Typescript draft of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, pages 57-61
Richler, Mordecai, 1931-2001
1959
Richler, Mordecai. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.
Typescript draft of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, pages 247-251
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.
All The Year Round
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.
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
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).
All the Year Round
Page 132 of Harper's Weekly 19.583 [text]
In "Illustrating The Moonstone in America: Harper's Weekly and Transatlantic Introspection” (2014), Molly Knox Leverenz reminds readers that The Moonstone was published in the United States of America in the years following the Civil War (21). She notes that this was a time period in American history when the nation was intensely self-reflective (41) and concerned with “a growing sense of American identity on the global stage” (24). The page that precedes part nine of The Moonstone in Harper’s Weekly is dominated by three images: a portrait of George Washington, and two images that are both titled “Relieving the Poor.” One image depicts a crowd of people outside the Young Men’s Christian Association and is subtitled “Dinner Hour.” The second image shows a young American man feeding a young impoverished family—primarily girls—at a soup kitchen. It is subtitled “Serving Soup.” The portrait of George Washington occupies the top half of the page, with the remaining two images grouped together in the lower half—as if George Washington is overseeing the philanthropy of the American people. This idealized view of American benevolence towards the poor and lower classes is strategically positioned within the periodical to contrast with images of English poverty in The Moonstone. Reading The Moonstone “intratextually” (25) within Harper’s Weekly reveals instances where American editors manipulated material conditions such as page positioning and image placement in order to exaggerate and critique elements of British ideology. By depicting American peoples as benevolent towards the lower classes, the American publication attempts to distinguish the nation in opposition to its former colonizers. Works Cited Leverenz, Molly Knox. "Illustrating The Moonstone in America: Harper's Weekly and Transatlantic Introspection." American Periodicals 24.1 (2014): 21-44. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
Harper's Weekly advertises for more than its own brand. The brand names of other products are given equal opportunity to be seen on the page as the ads for Harper's. Harper's weekly is a brand in and of itself without relying on the contents being of the Harper's brand. The texts and the products available in Harper's are marketed under their own "brands" but, Harper's distinguishes their own saleable brand as that of a publisher. While the Moonstone was marketed as being the author's "brand", the publisher's assurance of quality and accuracy reassures the reader that the publisher is measured by the quality of the brands they advertise. This is further illustrated by the captions at the bottom of the advertisements for the newly published book. The book is introduced as being published by Harper's, then the ad talks about the author and the book and closes with a mention of Harper's. The text is the author's but the publisher is Harper's.
Harper's Header- Moonstone chapter XXI second page
The layout of the pages in Harper's weekly is less formal, though still giving emphasis to the text, and the header does not dominate as much of the space as it did in All the Year Round. The text is separated into four columns and are marked by noticeable chapter breaks where needed. When the segment of The Moonstone ends, another story follows directly without the large header that accompanied The Moonstone. This makes Harper's Weekly appear as a platform for Wilkie Collins' "brand" in the publication of The Moonstone rather than Harper's imposing their "brand" on the text.
Moonstone Chapter XXI Header- Harper's Weekly
The header for The Moonstone in Harper's Weekly stands out from the header for the publisher at the top of the page. "The Moonstone" is written in larger font than the Harper's header and Wilkie Collins is credited by name and by another of his works. The script below the author's name places an emphasis on authenticity and credibility in printing. Harper's markets The Moonstone under the "brand" of the author to give the publication of the text a saleable literary quality. Since the focus of Harper's is political and it's collection of texts more eclectic, the publisher cannot use their name to market a literary product, making the use of the author's "brand" necessary to the selling of the text.
