Feb. 8, 1868 "General Falcon" - All the Year Round
This excerpt is from the story printed immediately after “The Moonstone”. This story appears to be a fictionalized depiction of a gentleman’s visit to Venezuala. Throughout the narrative, the speaker is fascinated and bemused by the behavior of General Falcon. The section ends with the narrator noting that he was “pleased with [General Falcon’s] manners, but not too deeply convinced of his sincerity”. The narrator also states that he “was shown a diamond star [General Falcon] wears” and this leads the narrator to cryptically think “so much…for equality, republican simplicity, and all that sort of thing”. This is a piece of fiction, as well as a rather pointed political opinion about the opulence of foreign leadership. The narrator is clearly cynical about General Falcon’s effectiveness and slyly insults the diamond star and all that it represents. Read in this way, the viewers who had just had their minds filled with images of the Moonstone would be led to question the morality of such a jewel. In this excerpt, the use of fiction to prove a point, as well as the dismissiveness of material wealth seems to insinuate that words, and not money, are the pillars of a successful civilization.
All the Year Round
Feb. 8, 1868 Advertisement page - Harper's Weekly
This page is covered in fiscally influenced words. These words include: free, warranted, merchants, bankers, coppers, sells, lower classes, poor, economy, wealth, gold, savings, rich, ounce, stock, and reduced prices, among others. Almost every advertisement emphasizes the ability of the product to either save the consumer money, or make the consumer rich. “White china dinner sets” are a display of wealth, but can still be purchased at reduced prices. Coffee is referred to as gold and is “for sale everywhere”. A certain soap is very cheap, and the ensuing “savings will make you rich”. There is a Horse Doctor who will answer questions in a column for free. Even the stereotyped “Colored Individuals” are able to enhance their social standing by pointing out that a poorer person sifting through ashes will “pick[] ‘em over, an…sell[] to de lower classes”. Every statement and image on this page emphasizes a society that is built on the obtaining and trading of material wealth. Everything is commodified, including written column advice, and discarded ashes. As the last page that viewer’s would see in the magazine, the information would be foregrounded in their minds and deeply influence how they proceeded in their daily lives.
Harper's Magazine
Feb. 8, 1868 Moonstone Image - Harper's Weekly
This image emphasizes the overt materialistic perspective of this edition of Harper’s Magazine. Even though Part VI of “The Moonstone” clearly describes the diamond as being small enough to shine in Rachel Verinder’s dress, this image depicts the diamond as being a giant stone that outshines the moon and the background Indian architecture. The diamond floats freely and is not constrained by any physical container. If the building behind it is seen as a temple which represents religion, the foregrounding of the diamond seems to emphasize that the diamond is of even more importance than any established creed. It is not part of the old religion, as suggested in the story, but actually takes on a religious entitlement that is entirely its own. The image of wealth is foregrounded, and becomes of dominant importance in the viewers mind. Even though the magazine takes care to describe the serial edition as “Printed from the Author’s Manuscript”, it takes liberty with the story to enhance the plot by emphasizing the gigantic nature of the stone. In a magazine that seems to focus on facts, this must be a very important emphasis if it is willing to stretch the truth in this way.
Harper's Weekly
All the Year Round: Advertisement Page [text]
Unmistakably, the advertisement section of All the Year Round is much different than that of Harper’s. All the Year Round’s exclusion of illustrations in the advertisement section continues to place an emphasis on text alone. Furthermore, the inclusion of only literary advertisements solidifies this emphasis. Only two advertisements appear in All the Year Round. One, advertising a “Holiday Romance” and another for “George Silverman’s Explanation.” Notably, both of these texts would appear in All the Year Round itself, and both are written by Charles Dickens, editor of the periodical. Placing emphasis on the text itself underlines the importance of literature in Victorian society, whether intentional or unintentional. The reader is left only to engage with text (and minimal advertisements for more text), giving the literature inside the periodical more significance than it perhaps would with the inclusion of pictures and accompanying advertisements. The use of textual emphasis in All the Year Round is also particularly fitting for The Moonstone. The text itself is riddled with letters, correspondences, and the presence of an “editor” (Blake) who overlooks the narratives within the novel. In many ways, the structure of The Moonstone’s narrative mirrors the editorial presence of Charles Dickens in All the Year Round. Overall, the relationship between editor, writer, and reader is strongly portrayed in this periodical and in The Moonstone. Both Harper’s and All the Year Round must cater to the new, common reader. The preferences and abilities of the masses are taken into account when assembling both materials, making The Moonstone a perfect piece of sensational fiction for the Victorian middle-lower class reader.
