Harry Furniss

Life
1854-1925; b. Wexford; caricaturist in Illustrated London News, Schoolboy’s Punch, et al.; ill. Downey’s Brayhard (1890); his own novels include Poverty Bay (1905); also issued Some Victorian Women, Good, Bad, and Indifferent (1923) - which includes a chapter on Lady Wilde, Mrs Oliphant, Mary Mapes Dodge Lady Tree, Kate Greenaway, Alice Havers and Lady Butler, et al., to the number of 30; also Some Victorian Men (1924). ODNB DIB SUTH.

[ top ]

Works
Some Victorian Women, Good, Bad, and Indifferent (London: John Lane [Bodley Head] 1923), 226pp. [blue pictorial cloth].

‘The illustrator, Harry Furniss, not only drew a number of caricatures of the various members of the Wilde family, but wrote “With all the queer ways of this eccentric couple, it is no wonder that Oscar, their genius of a son, grew into an eccentric unnatural being” ’. (Furniss, op. cit., p.4; quoted in Christine Kinealy, “The Stranger Scoffing”, in OScolars online - accessed 29.06.2011.)

[ top ]

References
Dictionary of National Biography: 1825-1910; caricaturist and illustrator; ed. in Dublin; joined Illustrated London News, chosen by Sir Henry Lucy to ill. ‘Essence of Parliament’ in Punch, 1881; Punch office Table, 1884; resigned 1894; unsuccessful journalist career followed; ill. complete eds. of Dickens (1910) and Thackeray (1911). See also Irish Book Lover, Vols. 3, 11.

Alibris.com lists ...

Some Victorian Women: Good, Bad and Indifferent (London: Lane 1923), is best condition at Brimstones (UK) [£20]; in fair condition at David Bunnett, UK [£25]; in good condition at Hoffman’s (US) [£31]; in good condition, purportedly 2 vols. 8°, with front. port. and 114pp of pls. at Island Books (UK) [£51]; in reprint copy at Kessinger Publishing (US), 2005 [£37]

John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction(Harlow: Longmans 1988); 1854-1925; youngest son of English civil engineer, b. Wexford, ed. Wesleyan Coll., Dublin; to England, 1873; Ill. London News 1876, Punch 1880; later pioneer of British cinematography.

Belfast Public Library holds Flying Visits (n.d.); P. and O., sketches (n.d.); Poverty Bay (1905); Royal Academy, an artistic joke (1887). also 1950 Cat.: Brayhard, The Strange Adventures of One Ass and Seven Champions (1890), 37 ills, by Harry Furniss [Hyland 214].

[ top ]

Notes
Some Victorian Women, Good, Bad, and Indifferent (London: John Lane 1923) is cited in Ian Small, Oscar Wilde Revalued (ELT Press 1993)].

[ top ]