Pipes Advertisement in Harper's Weekly [text]

In Harper’s Weekly’s May 30, 1868 issue, the reader sees an advertisement for tobacco pipes, pipe repairs, and pipe holders. This advertisement is an example of “sensational advertising” as we see that the advertisement can catch the reader’s eye with the illustration of the pipe presented. We can do a tessellated reading between this advertisement and The Moonstone in this issue of Harpers.

 As the editor probably already knew, pipes are a great advertisement to have the reader’s view before reading The Moonstone. In this instalment of The Moonstone, the story begins with Franklin Blake walking up to Betteredge, while he is reading Robinson Crusoe. It does not specify that Betteredge was smoking his pipe. However, Wilkie Collins has trained his readers to recognize Betteredge, his pipe, and Robinson Crusoe as a trinity. Betteredge is the man who smokes a pipe while reading Robinson Crusoe; Robinson Crusoe is the book that Betteredge reads while smoking his pipe. You can’t talk about Betteredge and Crusoe without thinking about his pipe, which is why the pipe advertisement is a very strongly placed advertisement. Now whenever the reader thinks of Betteredge and Crusoe, the reader will think about the pipe and the pipe advertisement that they just saw a couple pages back.