Bleak House, no. 18,

London: Bradbury and Evans, August 1853

Dickens’s Bleak House sprawls across the city of London, depicting the metropolis through a seemingly never-ending court case and the people it affects. Browne’s illustration The Morning depicts the early hours in which one such character, Lady Dedlock, has collapsed dead in the impoverished neighborhood of Tom-All-Alone’s. One of Dickens’s most important collaborators, Browne, better known as Phiz, worked closely with the writer on ten projects. This illustration is a striking example of his inky, painterly series of plates, which recall the velvety texture of mezzotints. It first appeared in August 1853, in the second-to-last serial part of the novel, which is displayed here alongside the bound edition from that same year.