This small image, featured in a section among cartoons, limericks, and poems, same as the comic strip featuring the giant letter, is the last visual reminder of the prominence of the letter contained in this edition of the weekly publication. It depicts a man at a social event, presumably a dance, holding out a card to a woman as a sign that he cannot dance with her immediately. In this case the dance card functions as a visual correspondence between partygoers and as a contract of who will dance with whom in the future. "Leap Year" acts as a small reminder that letters had become so popularized that they were not only sent great distances, but also used in day to day conversation between people in communal spaces. Wilkie Collins also shows us a similar instance when Rachel uses her letter to convey her refusal to the Sergeant though they are both within in the same house at the time.
St. Valentine's Day - The Old Story in All Lands
Valentine’s Day was an important day for letters and, as recorded by David M. Henkin, caused post offices to be “lumbered with wagon loads of valentines” (Henkin 149). He also notes that St. Valentine’s Day was popular as a “prolific source of dead letters” (149) and many papers and publications began “marking the passing of the holiday by detailing the number of valentines that had “passed through the post office”” (149), this, according to Henkin typifies “America’s growing dependence on the post.” (150). This particular image, a regular appearance in Harper’s Magainze (Henkin 149), depicts Valentine’s Day as “The old story in all lands”, thus internationalizing and historicizing the now common use of the letter, most specifically the Valentine. Papers can be seen in three instances in the corresponding image, twice in the image’s forefront as passing between two couples, and again throughout the page stuck in the mouths of delivery birds.
Homer, Winslow
1. Higgins determines to send... (Image)
The previous image depicted Harper’s Weekly’s continual Valentine’s Day propaganda. Henkin suggests it to be a theme of the publication’s as an effort to “defend the “Valentine mania” against cynicism in 1859” and offers other examples of their yearly Valentine’s Day imagery. Here we find another, the second in this weekly serial, published the week after Valentine’s Day. The image draws straight back to Henkin’s “Valentine’s Mania” and how the demand to send Valentine’s outweighed the postal service’s capacity to send them. Yet, Harper’s in both instances subverts the cynicism of a holiday by focusing instead on the positive result of the lover’s embrace. Even noting, in this image, the final station as “The Happy Result”. The Happy Result of engaging in the epistolary trend that would continue to grow.
This section of "The Moonstone" is placed in between Harper's many visual reminders of the prominence of the letter, and it promotes the book as being "Richly Illustrated", which furthers draws the reader's eye towards the story. The mention of the "morsel of paper" (Collins 110) now falls on the third column of the text and is situated right above the picture provided by the magazine. The reader will continue to see the epistolary trend in their printed copy as they enjoy the newest chapter and as they continue on they will continue to recognize, and associate positively with, the continuous propaganda in support of the postal system. Whether this was done to highlight Wilkie Collins’ previously established theme of the vitality of the letter, or whether it’s for Harper’s Weekly to promote is own optimistic views of a letter dependent society remains unsure. But the connection between the written word and the visual image is very strong throughout this edition of the periodical as it can be seen not only here, where Collins' words are tied in with journal's representation of his plot, but also in the connection between the visual image of the letter, and physical copy it would represent in the lives of the Nineteenth-Century Americans.
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.
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.
Like All the Year Round, Harper’s Weekly is shown to favor The Moonstone in its publication, though not as exclusively. Other works in Harper’s are also illustrated and have attention drawn to them, however, similar to the transition between stories in All the Year Round, Harper’s transition between The Moonstone, and its next piece, Goodman Misery, is much less spatially or stylistically significant, as well as also missing the name of its author. It is determined by two thin lines finalizing end of The Moonstone followed by the small, plain, capitalized title of the next piece. Looking at Harper’s Weekly as a commercial product, it can be inferred from this formal evidence that The Moonstone was a marketable inclusion to the publication, making it worth the investment in illustration and precious space on the page.
