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 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.
Harper's Weekly
Feb. 8, 1868 Title Page - Harper's Weekly
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cure for neuralgia and all nervous diseases
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.
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.
One more advertisement from All The Year Round
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.
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.
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.
"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.
Unknown
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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 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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
"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).
Advertisement in America: Harper Weekly July 11, 1868 [text]