Writing Death and Absence in the Victorian Novel: Engraved Narratives

210 Pages·3.839 MB·English

by  Jolene Zigarovich

Writing Death and Absence in the
Victorian Novel
AlsobyJoleneZigarovich
SexandDeathinEighteenth-CenturyLiterature(2012),Editor
Writing Death and Absence in the
Victorian Novel
Engraved Narratives
Jolene Zigarovich
WRITINGDEATHANDABSENCEINTHEVICTORIANNOVEL
Copyright©JoleneZigarovich,2012.
Allrightsreserved.
Firstpublishedin2012by
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Contents
ListofIllustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 “ALaboriouslyConstructedSkeleton”:Retrospection,
Loss,andObituaryinCharlotteBrontë’sVillette 23
2 “ItSoundsasHollowasaCoffin”:TheEmptyTomb
inBleakHouse 57
3 WilkieCollins,Narrativity,andEpitaph 85
4 MemorializationandEndlessnessinDickens’s
OurMutualFriend 119
5 EdwinDrood:ThePreeminentMissingBody 139
Notes 157
Bibliography 185
Index 195
This page intentionally left blank
Illustrations
2.1 HablotK.“Phiz”Browne.“ConsecratedGround.”
Etchingonsteel.BleakHouse 67
2.2 HablotK.“Phiz”Browne.“TheGhost’sWalk.”
1853.Etchingonsteel.BleakHouse 75
2.3 HablotK.“Phiz”Browne.“TheMorning.”1853.
Etchingonsteel.BleakHouse 80
2.4 HablotK.“Phiz”Browne.“TheMausoleumat
ChesneyWold.”1853.Etchingonsteel.BleakHouse 81
3.1 GraphicofVetranio’sepitaph.Antonina.Harperand
Brothersillustratededition.1873 89
3.2 Graphicofepitaph.TheDeadSecret.Serial.
HouseholdWords.1857 92
3.3 TheDeadSecret.HarperandBrothersillustrated
edition.1873 93
3.4 HideandSeek.HarperandBrothersillustrated
edition.1873 98
3.5 F.W.Pailthorpe.“TheTerribleStrangerinthe
Churchyard.”1885.Great Expectations 101
3.6 TheWomaninWhite.HarperandBrothers
illustratededition.1873 102
3.7 Manuscript.TheWomaninWhite 103
3.8 “TheNarrativeoftheDoctor.”TheWomaninWhite 108
3.9 “TheNarrativeoftheTombstone.”TheWomanin
White 108
3.10 “TheNarrativeoftheDoctor.”Manuscript.The
WomaninWhite 109
3.11 “TheNarrativeoftheDoctor.”TheWomanin
White.Serial.AlltheYearRound.1859–1860 110
3.12 “TheNarrativeoftheTombStone.”Manuscript.
TheWomaninWhite 111
3.13 Graphicofepitaph.TheWomaninWhite.Serial.
AlltheYearRound.1859–1860 112
3.14 WilkieCollins’sgravesite,KensalGreen 115
viii List of Illustrations
3.15 WilkieCollins’stombstoneepitaph,detail 116
4.1 MarcusStone,“MoreDeadThanAlive.”1864.
OurMutualFriend 132
5.1 Sapseaepitaph.TheMysteryofEdwinDrood 143
5.2 Sapseaepitaph.1870.TheMysteryofEdwinDrood.
Serial 144
5.3 Advertisement.“Jay’sLondonGeneralMourning
Warehouse.”TheMysteryofEdwinDrood.Serial.
September1870 149
5.4 Advertisement.“TheNewMourningStationery.”
TheOxfordMourningNotePaperandEnvelopes,
RegisteredproducedbyTerry,Stoneman,andCo.
TheMysteryofEdwinDrood.Serial.September1870 150
5.5 Advertisement.StereoscopicCo.“CharlesDickens
Portrait.”TheMysteryofEdwinDrood.Serial.
September1870 151
5.6 Advertisement.“APhotographicViewofGad’sHill
Place.”J.Luntley.TheMysteryofEdwinDrood.
Serial.September1870 152
5.7 Advertisement.“TheLateCharlesDickens.An
ElaboratelyEngravedPortrait.”TheMysteryofEdwin
Drood.Serial.September1870 154
5.8 J.H.Baker.PortraitofCharlesDickens.“Froma
photographtakenin1868byMason&Co.”
TheMysteryofEdwinDrood.Firstone-volume
edition.ChapmanandHall.1870 155
Acknowledgments
IamespeciallygratefultoMarcRedfieldandhiscarefulguidanceand
suggestions over the course of many years. As both brilliant scholar
and teacher, as well as generous mentor, he is a constant inspiration
to me. To Constance Jordan and Paul Saint-Amour, I am thankful
for their early responses to my project. I would like to thank Lillian
NayderandWilliamBaker,carefulreadersofWilkieCollins,whosaw
potentialinmywork.
I am grateful to Edgar Rosenberg, whose consistent encourage-
ment and close readings of Dickens have been tremendously helpful.
IwouldalsoliketothankTheFriendsoftheDickensProjectfortheir
support,andtoJohnJordan,whoseconversationsaboutBleakHouse
wereinspiring.
This study wouldn’t have been possible without the work of
ElisabethBronfen,GarrettStewart,ReginaBarreca,AlbertD.Hutter,
andCarolynDeverwhoseexpertreadingsofdeath,narrativeanddis-
placement inspired a discovery of my own reading of the Victorian
novel.
I would like to give a special acknowledgment to the libraries,
librarians and curators that assisted me with archival materials. With-
out them, this project could not have been written: Christine Nelson
at The Pierpont Morgan Library who has encouraged my work with
Collins’s manuscripts; Sally Williams, National Art Library, Word
and Image Department, Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Carrie
Marsh at Special Collections of The Honnold/Mudd Claremont
Libraries; Judy Sahak at Denison Library Special and Rare Books
Collections, Scripps College; Rob Merton at the Mandeville Special
Collections Library at the University of California, San Diego; Spe-
cial Collections at the University of California, Riverside; and the
remarkable staff at Olin Library and Kroch Rare Library, Cornell
University.
Portions of Chapter 3 rework material that appeared earlier in
Dickens Studies Annual. I’m grateful to AMS Press, Inc. for permis-
siontoreprint.