Leighton and Surridge point out that the illustrations of the Harper’s installments “[heighten] the text’s sensationalism” (207), but the form itself also lends itself in the dramatization of the text. Whereas All the Year Round takes on a book or magazine form, Harper’s Weekly uses a newspaper format to further sensationalize its content. The front page of The Moonstone is organized like the front page of a newspaper, centred entirely on its illustration and the following pages are organized into four panels of text per page, read lengthwise in columns, also like a newspaper. This form may have contributed to a heightened sense of pleasure in the story, as the form sets the reader up for an entirely different reading experience than would be found in All the Year Round. Using this newspaper layout, Harper’s is drawing on ingrained connotations of the everyday habit of reading the news to enter into the reading experience, using a structural framework to guide the reader. If readers are accustomed to finding intrigue, shock, and scandal in a newspaper, this textual form for a mystery novel has now primed its audience to notice and savor all of those things.
In The Moonstone in Harper’s Weekly, which was circulated through the United States, the title is similarly printed in distinct, capitalized letters that are easily noticeable from other titles. In Harper’s, too, more space is given around the title to draw more attention to this particular story, using the space to specify the author and his relevant works, and to directly state that the story is “Printed from the Author’s Manuscript” and “RICHLY ILLUSTRATED”. Very much like All the Year Round, Harper’s Weekly sought to commodify its installations of The Moonstone using this claim to authenticity. Perhaps because of the distance between England and the United States, Wilkie Collins is not only named in the first installation of his story, but in all of them, so as not only to rely on the reputation of his previous works. To emphasize the richly illustrated version of The Moonstone in Harper’s, the recognizable title is followed immediately with a large illustration of Ezra Jennings and Franklin Blake as they look poised to make a discovery which has long eluded the reader throughout their journey through the story. It is the illustrations which have the most active role in sensationalizing stories in periodicals. Though the Victorians in England may have considered Americans less intelligent, and so in need of illustrations, these illustration would have been quite expensive to include. As Harper’s Weekly was “one of the most widely circulated American literary magazines of the period” (Leighton and Surridge 208), the publication would have been quite influential and would have had the budget to invest in its stories and advertisements. Rather than this incriminating the Americans for being less intelligent, this is a testament to the success and prosperity of literature in the United States.
1868- 07-18
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.
This image contains the article “The Devil Tree” in the Harper’s Weekly publication. The article discusses the people of Zanzibar, Tanzania in Africa and a certain cultural practice they perform. The people of Zanzibar believed they could exercise evil spirits from afflicted people called Imps by binding them to a piece of iron, glass or other such object. Once the Imp was bound they would hang the object in a tree, trapping the Imp there forever. The people of Zanibar’s system of belief is sensationalized as no more than an interesting story of a savage people’s, making their home seem like a wild, uncivilized, unkempt land. The writer gives no context as to how this cultural practice came about and does not question why the people believe in the Devil Tree. The writer only give’s the reader the sensational negative and scary aspects of the practice (i.e. focusing on a man who clubbed his wife to death. He is hanged and the imp is exorcized). The writer and publication represent the people of Zanzibar and their culture as disabled due to the focus on the negative and horrid aspects of the practice rather than actually trying to determine why it takes place at all. This would have given the reader a negative outlook on the Indians represented in the chapter's 8 and 9 of the publication.
"Double Allegiance" and "Englishman Upon Ireland" [Text}
This image contains two articles found before the moonstone in the January 25th edition of Harper’s Weekly. The two articles discuss political policies in England. The article “Double Allegiance” discusses the absurdity of England’s allegiance laws where a child can be hung for treason if they fight against England for an opposing force in war even if the man was born in England or a colony then left immediately after their birth. The writer of “Englishmen upon Ireland” discusses Irelands want to separate from the English empire. The writer[s] of both articles reinforce England’s Cultural Disability from America’s perspective because the writer[s] point out the absurdity of these cultural practices. Because America did not adhear to England’s ideal’s on the represented cultural practices they talked negatively about them giving the reader a negative outlook on their culture. England is represented as Culturally Disabled by pointing out the flaws in their political policies and connoted how America was much farther ahead in terms of these polices than what England was achieving or hoped to achieve.
