File:The Boofer Lady.jpg

The Boofer Lady by Marcus Stone. Wood engraving by Dalziel. 9.5 cm high x 14.6 cm wide. First illustration for the tenth monthly number of Our Mutual Friend, Chapter Fourteen, "Strong of Purpose," in the second book, "Birds of a Feather." The Authentic edition, facing p. 340. Stone's illustration for Book 2, Chapter 14, "Strong of Purpose," recalls the adopted orphan Johnny's dying from a respiratory ailment, and his final words in the Children's Hospital, to which Mrs. Boffin, Bella Wilfer, and John Rokesmith had taken him. The moment the illustrator has chosen to realise is the end of a passage in Part 10 (the monthly number for February 1865). According to Stone's reading of the novel in monthly parts, but nonetheless informed by Dickens's personal explanations of the trajectories of the characters, this is a key moment of spiritual rehabilitation for the "wilful" Bella, for in deliberating as to whether she really loves Rokesmith after all, she reverses her judgment that only the acquisition of wealth can produce happiness. Reading the bare, unadorned text, one might not aware that this is a psychological turning point for Bella, and therefore the point at which the sensitive reader begins to identify with her. Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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