Friends of the Dickens Forum:

	Paul Schlicke <[log in to unmask]> has thought of an hilarious
illustration to _Martin Chuzzlewit_:
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Not a lacuna, but the most noteworthy addition I recall: when old Martin
Chuzzlewit exposes Pecksniff and knocks him down, one of the books which
falls to the floor is identified in the illustration as Paradise Lost,
which nicely fits the pattern of edenic imagery in the text.

John Gordon's query:

        In Chapter 31 of _Dombey and Son_ the narrator wonders aloud why
Carker and Florence have thoughts of "Good Mrs Brown."  The accompanying
illustration, "Coming home from Church," shows Mrs Brown crouched in the
crowd through which they are passing.  So that is the answer to the
question: they have thoughts of her because she's there.  As far as I can
tell, without the illustration it would be unanswerable.

        Does Dickens do anything of the same sort elsewhere?  That is,
does he rely on his illustrator to fill lacunae in the narrative?

John Gordon


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