Title Page of Chapter's VIII and IX of "The Moonstone" [image]
This image is the title page of Chapter’s Eight and Nine of the Moonstone in the Publication Harper’s Weekly. Harper’s is able to compare and contrast different cultures using dark and light images. The foreign culture is represented as three Indian men lurking in the darkness with dark, unrecognizable faces. The dark represents two things. The first is the unknown motivation of the characters. The dark conceals their faces hiding their intentions. Secondly, the dark or darkness is generally represented alongside the concepts of the unknown and the evil. The represented characters motivations are hidden from the reader and by using dark shading around the character’s faces and landscape, it portrays the characters and their actions as abnormal. Harper’s is able to influence the reader’s conception of Indian’s in a negative context by aligning them with the dark and unknown. When the image of the three Indian men is compared with the other two images on the page, the reader can see a contrast between the images. The Indians are dark, foreboding and unknown while Rachel Verinder, Franklin Blake (top right image) and Rosanna Spearmen (bottom center image) are clearly portrayed. Harper’s highlight’s the norm as something that can be perceived and understood by using images of the male and female English White body. The Indian’s are unknown and portrayed as people who are not like the norm making them Culturally Disabled.
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.
Title page of "The Moonstone" chapter X, Harper's Weekly
In the American newspaper Harper's Weekly, chapter X is opened with this illustration of Franklin Blake reading. This visualization of Mr. Blake opens up certain visual tropes that Victorian readers will associate with sensation fiction (Leighton 71). Through this visualization, the opening of chapter X establishes a relationship between the reader's understanding of these tropes, and the expected genre to follow. In this case, chapter X opens with an iterative illustration, Mr. Blake's repeated reading of evidence, and pieces of information.
Wilkie Collins
Title page of "The Moonstone" chapter X, All the Year Round
In contrast to the illustrated opening on Harper's Weekly, All the Year Round featured a consistently uniform opening of Collin's text mingling with the opening of the newspaper. This uniform opening demonstrates an priority upon the material nature of the newspaper itself. The material in which to interpret genre then becomes the material of both the text, and the newspaper itself. The sensational columns of the Victorian newspaper provided a forum, in which "audiences encountered the voices of other readers or even actual readers themselves through direct correspondence and subsequent liaisons arranged through its columns" (Rubery 79). Rather than the sensationalization through illustration, the British reader is presented with a story that reads like many news stories of the Victorian newspaper. The lurid drama of crime, the scandal of the divorce court, and even correspondence via the personal advertisements, create this system of encountering voices. By mingling Collins text with the opening text of All the Year Round, the line of genre draws heavily toward the scandalous realism seen in Victorian news.
Advertisement in America: Harper Weekly July 11, 1868 [text]
"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).
"The boy became stiff, and stood like a statue, looking into the ink in the hollow of his hand."
This illustration, the third and last that accompany part one of The Moonstone in Harper’s Weekly, presents another interpretation of the three Indians who search for the moonstone in England. They surround a boy who holds the magical ink in his hands. Through Betteredge’s narration, Collins notes that the Indians treated the boy in way that was “not unkindly” (Collins 17). The illustration stays true to this description, despite Leverenz’s claim that the Indian Brahmins are portrayed in an imposing way (Leverenz 29). The illustration portrays no sort of aggression on behalf of the Indians. They look solemn, even melancholy. They are not depicted with any sort of disfigurements, disabilities, or blemishes. They are tall, upright, and look vigorous. Their noses are only slightly larger than Herncastle. All in all, they look rather dignified. The boy, who may be displaying a small amount of reluctance, shows no sign of fear or discomfort. The editors would have had the opportunity to villainize the Indians, but clearly chose not to. It falls in line with their goal to appear progressive by sympathizing with the colonized subject. However, the Indians all look exactly the same—their faces, their height, their complexion, and their dress, are all the same. The only thing that distinguishes them apart is that one has a black topped turban. Once again, as in the first image, there seems to be some amount of generalizing the Indians and placing them in the category of Oriental other.