Advertisement for news vendor's shop from All the Year Round [text]
This is the end of The Moonstone instalment,in the All the Year Round. Right after The Moonstone, we see an ad for a news vendor’s shop. This advertisement differs from Harper’s Weekly, as it stays within the format of the non-illustrated All the Year Round. Even though this advertisement does not have any pictures, we still can see this as a “sensational advertisement,” due to the fact that it sparks interest in the reader and works on the reader’s emotions. This cheap news vendor’s shop is selling graphic wood cuts that illustrate situations that make people uncomfortable or grates against the norms. Some of these examples are murders, suicides, and women abuse. It is a very different way for news vendor’s to sell news, by showing graphics that are hard for the general public to look at. This does however, relate to The Moonstone, due to the fact that The Moonstone does raise such events to the general public, too, as we see with Rosanna’s death by suicide. As this advertisement focuses a good deal on suicide and murder, a reader might wonder if The Moonstone could present a murder later on, since they have already witnessed a suicide.
All the Year Round, a weekly journal published in England by Charles Dickens, featured an unillustrated version of The Moonstone. Each installment of the story was released in plain text in standard magazine or book format with double panelled pages. The title from the periodical, heads the first image in this exhibit, introducing the issue. Directly under the title of the weekly journal is the title of the current installation of The Moonstone. That The Moonstone is the first story in the periodical shows that it is one of the most prominent works in the issue. The title of the Moonstone itself is in a large, capitalized, font that echoes the style of the journal title and separates it from the titles of other pieces included in the publication. Its brief description is mildly stylized and spatially laid out to draw attention to the title where every other part of the page is densely packed with text. This description also mentions a previous work of the author (not mentioned by name), “The Woman in White”, to draw on his previous reputation and state the authenticity of the story’s source (All the Year Round) to make it more marketable, given “the lack of international copyright law” (Leighton and Surridge 208) at the time.
All the Year Round, The Moonstone Title Page, 1 August 1868. [text]
The All the Year Round title page for Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone serves as the main point of comparison and contrast to Harper’s Weekly. This journal is concerned entirely with its own reputation, harnessing not only the fame of Dickens’ to propel it into further success and increased readership, but also exploiting an unrelated Shakespeare quote to elevate All the Year Round above any other journal. Catherine Waters, in her book mainly discussing Dickens’ other weekly journal Household Words (which took its name from a Shakespearean quote), asserts that “the material form is certainly not attractive [...] boldface capitals linking the title to the concluding announcement that the 'weekly journal' is 'CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKEN.'S [...] a form of branding that capitalized on Dickens's reputation and resembles the rhetoric of authenticity established through stamps and seals used to verify patent-protected products in advertisement" (21). While Waters is not specifically discussing this page in her comment, the argument holds its validity. The journal’s title as well as Dickens’ name are capitalized and much larger than that of The Moonstone. Furthermore, Collins’ name is not even mentioned, only identifying him as “the author of “The Woman in White,” &c &c”, perfectly illustrating the unimportance of the individual author and his or her story in Dickens’ journal. Waters, Catherine. Commodity Culture in Dickens's Household Words: The Social Life of Goods. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Co. 2008. Print.
