In her 2010 book The Discourses of Food in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction, Annette Cozzi asserts that food is a significant cultural item that works to establish insider/outsider dynamics within and across communities (5). In her chapter devoted to Charles Dickens, she writes that Dickens’s novels often use the motif of food to distinguish between and critique the “two nations” of England (15). This is evident not only in Dickens’s own works, but in the works he compiled in All the Year Round. The serial part that directly follows The Moonstone—“A Pair of Horse-Pictures”1— is a satire on upper-class English privilege that explores the classist connotations of taste/preference. In this story, the homodiegetic narrator describes the reactions of a group of rich men upon tasting horse meat at “the great Langham horse-dinner” (“Horse-Pictures” 270). Upon learning that the meal was comprised of horse meat, one guest exclaims “God bless my soul! what are we coming to?” (270). Later, the narrator notes that in the end, physical hunger outweighed any moral objection to the food on the table (271). If one reads this issue of All the Year Round intratextually as Molly Knox Leverenz suggests (25), it is clear that this story fragment responds to and reshapes interpretations of The Moonstone within All the Year Round. “A Pair of Horse-Pictures” exposes the absurdity of grouping people into arbitrary classes and creating artificial hierarchies within cultures. The positioning of this story within the periodical instigates a rereading of The Moonstone. It asks readers to adopt a more critical view of Sergeant Cuff’s perceived sense of superiority over Betteredge (Collins 120), and of the characters’ general condescension towards lower-class characters like the Yollands and Rosanna Spearman. Notes 1. This text can be read in full at Dickens Journals Online, http://www.djo.org.uk/indexes/articles/a-pair-of-horse-pictures.html. Works Cited Collins, Wilkie. “Chapter XV.” The Moonstone. Ed. John Sutherland. New York: OUP, 2008. 199-132. Print. Cozzi, Annette. The Discourses of Food in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction. New York: Palgrave, 2010. Print. "A Pair of Horse-Pictures [ii]." Dickens Journals Online. U Buckingham. n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2015. Parkinson, Joseph Charles. "A Pair of Horse-Pictures." All the Year Round: A Weekly Journal 29 Feb. 1868. 270-274. Print.
Unknown
All the Year Round, The Moonstone, 1 August 1868. [text]
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.
All the Year Round
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.
Collins, Wilkie
Title Page for The Moonstone in Harper's Weekly [text]
This is the title page for The Moonstone in Harper’s Weekly’s, May 30, 1868 instalment. On this page we see two illustrations taking up a good portion of the page. In the title of The Moonstone, the words “RICHLY ILLUSTRATED” are presented as almost as big as Wilkie Collins’ name. This could show the level of importance illustrations are to Harper’s magazine. We see this importance of illustration also in the advertisements in Harper’s Weekly. One picture depicts Franklin Blake discovering his nightgown after reading the instructions from Rosanna’s letter. In the second illustration, we see Limping Lucy giving Franklin Blake a look of disgust, while some article of clothing hangs up to dry in the background. In both illustrations, a good amount of focus is on these articles of clothing. Katie Lanning explains how advertising before the use sensational writing, was “largely straightforward and informational, void of sensation and affect” (13). After sensation writing came out, advertisers would try “mimicking the form of sensation writing” (13). By mimicking the sensational novels, advertisements aimed less at the instruction of the product, and more towards trying to catch the readers eye and attention through sensation and affect. This type of advertising was known as “sensational advertising” (13). We see sensational advertisements in Harper’s Weekly, as their advertisements are filled with pictures and words of different sizing and fonts.
Harper's Weekly
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.
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.
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.
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.
"Weigh it in your hand, sir," she said to the Sergeant. [image]
In the ninth serial part of The Moonstone, Mr. Betteredge and Sergeant Cuff travel to the nearby town of Cobb’s Hole to pay a visit to friends of Rosanna Spearman. While the journey is not far in distance, it is worlds away from the genteel setting of the Verinder estate. The Yollands are a lower-class family, but Betteredge maintains that they are “respectable, worthy people” (124) and “a credit to the neighbourhood” (124). His verbal approval of the Yollands is undercut almost immediately when he calls explicit attention to his need to translate Mrs. Yolland’s lower-class Yorkshire dialect into “the English language” (125)—distinguishing between the proper English and the social “Other” in the scene. Harper’s Weekly picks up on Betteredge’s hypocritical stance towards the impoverished lower classes. In this serial part, a large illustration of Mrs. Yolland and Sergeant Cuff is positioned in the bottom-right portion of the first page. The scene is claustrophobic and darkly shaded, with Mrs. Yolland crouched in a submissive position in front of and below Sergeant Cuff. Sergeant Cuff stands erect and holds his hat behind his back like a proper English gentleman. In his other hand, Cuff appears to be extending his hand to aid Mrs. Yolland, but a closer look shows that he holds a chain between his fingers. The presence of the chain is explained in the story’s discourse (128) but because of the image’s size and shading relative to the verbal text, it takes a prominent position on the page of Harper's Weekly. This image functions proleptically to direct the reading of the verbal text. Before the reader learns the identity of the woman in the scene, he/she perceives that she is impoverished, lives in bleak and cramped quarters, and is subservient to the middle-upper class English gentleman. Works Cited Collins, Wilkie. “Chapter XV.” The Moonstone. Ed. John Sutherland. New York: OUP, 2008. 199-132. Print.
