The Dickens jigsaw puzzle

One thousand pieces in the Charles Dickens and His Novels
jigsaw puzzle.  What a delight!  Illustrated by Tony Hunt RI,
his whimsical caricatures, in the spirit of original Dickens
illustrators, keep you company the whole time–and I do
mean the whole long time!  One little problem . . .

is the fact that when assembling the puzzle, and here it’s in a
state of near completion:

although you merrily pick out the FACES, and
there are 137 of them, (not counting soldiers and men
in boats!) that with 137 faces–what fun–there are twice
as many, or 274 shoes, boots, barefeet, socks and so forth
to go with them.  Various pieces with feet:

feet pieces from Dickens puzzle ©booksandbuttons CLICK TO ENLARGE

Some have red and white striped socks and that’s
helpful.  And, have you considered how many HANDS
there will be?

Still, I mustered on.  Might as well since the candy (see
previous “Dickens puzzle” posts) was gone.

©booksandbuttons

And now am finished, and I’ll prove it.

All along, as a help aide, on the back of the puzzle box–
maybe not that helpful since it was always full of pieces–
is/was a guide to the scenes.  I chose the Nicholas Nickleby
one to show you—

and here’s that part of the puzzle–

“Nicholas Astonishes Mr. Squeers and Family” from Dickens puzzle by Tony Hunt RI

AND–here is the same scene by Hablôt Knight Browne
(‘Phiz’) from my “new” copy of Nicholas Nickleby:

original illustration in Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, illus Hablôt Knight Browne

I don’t know what the commotion is about (yet)
but I love the ink pot flying through the air.

Puzzle is finished.  Have started Nicholas Nickleby,
love it so far.  What are you reading?