Feb. 8, 1868 "Holiday Romance" Grandmarina's words - All the Year Round
This is another piece of fiction that follows ‘The Moonstone’ in All the Year Round. The predominance of fiction shows the importance placed on words and creativity in the magazine. This particular section details a conversations between a poor, dejected king, and his daughter Princess Alicia. In one section, the King admits to his daughter that he is “dreadfully poor”. The Princess inquires him further about the absolute destitution of his circumstances, and then produces a “magic fish-bone” from her pocket. She then tells her father a secret that she had learned from “the good fairy Grandmarina’s WORDS, and which she had so often whispered to her…friend” [emphasis added]. Even though the fish-bone does end up getting the king the money that he needs, it is Princess Alicia’s memory of the fairy’s words, as well as her belief in the power of a mere fishbone that leads to salvation for her family. In this story, the mind and imagination is rewarded. This kind of instruction would potentially influence the viewers to focus more on the intellectual puzzle of the Moonstone, instead of simply the blinding distraction of the diamond itself.
Title Page for The Moonstone in All the Year Round [text]
Here is the title page for Wilkie Collin’s The Moonstone, in All the Year Round. Unlike Harper’s Weekly, All the Year Round does not have illustrations incorporated within its text. Although there are no illustrations, All the Year Round still has “sensational advertising” and can be tesesllatedly read. In this May 30, 1968 issue of All the Year Round, the advertisements and short stories that follow The Moonstone, have similar concepts to The Moonstone. For instance, one story titled, “The Lake of Pitch,” had a man who was cautious around the pitch, because when the pitch gets too much moisture, it softens and could swallow a person. We see this same situation with Franklin Blake when trying to dig the metal case out of the quicksand. The tessellated reading between these two stories have the identical situation of a man afraid to get sucked into the ground. The advertisement right after The Moonstone, titled “Nothing Like Example,” uses the topics of death, suicide, and murder to sell a news vendor’s shop. We see these topics come up in The Moonstone.
All the Year Round, The Moonstone, 1 August 1868. [text]
While the text itself of the second and third page of All the Year Round’s publication of The Moonstone does not differ much from the second page of the same publication in Harper’s Weekly, the display of the journal on these pages do contrast with one another. Unlike Harper’s, All the Year Round displays Dickens’ name (‘Conducted by Charles Dickens’) in the corner of every page of text. There are no images, and paired along with the title page before it, the alluring draw of the story present in Harper’s is entirely non-existent.
The text in All the Year Round is double paneled on its pages, with no illustration, breaking only to transition paragraphs. All font is the same throughout the text, reading like a book or magazine which would have been read individually or in more intimate settings. Illustrations were popular in American literature because it was thought that they were less intelligent, whereas in the English journal no illustrations are included. The dates in the sections of Ezra Jennings’ diary are noticeable with dashes at the beginning of each entry which helps to break up the page and emphasize the progression of time throughout the installment, but otherwise the text in All the Year Round is left as a standard literary journal, distinguished primarily by its association with the reputation of Charles Dickens as opposed to by illustration. By being left without images, The Moonstone is almost blank for the reader to project their own imagination onto, which itself may be a marketing advantage to the Victorian audience in England.
Almost indistinguishable from the pages before, the sixth and seventh pages of All the Year Round’s The Moonstone do little to stimulate the imagination or attention of its readers. It is important to note that page 172 and 173 were missing from the source, however, it seems hard to believe it would make much of a difference having those pages present to analyse, given the mundane similarity between those remaining. However, it is interesting to consider how those pages and what they contain might affect an examination of the publication. While there are surprisingly no advertisements on these pages, the focus on the journal itself as a commodity is once again apparent. The lack of images in this story suggests a concern regarding monetary gain and material value that is not as evident in Harper’s Weekly. All the Year Round appears to be interested primarily in making money, and the publication and display of individual works seems to take a backseat in terms of importance.
