The New York Public Library, Berg Collection of
English and American Literature
"A foul deed."
In his reading Sikes and Nancy, Dickens enacted the horrible scene of Nancy's murder with such ferocity that audiences gaped at him with fixed expressions of horror, as if he "had been going to be hanged." The English illustrator and etcher F.W. Pailthorpe executed this original pencil and watercolor drawing for a set of extra illustrations to Oliver Twist, which were published by Robson & Kerslake in 1886.