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.
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.
Front Page of Harper's Weekly, 8 August 1868 [Text]
This is the front page of the 8 August 1868 edition of Harper’s Weekly. Collins' “popularity [was such] with American readers that his name always appeared before any other novelist in Harper’s catalogues” (Leighton and Surridge 208), and such is also the case with The Moonstone. Collins’ name appears prominently at the start of the story, but not (unlike the British version) at the start of the periodical. Harper’s Weekly instead leads with the current news. They use the whole front page to illustrate the top news for the week of 8 August 1868, a flood in the Maryland area. These illustrations act as a sort of introduction to The Moonstone in Harper’s Weekly; specifically the illustrations of natural catastrophe on the front page ask readers to consider the outcome of the conspiracy around the moonstone in the novel, and to relate images of catastrophe to the conclusion of the novel, even if coincidentally (the editors obviously did not orchestrate a flood for literary effect). Leighton and Surridge would write that the images are “proleptic, anticipating the events of the letterpress to come” and intentionally guiding readers’ interpretations of those events (210). I will note also that the front page of Harper’s Weekly is generally less readable than the front page of All the Year Round: the page itself is too large, the text is too small, and the layout is too tight to encourage readers to actually read the whole installment, which adds to the idea that Harper’s Weekly is less interested in the story itself than All the Year Round.
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.
"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.
Collins, Wilkie
"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.
This is the article that immediately follows The Moonstone in All the Year Round, entitled "Carnival Time in Britany". John Drew and Tony Williams, the editors of Dickens Journals Online, identify “Carnival Time in Britany” as a piece of travel-writing related to the subjects of “Christmas, New Year, Holidays and Seasonal Celebrations”, “France, Description and Travel”, “France, Social Life and Customs”, and “Travel, Tourism, Hotels, Resorts”. They ascribe the role of the author to Marguerite Agnes Power, a correspondent of Dickens’s, although Power’s name never actually appears alongside the article itself, as far as I can tell. This article adds to a tradition of story in the 8 August 1868 edition of The Moonstone, through the narrative style. “Carnival Time in Britany” is reminiscent of Collins’ fiction, and picks up on the promise of adventure in the last line of the British Moonstone. There is already a sense of adventure in the first line of the article, when the narrator enters “old quaint” French city of Nantes “escorted by a motley caravan of peasants”. This, and other, vivid images of exotic people and places in "Carnival Time in Britany" complement similar images in The Moonstone, without a moral undercurrent, as in Harper’s Weekly.
Unknown
This short comic highlights aspects of American racist ideology by presenting a caricature of an African-American, “Sambo.” This character “soliloquizes” in reply to the Bible verse, “He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the lord.” In his reply he uses bastardized English, with a “d” sound in place of the “th,”making the character appear stupid. Nowadays “Sambo” is viewed as a racial slur for a black person. A children’s book published in 1899, “Little Black Sambo,” featured a hyper-racialized black boy, Sambo, and his mother and father, Mumbo and Jumbo. It portrayed the boy as a typical “picanniny.” “Picaninnies were portrayed as nameless, shiftless natural buffoons running from alligators and toward fried chicken. [They] had bulging eyes, unkempt hair, red lips, and wide mouths into which they stuffed huge slices of watermelon” (Pilgrim n.p.). This comic subtly implies these characteristics and preserves a racist, imperialist dialogue. “Indeed, that era of codified racial supremacy in the American South tied the region in many important ways to the theories and global practice of colonial imperialism” (Degala 8). Harper’s Weekly was published out of New York. It was also a major operation, not some obscure, white supremacist newspaper. This was mainstream news. And yet, the editors found it acceptable to print this comic. To have a caricature like this in a mainstream newspaper reflects the society’s acceptance of racist ideology.