The last page of All the Year Round’s publication of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone does not surprise the reader with any interesting images or foreshadowing illustrations. This is especially interesting when considering the fact that this page contains the revelation readers have been awaiting for months; Godfrey is the thief! This climax is realised only in the text itself. As mentioned, there are no images at all throughout the publication, and even the placement of the text sullies the big reveal. The thirty-first installment of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone is followed immediately by an article titled ‘BEAVERS’. The readers’ eye goes directly from ‘GODFREY ABLEWHITE!’ to ‘BEAVERS’ with little more than a small dividing line to separate these two proclamations. While the inconspicuous title of the next article does seem to be commonplace in weekly journals, its presence here only heightens the underwhelming nature of how Collins’ narrative is presented in All the Year Round. All the Year Round appears to be entirely interested in promoting itself as a journal, rather than advertising its necessary contributors. This is especially evident when compared to Harper’s, which took nearly every opportunity to at least make the first page engaging. The commodity focus of All the Year Round is particularly thought provoking when considering the fact that Dickens was an author himself. It is strange that someone who has gained fame from publishing periodical works would be so uninterested in adequately displaying other authors’ texts, and rather would utilize their place in the print industry to further their own reputation.
Moonstone Chapter XXI header- All the Year Round
In the Header for The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins' name is notably absent while the other works that he did are represented, in particular the works that had been previously published in one or the other of Dickens' two journals. In contrast, the header for All the Year Round has much larger font and takes up more of the page. This focus on the publisher's header over that of the author implies that the quality of the text, and thus it's marketability, comes from the publication itself rather than the author. The singular text is marketable as literary "quality" by association with the publisher. In this case the text would be under the publisher's brand.
Front Page of All the Year Round, 8 August 1868 [Text]
This is the front page of the 8 August 1868 edition of All the Year Round. There is a marked contrast in the way that the American and the British front pages present the story; most importantly, All the Year Round emphasizes the story itself in a way that Harper’s Weekly does not. All the Year Round was a literary periodical, published by Charles Dickens himself, and so the emphasis on story is more natural than in Harper’s Weekly, which was more of a news periodical. The Moonstone also occupies the central place on the front page of the 8 August 1868 edition of All the Year Round. The Moonstone actually consistently appeared on the front page of All the Year Round, from January to August 1868, which one might attribute to the fact that Collins and Dickens were close friends, but Collins’ own name never actually appeared alongside the story, so Collins obviously did not receive any special attention from Dickens. All the Year Round emphasizes the story itself above all else; the lack of images emphasizes the actual text over visuals, and even the layout of the text on the page makes the story more readable, and more accessible, than in Harper’s Weekly.
Whereas the title of The Moonstone was a highlight of the page in All the Year Round, the titles of following works in the publication are not nearly as notable. The plain text of The Moonstone transitions unceremoniously into a new story with an entirely unremarkable title. The titles of the other works in the issue are the capitalized form of the same font as the plain text, with a single line separating it from the story above. The story following The Moonstone is much less spatially defined on the page. Though Wilkie Collins is not mentioned in the title of his work he is referenced by way of one of his works at the beginning of the installment; in the title of the next work in of the periodical, Leaves from the Mahogany Tree, no reference is made at all to an author. This highlights the relative priority that The Moonstone has in this periodical. When flipping through the collection of issues from All the Year Round, the title of The Moonstone is easily distinguishable from every other entry. It is clear that this is a form of branding that readers could easily recognize to consume this literary commodity.
"Queer Street" - Sensation Columns of All The Year Round [text]
The article immediately following The Moonstone chapter X, Queer Street, provides an example of the sensational columns in Victorian newspapers. While not an agony column, to contemporary readers Queer Street meant "an imaginary street where people in difficulties (esp. financial ones) are supposed to reside" (OED). Although an imaginary street, the details of this article reflect what Rubery argued with the idea of relevance, accuracy, and realism inspiring the sensational writers. Queer Street even seems rather aware of this contact, and its relationship to the dailies, as the speaker notes" "A man I know very well, and who knows me not at all" (103).
