This was the rst illustration I drew envisioning a scene from the second volume of Great
Expectations, the book being subdivided in three volumes.
Joe Gargery (far left), who is a stepfather to Pip (middle), is humbly picking up his hat,
that keeps falling from the chimney piece, while Pip and Herbert (far right) are being
served by Pip's Boy in top-boots.
Right from the start it is visible, that a huge amount of e ort was invested in the lavish
decoration of a room, which in the book may have been a lot more barren. This is Pip's
abode in Barnard's Inn, an Inn, which Dickens describes as the "dingiest collection of
shabby buildings ever squeezed together". Later Pip admits to have been prominent in
a local upholsterer book and that his appartment in Barnard's Inn has vastly changed
, since his rst arrival. After pondering around how to describe this scene, I eventually
decided to go the luxurious way. After all it is a nice change from the austere rooms in
Pip's old home in the rst volume of Great Expectations.
Little touches can be found in a portrait of George IV in the far left, pinpointing this
speci c moment at a time in his reign, and in a crumpled playbill to a show of Hamlet
on the bottom of the table.
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