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.
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.
Harper's Weekly: Advertisement Pages [text]
FIG. 1. Harper’s Weekly, certainly, was well aware of the diversity in individuals that purchased their newspaper. This can most readily be seen in the advertisement pages. The first page of advertisements is filled with an assortment of objects related to all things literary; everything from “golden pens, pen and pencil cases” and even an ad stating that “every man should own his own printer” can be seen. Furthermore, the assortment of journals, novels, and guides for sale cannot be overlooked. These guides cater to all, from “Essays for Young Men on the Errors and Abuses Incident to Youth and Early Manhood” to an “Illustrated Guide to the Flower and Vegetable Garden” to “Two Paths in Womanhood.” Clearly, the diversity in both the class and gender of the Victorian newspaper reader was vast. Notably, many of the journals offered are free of charge. For example, the “Holiday Journal” filled with “large pages of parlour plays, games, experiments, problems and puzzles” can be delivered to one’s home free of charge. Similarly, the aforementioned “Essays for Young Men” is also provided free of charge. Certainly, the middle-lower class “new reader” would have been particularly concerned with such advertisements.We can assume that many publishers would capitalize on the growing readership of Victorians, in the form of reading materials becoming more readily available at a cheap or free price. Furthermore, the inclusion of such advertisements in Harper’s itself shows that the newspaper also was in high demand of middle-lower class readership, since others advertised similar minded works within it. FIG. 2. The second page of advertisements continues to follow the first. Though significantly less literary in nature, the second page does contain a few objects of literary importance. The inclusion of the “Patent Book Clamp” is particularly interesting. The clamp is said to combat “ruined books” by means of clamping one’s materials together under a convenient handle for carrying. This interesting advertisement illustrates a demand and interest of the Victorian reader for accessories related to printed material. It shows not only the popularity of cheaply printed novels, but importantly the diversity at which such materials are now available. Of course, the demand for the accessory would not exist without the demand for the object it is intended for. Lastly, Harper’s includes an illustration of a common “social problem” at the top of the advertisement page. The caption states: “The Street Car Question Again” and appears to outline problems associated with street car/railway etiquette. The image on the left details a group of men seated in the car while a young woman fails to find a seat. Notably, each of the men has a newspaper lifted to his face, reading on the car. As Altick notes in his book, “‘Railway reading’ was another influential [book] trade development” (301). Cheap reading material was born of railway travel, where one could read in relative peace, with respectable lighting, in order to pass the time. The illustration of such “railway reading” in Harper’s only further exemplifies the hold literature, news, and reading had upon the common Victorian. Alitck, Richard. The English Common Reader : A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1957. Print.
Harper's Weekly, The Moonstone, 1 August 1868 [text]
While the second and final page of The Moonstone installment lacks the allure of the title page that precedes it, it still remains clear that Harper’s focus is on the work itself rather than the journal or otherwise. Again, there are no advertisements present on the page or inserted in the text. While the title of the work and its author are not mentioned again on this page, Harper’s Weekly appears the same; modest text serving no purpose other than letting the reader know the journal they’re currently reading. The page is, essentially, a block of text, suggesting Harper’s counted on the title page of the text to allure readers. Certainly, the foreshadowing images would likely satisfy the initial attraction. Harper’s likely hoped that story itself, half of it having been written on the title page, would be enough to keep readers going to the end.