Title Page of Chapter's XIII and IX of "The Moonstone" [Text]
This image is the title page of chapters Eight and Nine of the Moonstone in All the Year Round. All the Year Round formats the title page in a way that reinforces the idea of proper Englishness. Clear, clean text formatted symmetrically on the page emulates what All the Year Round perceives as the correct and proper way to publish work. What makes All the Year Round’s presentation different from Harper’s is the absence of images. They allow the reader to formulate their own assumptions of the people being represented in the text by not forcing an image of what they believe certain characters should look like. However, the reader’s opinion is held in a framework represented by the text because it is conducted by Charles Dickens. All the Year Round allows the reader to formulate their own opinion by not forcing cultural assumption’s on them, but those assumptions fall within the framework of what Charles Dickens allowed to be presented. All the Year Round still re-enforced their beliefs in showing how work should be presented, but they do not do it by negatively representing another culture.
This image is an article that came after Chapter’s Eight and Nine of the Moonstone titled the Language of Animals in All the Year Round. The article tries to determine whether animals have languages similar to humans by looking at the sounds that certain species make towards each other. The writer sensationalizes the Arabian Nights stories written in 1706, which are a collection of Middle-Eastern, West Asian and South Asian stories. The writer commends the work calling it “a fascinating book that should be read from beginning to end” (AYR 152). The publication praises the work of another culture, but inherently modifies the stories intent because the writer casts a western viewpoint and understanding of the text to try and determine if animals have a language. The ideas brought forth by a foreign work are praised in the publication, but are still considered abnormal because a western man need’s to modify and change the idea to fit a western audience, deeming the culture as disabled. Because of their inability to achieve the norm without the help of a Western explanation of the text, made by a white male western man, the culture is considered Culturally Disabled.
All the Year Round Header- Chapter XXI of the Moonstone
The layout of the text in All the Year Round is uniform throughout the journal and quite formal. Each text is presented without images, in two separate columns, and with the large All the Year Round header. The formality of the layout and the unified look of all of the texts presented within the publication also draw the audience to the quality of the publisher. As the publisher was well known to the readers of the journal since he was also a contributor to the texts in the journal, and as the publisher was considered a marketable author already, unifying all the texts in the journal to give them a "Dickens brand" look would have increased the marketability of the works.
All the Year Round Table of Contents- Moonstone listing
The table of contents lists the texts by title rather than by author but it is in the table of contents where The Moonstone is given a bit of distinction from everything else. While the entry for The Moonstone still lacks the name of the author, another written by Wilkie Collins is listed here too. This is not the case for all works in the table of contents. While The Moonstone is still not separated from the publisher's "brand", the text is given some distinction and thus is marketable, and being marketed, in multiple ways.
Excerpts from Chapter X 'The Moonstone' [text]
This excerpt from All the Year Round alludes to a number of sources, of varying genre. There is the scientific "lecture on physiology" ("All the Year Round" 100), which is referenced and cited twice, and the reference to Confessions of an English Opium Eater (101). Upon first glance there is a blurring of genres, between the sensational Confessions and the realistic science lectures. However, the reference to Confessions of an English Opium Eater creates an interesting dynamic between another commonly found material in British newspapers of the Victorian period: the agony column (Rubery 51). Like the agony column, Confessions was published anonymously, and was based upon scandalously biographical experience. Such "tales of personal distress" (51) soon found their way into the advertisements of British newspapers, and quickly became "a meeting place as much as a marketplace for readers" (50). Rather than sensational, Rubery argues that influence of newspaper articles, agony columns, and advertisements is more a "shock of actuality" that stems from the "relevance, accuracy, and ... realism" (48).
Published in Charles Dickens' journal All The Year Round, Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone" stands alone on the page of the publication, giving the reader the opportunity to appreciate the text on it's own. In this section Betteredge receives a handwritten letter stating that Rachel Verinder will not allow her room to be searched by Seargeant Cuff. Collins writes “At last, Samuel came in, not with the keys, but with a morsel of paper for me… There were two or three lines on the paper, written in pencil by my lady. They informed me that Miss Rachel flatly refused to have her wardrobe examined.” (Collins 110). This shows the emergence of correspondence within Victorian culture. Collins’ novel is full of these moments, or characters interacting through the written word in various positions and for various reasons. Miss Clack relies heavily on small printed letters or “Tracts” to spread the word of Christianity. Mr. Blake and Miss Clack correspond back and forth through letters in her section of the narrative, as does John Candy in his letter to Mr. Blake. The novel itself could be consider not only a narrative, but a correspondence between the author and his readership, since the novel came out in the serializations, including the one pictured here. Yet this theme goes unamplified in Dickens’ serialization.
