings for the first edition, but also Mervyn Peake’s abortive attempt at re-illustrating Bleak House in 1945. While Hablot K. Browne generally neglected physical resemblance and tried to offer a feeling of overall likeness involving all the various elements in his pictures (objects, décor, light and shade), Peake’s illustrations, concentrating on close-up faces and resorting to strong lighting effects, use a totally different strategy to reach the same objective: depicting a reality beyond the appearances mentioned in the text.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/12234
spellingShingle Laurent Bury
‘For he has his pictures, ancient and modern’: Likenesses in Bleak House
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
title ‘For he has his pictures, ancient and modern’: Likenesses in Bleak House
title_full ‘For he has his pictures, ancient and modern’: Likenesses in Bleak House
title_fullStr ‘For he has his pictures, ancient and modern’: Likenesses in Bleak House
title_full_unstemmed ‘For he has his pictures, ancient and modern’: Likenesses in Bleak House
title_short ‘For he has his pictures, ancient and modern’: Likenesses in Bleak House
title_sort for he has his pictures ancient and modern likenesses in bleak house
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/12234
work_keys_str_mv AT laurentbury forhehashispicturesancientandmodernlikenessesinbleakhouse