One more advertisement from All The Year Round
Feb. 8, 1868 Gettysburg Asylum Advertisement - Harper's Weekly
This advertisement is an appeal to citizens to help contribute to the aid of invalid soldiers. It is a wonderful humanitarian venture that is founded securely on financial donations. The monetary emphasis of this piece is highlighted in the use of the words “Valuable Presents”, the assurance that “the Diamond Goods, Pearls, Emeralds, Rubies…” have all been examined, the bold font of the figure $641,950, and the exhaustive list of valuable rewards. This piece emphasizes the monetary emphasis of American society of the time. It even begins with “an appeal to the American people”, insinuating that this is the best way for American people to help better the living conditions of their veterans. This emphasis on the need for financial aid portrays the importance of material wealth to help enhance all levels of society. Just as the “Diamond Goods” in this fundraiser are beneficial for the veterans, so too could the Moonstone of Collins’ narrative be taken from its place of moral ambiguity and elevated as an inherently virtuous commodity.
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.
Cure for neuralgia and all nervous diseases
Scene in the Hospital for Incurables on Blackwell's Island [image]
This full-page image, “Scene in the Hospital for Incurables on Blackwell’s Island,” appears two pages after The Moonstone in Harper’s Weekly. In W. S. L. Jewry’s illustration, two American women aid a sick man as he lies in a hospital bed. His bed is in the foreground and is cast in a bright light so as to draw the viewer’s eye to the scene. One woman peels fruit for the young man while the second woman (who appears to be dressed in religious habit) reads to him at his bedside—nourishing both his body and spirit. In the background, a third nurse cares for a patient, while a second unattended patient peers towards the sick man with concern. While this image doesn’t visually signal its ties to the American nation, the accompanying title positions this scene within an American hospital. It is a scene that conveys empathy between genders, classes, and physicalities. This image works in tandem with the images on p. 1321 to frame Wilkie Collins’s story within the periodical. Both pages are dominated by images of Americans helping the less fortunate, and both critique the upper-middle class attitudes towards the poor that are represented in Chapter XV of The Moonstone. They function as nationalist propaganda by simultaneously criticizing the lack of empathy in the British class system (as represented by Cuff’s and Betteredge’s treatment of Mrs. Yolland) and falsely depicting “America’s precarious post-war national identity” (28) as unified and classless. Notes 1. See “George Washington and Relieving the Poor” in this exhibit 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.
Jewett, W. S. L.
Harper's Weekly: Biographical Information and Image of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court [text and image]
A column featuring brief biographical information on the Justices of the United States Supreme Court.
Harper's Weekly, The Moonstone Title Page, 1 August, 1868. [text]
The first page of the Harper’s Weekly publication is modest in its attention to the journal itself. ‘Harper’s Weekly’ is seen in plain print at the top of the page, doing little more than reminding the reader in passing that they are reading this text within the journal. The focus of the page is undoubtedly The Moonstone. The title of the novel stands out against the rest of the smaller text on the page, and the author’s name is hard to miss directly below it. Immediately, the reader knows what they are reading and who has written it, they also become aware of other texts by said author, boasting Collins’ own success. The title, however, pales when compared to the two illustrations on the page. Harper’s notes that this narrative is ‘RICHLY ILLUSTRATED’, and rightly so. The top-left image shows (presumably) Blake speaking to Gooseberry, while the bottom-right displays the climax of the installment – the death and reveal of Godfrey Ablewhite. Not only do these images effectively draw the reader into the narrative, they excite Harper’s audience by showing what is in store for them if they choose to indulge in Collins’ story. In short, almost no emphasis is placed on the journal, and it appears that every penny spent in printing was done so in an effort to advertise Collins’ work.
Seamstresses Wanted advertisement in Harper's Weekly [text]
This is an advertisement from Harper’s Weekly, looking for workers who know how to use sewing machines, or have a general knowledge of sewing. There were a few different clothing advertisements in this issue of Harper’s. They might have been placed there by coincidence, however, if we look at the other advertisements and Katie Lanning’s article on “tesselated texts,” we can make a pretty legitimate assumption that these advertisements were strategically placed where they are. Can these advertisements be read as “tessellated” with The Moonstone? How does clothing relate to The Moonstone? How important can clothing be in The Moonstone? Extremely, as in this instalment, while Franklin Blake and Betteredege are trying to solve the crime of the Moonstone, they end with finding the thief’s nightgown- Franklin’s nightgown. In the illustrations of this part of The Moonstone, the objects that stand out the most, besides the people, are the articles of clothing. In the first illustration, Franklin is realizes that it was in fact his nightgown with the paint smear. In the second illustration, there is a shirt randomly hanging up in the background. Where would a reader previously have seen pieces of clothing as prominent as in this story? That’s right, in the advertisements.
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.