All The Year Round
This is as close as we get to a mention of correspondence in All The Year Round. It’s a note from the editors of the journal to it’s expectant readers signifying what will be contained in the following weeks serial. Essentially it is a note from one party to another to expect future correspondence. Although it does not indicate the rising popularity of the written word in the form of letters, it instead becomes more the promise of a producer to a consumer that there will be more publications to come.
Albert Philip Allen Fonds Christmas Card WWI
Allen, Albert Philip, 1888-
The Military Museums Library and Archives
1915
Albert Philip Allen Fonds: https://atomstaging.ucalgary.ca/index.php/albert-philip-allen-fonds
Alsgard, Elsa Othelia, 1919-
1945
John Ian Banks Fonds Christmas Card WWII
Banks, John Ian, 1916-2004
1950
poems
West Vancouver -- British Columbia
File consists of three drafts of poem. Item two is a duplicate copy of item one with holograph revisions pertaining to capitalization and spacing; item three has holograph annotation "final." Items one and two have variant title West Vancouver Ferry.
Birney, Earle, 1904-1995
1925
Stanley Park -- Vancouver -- British Columbia
1965
Arrivals (locals): Wolfville -- 30 mins L: [poem]
Wolfville -- Nova Scotia
Part of second draft and drafts six, seven, eight and nine of poem. Includes holograph insert by E. Birney: "various drafts of Arrivals".
concrete poems
Vancouver -- British Columbia
File consists of drafts of poem. Item two has E. Birney's holograph annotation "not final form."
Chapala, Laguna de -- Mexico
File consists of second and final drafts of poem written in Mexico.
1956
Vancouver -- British Columbia; Alaska
1934
Alice Evelyn Blake Fonds WWII Christmas Card
Blake, Alice Evelyn, fl. 1920-1970)
[194-]
Canada. Canadian Armed Forces. Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Archives
[195-]
10 Canadian Battalion Christmas Card, 1918
Canada. Canadian Army. Battalion, 10th.
The Calgary Highlander's Regimental Archives
1918
The Listening Post, Christmas 1915 Edition
Canada. Canadian Army. Canadian Infantry Battalion, 7th
110 Manning Depot Fonds Christmas Card, verso
Canada. Canadian Forces Base (Calgary, AB). 110 Manning Depot (1930-1960)
110 Manning Depot fonds, https://atomstaging.ucalgary.ca/index.php/110-manning-depot-fonds
Medicine Hat Internment Camp, Christmas 1945
Coe, Edward Percival (1888-)
The ascetic differences between the two journals can be easily spotted. While the inclusion of illustrations in Harper’s appears to further accommodate a middle-lower class readership and a taste for the sensational, All the Year Round’s exclusion of those elements perhaps forces readers to gather the sensational genre and class struggle from the text alone. Another major theme in the novel is the idea of “book as religion.” This is exhibited through one of the many narrators, Gabriel Betteredge, who narrates this section of the periodical. As Lanning states in her essay “Tessellating Texts: Reading The Moonstone in All the Year Round”: “Betteredge immediately establishes a connection with his reading audience by presenting himself as a reader.” (2). Through the text alone, All the Year Round attempts to engage the new, common reader in a similar way Harper’s illustrations attempt to do the same. By naming Betteredge, a working class man, an individual worthy of both readership (of Robinson Crusoe) and narrator-ship, Collins reaches out to the middle-lower classes to say they too are worthy. Both Betteredge and Miss Clack demonstrate the importance of material, physical books in the Victorian’s life. To both characters, their materials are considered religious, and the act of reading them like worship. In many ways, by relying on text alone (no sensational illustrations or news) in All the Year Round, Dickens send a similar message to those reading the periodical: literature can be as important as religion in raising the spirit. As mentioned by Altick, the enjoyments of lower-class Victorians were far and few between, and so, both Collins and Dickens appear to suggest reading as an appropriate antidote to the mundanity of common life. Lanning, Katie. “Tessellating Texts: Reading The Moonstone in All the Year Round.” Victorian Periodicals Review 45.1 (2012): 1-22. Alitck, Richard. The English Common Reader : A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1957. Print.
