Vote for your favorite couples!

It's time to determine the best Dickensian couple! Out of all your nominations, both here and on the Facebook page, seven couples made the cut -- all the couples who were nominated by three or more people. The poll is in the sidebar on the right side of the page, and you'll be able to vote until Tuesday morning. You may vote for up to two couples.  

Here are our contestants! (Be aware that there are plenty of spoilers in the photos and quotes below.)

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Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness, The Old Curiosity Shop

"This poor little Marchioness has been wearing herself to death!" cried Dick.

"No I haven't," she returned, "not a bit of it. Don't you mind about me. I like sitting up, and I've often had a sleep, bless you, in one of them chairs. But if you could have seen how you tried to jump out o' winder, and if you could have heard how you used to keep singing and making speeches, you wouldn't have believed it -- I'm so glad you're better, Mr. Liverer."

"Liverer indeed!" said Dick thoughtfully. "It's well I am a liverer. I strongly suspect I should have died, Marchioness, but for you."

David Copperfield and Agnes Wickfield, David Copperfield


"I am so blest, Trotwood -- my heart is so overcharged -- but there is one thing I must say."

"Dearest, what?"

She laid her gentle hands upon my shoulders, and looked calmly in my face.

"Do you know, yet, what it is?"

"I am afraid to speculate on what it is. Tell me, my dear."

"I have loved you all my life!"

Arthur Clennam and Amy Dorrit, Little Dorrit

"I am yours anywhere, everywhere! I love you dearly! I would rather pass my life here with you, and go out daily, working for our bread, than I would have the greatest fortune that ever was told, and be the greatest lady that ever was honoured. O, if poor papa may only know how blest at last my heart is, in this room where he suffered for so many years!"

Sydney Carton and Lucie Manette, A Tale of Two Cities

"In the hour of my death, I shall hold sacred the one good remembrance -- and shall thank and bless you for it -- that my last avowal of myself was made to you, and that my name, and faults, and miseries were gently carried in your heart. May it otherwise be light and happy!"

He was so unlike what he had ever shown himself to be, and it was so sad to think how much he had thrown away, and how much he every day kept down and perverted, that Lucie Manette wept mournfully for him as he stood looking back to her.

Noddy and Henrietta Boffin, Our Mutual Friend


Opening her eyes again, and seeing her husband's face across the table, she leaned forward to give it a pat on the cheek, and sat down to supper, declaring it the best face in the world.

John Harmon/Rokesmith and Bella Wilfer, Our Mutual Friend


"I knew you would come to him, and I followed you," said Rokesmith. "My love, my life! You ARE mine?"

To which Bella responded, "Yes, I AM yours if you think me worth taking!" And after that, seemed to shrink to next to nothing in the clasp of his arms, partly because it was such a strong one on his part, and partly because there was such a yielding to it on hers.

Eugene Wrayburn and Lizzie Hexam, Our Mutual Friend


"You have thrown yourself away," said Eugene, shaking his head. "But you have followed the treasure of your heart. My justification is, that you had thrown that away first, dear girl!"

"No. I had given it to you."

"The same thing, my poor Lizzie!"

"Hush, hush! A very different thing."

Comments

[David]

I only wish I could vote for all of them.

[Marian]

You know, as much as I love the Little Dorrit miniseries, the book is much more romantic. I love the quiet, poignant ending, and it seems to me more realistic than the miniseries's Cranford-style finale.

I guess you can tell who I voted for. :D

[Christy]

I wanted to vote for at least half of them! So I voted for the Boffins and Lizzie and Eugene. Can it be true that "Our Mutual Friend" has overtaken "Bleak House" as my favorite Dickens book?

[Gina]

Do you all realize -- it occurred to me while I was putting the poll together -- that nearly half the men here are nursed through potentially fatal illnesses or injuries by their respective love interests? (That would be Dick, Arthur, and Eugene.) It's interesting how often Dickens has the ladies rescue the knights, so to speak. :-)

[Nina]

Well at least David and Agnes are pulling second right now, lol.

[Nina]

Hey Gina, I love the pictures and quotes you posted (a really nice touch!!) but ew, I just realized Mr. Boffin is played by the same man who played Tulkinghorn in the 1985 Bleak House...

[Tim]

This is, as in all things Dickens, an embarrassment of riches!

[Marian]

He also plays one of the Mr Barnacles in Little Dorrit! :)

[mary]

Of the ones listed, Arthur and Amy! But I wish I could vote for a few more. Sidney and Lucie would be my second choice.

[Gina]

You know you can vote for two, right?

[Vic]

When I was in high school and college I read Dickens all the time. I don't know why I got out of the habit. Great poll!

[Gina]

Thanks, Vic, and welcome to the site! :-)

[ibmiller]

Arthur and Amy - but just a hair less heart-melty, Bella and John.

[Scrabcake]

But Sydney and Lucie are kind of a non-entity as a couple. That's kind of the point.
Sydney and the Seamstress are kind of a non-entity as a couple, too. But I'd say they're a better couple than him and Lucie.

[Gina]

True, but in the original nominations post, I defined couple as a pair in which at least one person is in love with the other, just to allow us to widen the field.