Harper's Weekly: Journal of Civilization (Text)
Comparatively, the week the same section of “The Moonstone” appeared Harper’s Weekly, an American publication, it was featured alongside several references, either textual or imagistic, to the now commonplace epistolary lifestyle. The opening page is comprised almost entirely of a image depicting the “Dead Letter Office” a place where the lost letters of the American postal service were laid to rest. The image alone reveals a pile of letters, offering a visual image of what will later become prominent in Collin’s text, but also highlighting the popularity of epistolary correspondence. The article that accompanies the image begins “Out of the 462,279,719 letters which annually pass through the United States mails, 4,306,508 are misdirected or unpaid and go to the Dead-Letter Office at Washington.”
George Washington and "Relieving the Poor"
Image of George Washington + 2 smaller images both entitled "Relieving the Poor." Published in Harper's Weekly, 29 February 1868.
Feb. 8, 1868 Title Page - Harper's Weekly
Feb. 8, 1868 Literary advertisement - Harper's Weekly
This advertisement is representative of the foregrounding of facts over fiction in Harper’s Weekly. In contrast to All the Year Round which seeks to instruct through fiction, Harper’s Weekly chooses to instruct by advertising a piece of literature that has to be purchased and consumed elsewhere. This piece also takes care to note that “the fidelity of [the author’s] statements [were] confirmed”. This emphasizes the magazine’s concern with the presentation of viable facts to its viewers as proving the literature worthy of promotion and consumption. This makes the exaggeration of the Moonstone image even more remarkable because of the willingness shown to bend the truth in order to emphasize a material commodity. This advertisement is also careful to name Harper’s as the book publisher. Not only is Paul du Chaillu given credit, but Harper’s is ensured to gain profit as well. The fact that it is a French explorer being censured by English critics showcases another aspect of the literary disparity across cultures. Perhaps it is the fact that it is a Frenchman’s writing that makes the book more suspect in the eyes of British critics who might favor British literary craftsmanship.
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.
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.
On the front page of Harper’s Weekly, February 1, 1868, is a full page spread featuring the poetry of John Thompson. The poem is reminiscent of Anderson’s “The Little Match Girl” (1845) and it sits atop an illustration of the young boy in the poem. In both illustration and poem, the poor boy has succumb to the cold and died in front of a building. As previously argued, the sensational nature of the Victorian periodical and newspaper was directly associated with the middle-lower classes and “new” or “common” readership. Therefore, the accompanying literature, illustrations, and other materials included into each weekly instalment must adhere to the sensational or, at the least, be familiar in nature to those reading. This front page spread does both. By placing an image and story of a dying boy on the front page, the paper immediately recalls “shocking” or “horrifying” elements of sensationalism. Furthermore, they cater to the sensational material throughout Harper’s, and serve as a preface to other sensational fiction inside the newspaper, including The Moonstone. Secondly, the nature of the boy’s death- a lower class individual- would be a familiar story for many that had been touched by poverty or hard times during the Victorian era. By implementing the familiar and the sensational, Harper’s Weekly introduces itself as a newspaper that caters to the common reader.
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.
The visual scene of Ezra Jennings waiting for Mr. Blake in Harper's Weekly is the key illustration for chapter X. The object details of this scene follow closely to the description of the novel, from the "book-case filled with dingy medical works, and ornamented at the top with a skull", to the "copious ink" stain on the table (Collins 378). However, the composure of Ezra Jennings is not presented to the reader through the text. Rather, the illustration seen here presents Ezra in a pensive, and thoughtful composure. What the text does not mention, the illustration presents in this moment. It is an example of the relationship between illustration and text, the "complex interplay of realist detail and sensational events" (Leighton 75). This pictorial representation demonstrates the approach of two fold literacy in Victorian literature. Ezra's composure, which is a sensationalism beyond the realistic realm of the textual representation, creates an expectation in sensational genre.
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.
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
Diamond Advertisement in Harper's Weekly [text]
This diamond advertisement is shown in Harper’s Weekly’s May 30, 1868 issue. The advertisement is seen as “sensational advertising” due to the fact that it is eye catching. The letters are different fonts and sizes. Once the advertisement catches the readers attention, the reader notices that they have the “finest” diamonds. This differs from the older style of advertisements, where advertising had long instructive and detailed description. The only detailed description that is given about their diamonds are that they are the “Finest.” This advertisement is placed here purposely for the readers to do a tessellated reading between this ad and The Moonstone. This shows up a page or two before The Moonstone instalment. Therefore, when reading The Moonstone, the readers mind will keep going back to the diamond ad that caught their eye. This part of The Moonstone, has Franklin Blake coming back from England for one purpose, which is to solve the mystery of the Moonstone. It would be pretty hard for a reader, not to recall the diamond ad while reading this instalment.