Collins, Wilkie
First page of All the Year Round, no. 462 [text]
All the Year Round—a London-based periodical edited by Charles Dickens—was marketed as a literary journal that would “assist in the discussion of the Social Questions of the Day” (“New Readerships”). While it purported to be a journal for “all Classes of Readers” (“New Readerships”), the initial advertisements for the journal foregrounded its links to high-brow culture. Not only was All the Year Round compiled by a distinguished contemporary author, its title was derived from a line in William Shakespeare’s Othello (c. 1603).1 The header for All the Year Round no. 462 appears to contain only descriptive information for the periodical. However, it works on another level to establish its intended privileged readership and the object of its criticism. The quote from Othello is positioned before any other print in the periodical, and the line “Conducted by Charles Dickens” is separated from the rest of the text by virtue of its sans-serif font. The journal positions itself as a journal of Englishness by claiming inspiration from a canonized writer of England’s past while simultaneously solidifying its links with a contemporary literary icon. Moreover, All the Year Round reaches out to an educated and literary English audience. The Moonstone is the first piece in number 465 of All the Year Round and is positioned directly below the heading. However, Collins’s name is omitted and the author is instead listed as “by the author of ‘The Woman in White,’ &c. &c.” While this was certainly a stylistic convention of the day, and moreover, a marketing ploy within periodical culture, the omission of Wilkie Collins’s name signals that the journal expected its readers to be well-read in contemporary cultural and literary texts. Notes 1. The title All the Year Round was advertised as a play on the line “The story of our lives, from year to year”, which Dickens attributes to Shakespeare (“New Readerships”). The full line is delivered by the eponymous character of Othello, and reads “Her father loved me, oft invited me,/ Still questioned me the story of my life/ From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes/ That I have passed” (1.3.127-130). Works Cited “New Readerships.” John Bull and Britannia [London] 16 Apr. 1859: 242. Web. 5 Oct. 2015. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009. 1179-1251. Print.
"Who can tell?" in Harper's Weekly [Text]
This is the last paragraph of The Moonstone, as it appears in Harper's Weekly. Harper’s Weekly advertises the story as “printed from the author’s manuscript”, but that is not strictly true. There is one notable variant in the American version, as opposed to the British: the American edition changes the punctuation in Collins’ original manuscript to “Who can tell?” with a question mark, instead of “Who can tell!” with an exclamation point. This question mark is almost certainly a purposeful change made by the American editors. I corresponded with the Morgan Library, in New York, which owns Collins’ manuscript, and I confirmed that the original uses an exclamation point (“Who can tell!”), and not a question mark. Thus some change was made sometime after the submission of the manuscript to its London publishers. There is a slight chance that the change was the result of a typographical error, but considering the fact that the American punctuation also appears in other editions, it seems unlikely. This seemingly small change significantly affects the tone of the whole novel, as the last line is the last impression the novel leaves with readers. There is a sense of mystery, and uncertainty, inherent in the question mark. This question mark also intentionally leaves the conclusion of the story open to interpretation, and in a way asks readers to make their own conclusions, within a moralistic intratextual context. Collins himself eventually edited the final line to read “Who can tell?”, as early as the 1871 edition. John Sutherland reproduces the question mark in the 1999 Oxford World’s Classics edition, based on the 1871 edition, and notes that “Wilkie Collins – writing twenty years later through his surrogate narrators” is the one who “can ‘tell’” (xv). Sutherland wonders whether Collins was “setting up a sequel with his teasing last question” (xv). I am not entirely sure why Collins would change the text to match the American version in 1871, but regardless, the text did witness a change in 1868, apparently not by Collins’ own hand.
