"Little Nell," by George Cattermole for first edition of
The Old Curiosity Shop
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Little Nell: Not Dead But Sleeping
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The Old Curiosity Shop
was illustrated by Hablot Browne ("Phiz"), who was Dickens's main illustrator, and by George Cattermole, who did these two pictures. "The child in her gentle slumber," near the beginning of the story, lies surrounded by contrasting grotesque images, their untidy menace kept at bay by her air of innocence (and a few religious icons): Quilp is not present here, but in other, similar illustrations he lurks as a constant threat. Nell herself looks angelic enough to be thought dead rather than asleep, unless we say that her arms lying on top of her body is a sign of lifein contrast with her arms at her side, clutching a book (presumably a Bible) when she is finally dead, in Cattermole's picture for the conclusion of the storythis time surrounded only by uplifting, not at all by grotesque, images. "No sleep so beautiful and calm,'' says the text, "so free from traces of pain, so fair to look upon."
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