Phiz, a Memoir.

Kitton, Frederic George, 1856-1904Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 63K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today."Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne), a Memoir. by Frederic George KittonAuthor: Kitton, Frederic George, 1856-1904,Language: English, Class: NC: Fine Arts: Drawing, Design, Illustration, Release Date: Sep 14, 2010

Editor's review

This is a biographical memoir by Frederic George Kitton of the illustrator Hablot Knight Browne, known by the pen name "Phiz." Phiz is familiar for his long collaboration with Dickens, illustrating works such as The Pickwick Papers and David Copperfield, and this memoir focuses on the illustrator's own artistic career and creative environment rather than serving merely as a footnote to literary classics. Readers can learn about several aspects of nineteenth-century British illustration and publishing, and see how an illustrator participated through visual language in shaping literary classics. Kitton's narrative has the genial tone of Victorian biography, with material organized around life and works; it suits slow reading by those interested in Dickens studies, the history of book illustration, and print and visual culture. As a public-domain ebook, the text appears in its original English, and readers should compare it with relevant illustrated editions to appreciate the interplay between image and text. Overall, this is a specialized book for readers with a particular interest, valuable for filling in the illustrational dimension so often overlooked in literary history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in Dickens's works and their illustrated editions
Scholars or students of nineteenth-century British book illustration and publishing history
Readers who enjoy artists' biographies and want to understand the professional world of illustrators
Readers with English reading ability accustomed to public-domain ebooks

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for a biography of Dickens himself or the original novels
General leisure readers with no interest in illustration or art history
Readers who find English difficult and need a Chinese translation

Reading tips

First look at the Dickens novel illustrations mentioned in the book, then read the corresponding biographical chapters; comparing image and text makes it easier to understand.
Use the book as a reference work, dipping in by illustration or stage of life rather than reading page by page from start to finish.
Note as you read the threads linking Phiz with publishers and writers, to help trace the nineteenth-century illustration production process.
If the English original proves difficult, use reliable Chinese Dickens scholarship to aid understanding of the background.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Who is "Phiz," and is this book a novel?

"Phiz" is the pen name of the British illustrator Hablot Knight Browne, famous for his novel illustrations made in collaboration with Dickens. This book is not a novel but a memoir-style biography by Frederic George Kitton, mainly recounting the illustrator's life and work.

Is this book suitable as an introduction to Dickens studies?

It can serve as supplementary material rather than the main entry point. The book focuses on the illustrator rather than Dickens himself, so it is best read after you have read Dickens's major works and formed some impression of their illustrations; it then adds the visual dimension so often overlooked in literary history.

What should I keep in mind when reading the ebook?

This is a public-domain English ebook from Project Gutenberg, set mainly in plain text, and the illustrations may not appear in their original plate form. It is advisable to compare it with illustrated editions from other sources, and to note the old-fashioned spellings and differences in the rendering of names in the English original.

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About the author

Kitton, Frederic George, 1856-1904 Author

Frederic George Kitton (1856–1904) was an English author and researcher of book illustration; public information about him is limited, and details of his life are largely unknown. Three of his works are held here, all centred on Charles Dickens and the art of illustration: Phiz, a Memoir is a biography of Hablot K. Browne, Dickens's principal illustrator, known as "Phiz"; Dickens and His Illustrators examines Dickens's collaborations with a range of illustrators; and The Dickens Country traces places associated with Dickens's life and novels. His writing is distinguished by archival research and attention to textual and pictorial evidence, with a plain, factual style that values primary sources. These works remain useful to Dickens studies and to the history of Victorian book illustration.