"Who can tell!" in All the Year Round [Text]
This is the last paragraph of The Moonstone, as it appears in All the Year Round. I will mention again that the British version uses an exclamation point instead of a question mark in the last line of the novel, the effect of which is that the tone of the British version is more certain than the American version. This exclamation point seems to put to rest the story of The Moonstone: Collins frames the last line not as a question to the audience (“you can tell”), as is the case in Harper’s Weekly, but as an exclamatory statement, which necessarily excludes the audience (“no one can tell”). Collins simultaneously creates a carefree tone that implies future, unknown adventure. “Who can tell!” in the British version inspires readers to throw their arms up into the air, and leave The Moonstone on a contentedly mysterious note, not to seek moral enlightenment, as with the American version.
Harper's Weekly: Page Featuring The Moonstone [text]
As Loesberg writes in her essay titled “The Ideology of Narrative Form in Sensation Fiction”: “Class fear was distinctive in this period” (118). In such a rapidly changing world, middle-lower class individuals encroaching on the practices and lifestyles of the elite members of Victorian society was a real fear. As Altick points out, initially, lower class individuals were discouraged from education and literacy due to these class fears. However, with increased commerce and industry, it was discovered “A reasonable bit of elementary schooling made better workers” (Altick, 142). Thus, the lower-middle classes begun to experience an increase in literacy. As a result, periodicals and newspapers alike capitalized on a new type of readership. In response, the sensation novel was born. The Moonstone, featured on this page, in many ways comments upon a fear of the lower-classes and vapid social change during the era. A major theme in the novel is a “loss, shift, or reversal of identity” (Loesberg, 129). Throughout the book, the intentions of upper and lower class individuals are questioned: such as Rosanna Spearman and Rachel Verinder. In the end, the “false identity” of Godfrey Ablewhite proves to be the cause of the moonstone’s disappearance. Perhaps, though, the moonstone itself represents a loss of identity so commonly introduced in sensation fiction. The loss of the precious stone could come to represent the loss of British identity and the mixing, blurring, and mingling of social classes during the era. Regardless, the inclusion of The Moonstone into a sensationalized newspaper such as Harper’s Weekly again only caters to the new, common reader. The theme of shifting or misleading class identity is one the middle-lower classes would have sympathized with and found enjoyment in reading. Loesberg, Jonathan. "The Ideology of Narrative Form in Sensation Fiction." Representations 13 (1986): 115-38. Print. Alitck, Richard. The English Common Reader : A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1957. Print.
Collins, Wilkie.
Corlett, Lionel, 1878-
1917
Alexander Watt Cunningham Fonds WWII Christmas Card
Cunningham, Alexander Watt, 1924-
Alexander Watt Cunningham Fonds: https://atomstaging.ucalgary.ca/index.php/alexander-watt-cunningham-fonds
This article accompanies All the Year Round’s first Moonstone publication. The article begins by discussing different types of flies that are found in the Old World and the New World. It starts out as a harmless, rather domestic conversation on the biology of flies, but quickly evolves into an imperialist analogy; the white “civilized” races correspond to the European fly, and the dark-skinned races, the “savages” of the New World, correspond to the indigenous. It blatantly states, “Everyone knows that the civilized man is, and always has been, more than a match for the savage…if two races refuse to amalgamate, the weaker goes to the wall. Civilization is too much for them.” This article theorizes racist pseudo-science that blatantly condones violent colonialism and imperialism. Its makes social Darwinist assumptions that essentially support genocide as a natural conclusion. The fact that “[e]veryone knows” suggests that this view was widely held in Britain. It is safe to say that Harper’s variety of “white superiority,” and, by extension, America’s variety of imperialism, is much more subtle and self-conscious. Perhaps this sensitivity came from the delicate state race relations in the postwar Reconstruction era.
Dickens, Charles.