This is the article that immediately follows The Moonstone in Harper's Weekly, entitled “Children's Selfishness”. Katie Lanning, like Leverenz, recognizes that “Victorian editors were ‘sensitive’ to the connections readers made between texts in an issue, and editors often carefully selected and arranged materials with those possible connections in mind (Lanning 15). Harper’s Weekly exploits the idea that “readers could collapse borders [between the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’ of a text] as they explored ways to connect various texts into some meaningful pattern” (Lanning 17), and so not only asks the reader to make their own conclusions about the end of the story, but also looks to influence those conclusions, to shape readers’ interpretations of the story. “Children’s Selfishness” is a moralistic prose piece; the author starts with the idea that “a love of property is generally considered so harmless in a child that it is encouraged rather than controlled”, but goes on to advise that children should invest less in materialistic concerns, and learn generosity. This is a “useful lesson” than which “there are few lessons more desirable to be learned in early life”. Harper’s Weekly subtly connects the anonymous, selfish child with Rachel Verinder in The Moonstone, who even as a young woman of eighteen is consistently referred to as a child by the narrators, especially by Betteredge. Rachel initially seems too materialistic, but we as readers learn over the course of the novel that Rachel’s odd behavior after the theft of the moonstone is attributable to love for Franklin Blake, not selfish self-indulgence. Harper’s Weekly strategically uses “Children’s Selfishness” to convince readers that the change in Rachel’s character is one of the most important lessons of the novel, and simultaneously indoctrinates readers into a typically-American conservative reading of The Moonstone.
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.
All the Year Round, The Moonstone, 1 August 1868. [text]
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.
"The Moonstone will have its vengeance yet on you and yours"
In this illustration, the second of three that cover part one of Harper’s printing of The Moonstone, the American editors are keen to represent the aggression of the British Empire, while fostering sympathy for the Indians. We know from the text that Seringapatam has been plundered and desecrated by British soldiers. The image depicts John Herncastle in British military uniform, towering over an Indian, arm raised with dagger in hand, poised to slay his victim. The image gives us full access to the illustrators’ recreation of the scene. We see Herncastle from the front. We are able to witness the impending murder, and even Hernacastle’s emotionless face. It is key to point out that, in the novel, Herncastle is approached by the narrator from behind, and it says nothing about his being poised to strike: the Indian “was sinking at the feet of a man whose back was towards me. The man turned at the instant when I came in, and I saw John Herncastle, with a torch in one hand, a dagger dripping with blood in the other” (Collins 4). This alteration of the novel’s description of this event was a conscious choice meant to emphasize Britain’s imperial aggression. Indeed, as Leverenz points out, “[t]he evocative nature of the images and their prominence necessarily framed readers’ first experience of the novel”(Leverenz 29). It is clear that the American editors made a conscious choice for a deliberate effect.
This is the first illustration that appears in Harper’s Weekly’s publication of The Moonstone. Combined with the other two images on this first page, the illustration sets the tone for the series’ representation of the novel’s Indian characters. Here, two Indians are pictured praying before a large statue of a Hindu deity. Another Indian kneels by what appears to be burning incense, his hands outstretched in supplication towards the deity. It is a peaceful, yet ominous scene. Note the deity’s downcast countenance; it looks as though it foresees the impending assault. The illustrators use prolepsis here to garner sympathy for the Indians, and animosity towards the British. According to the explanatory notes in the Oxford edition of The Moonstone, this deity, “later identified as Vishnu the Preserver…[is meant to be] represented in a black or blue colour, with four arms and a club to punish the wicked” (Sutherland 470). Harper’s presents a fairly accurate depiction, but the statue has a fat belly and a wideset head. It is supposed to be a goddess but has masculine features. It looks more like the Buddha than Hindu depictions of Vishnu, which suggests the editors’ ignorance of Hinduism, and an Orientalist mindset.