What is the use of a book without pictures

I started the challenge of reading a Dickens novel each month in January, but lockdown has certainly helped it along. Today I finished “The Old Curiosity Shop”. It’s not my favourite so far, although it might just have the best villain. An unexpected pleasure was the number of illustrations. The novel was originally serialised in a magazine called “Master Humphrey’s Clock” and the drawings were provided by four artists. Why is it that modern novels never have any pictures?

This is the most famous illustration in “The Old Curiosity Shop”, depicting the death of Little Nell in the last episode. Apparently the story was so popular that New York readers stormed the wharf when the ship bearing the final instalment arrived in 1841.