Initial letter W: Nina, leaning over a little stone balcony in front of a window, an amused witness of the scene beneath by Sir Luke Fildes; engraver, Swain. Fifth initial-letter vignette for Charles Lever's Lord Kilgobbin, from the February 1871 number of the Cornhill Magazine, p. 234 in Vol. XXIII. 7.4 cm by 5 cm (3 by 2 inches), framed. Part 5, for Chapter XV, "In the Garden at Dusk." The wood-engraver responsible for this thumbnail illustration was Joseph Swain (1820-1909), noted for his engravings of Sir John Tenniel's cartoons in Punch. [Click on the image to enlarge it; mouse over links.]
Right: The title-page for Volume XXIII of the Cornhill Magazine (January to June, 1871).
This fifth vignette is based on the following passage in Ch. 15, "In the Garden at Dusk"
"Be me sowl, yer honour, it’s thinking that they’re not so aisy to come at, makes us a bit lazy this evening!" said a ragged fellow, with a grin, which was quickly followed by a hearty laugh from those around him.
Something that sounded like a titter above his head made Atlee look up, and there, exactly over where he stood, was Nina, leaning over a little stone balcony in front of a window, an amused witness of the scene beneath.
"I have two words for yourself," cried he to her in Italian. "Will you come down to the garden for one moment?"
"Cannot the two words be said in the drawing-room?" asked she, half saucily, in the same language.
"No, they cannot be said in the drawing-room," continued he sternly.
"It’s dropping rain. I should get wet."
"Take an umbrella, then, but come. Mind me, Signora Nina, I am the bearer of a message for you."
There was something almost disdainful in the toss of her head as she heard these words, and she hastily retired from the balcony and entered the room. [Cornhill, Vol. XXIII, 235; volume edition, p. 96]
Commentary: Nina makes a Conquest in the Garden when she descends
Luke Fildes has given us several representations of the sophisticated, self-aware Kearney cousin, Nina Kostalergi: she has already appeared in the full-page engravings "One more sitting I must have, sir, for the hair" (November 1870), and in "How that song makes me wish we were back again, where I heard it first" (December 1870), with Cecil Whalpole. Nina, in every way a foil to Kate, appears in a total of nine full-page engravings (for instalments 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 16, 17, and 18) and three vignettes: this, and the initial-letter thumbnails for instalments 12 and 18. In other words, Lever divides his attention between three principal female characters: staid Kate Kearney and her artistic continental cousin, the more exotic Nina Kostalergi, and the politically connected Lady Maude, fiancée of Cecil Whalpole. This particular initial-letter vignette prepares readers for the scene in which Nina receives Cecil's message from Joe Atlee in the garden just afterward: "You are right, I see it all," and now he seized her hand and kissed it (February 1871, facing p. 234).
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Bibliography
Lever, Charles. Lord Kilgobbin. The Cornhill Magazine. With 18 full-page illustrations and 18 initial-letter vignettes by S. Luke Fildes. Volumes XXII-XXV. October 1870-March 1872.
Lever, Charles. Lord Kilgobbin: A Tale of Ireland in Our Own Time. Illustrated by Sir Luke Fildes, R. A. London: Smith, Elder, 1872; rpt., Chapman and Hall, 1873. 3 vols.
Lever, Charles. Lord Kilgobbin. Illustrated by Sir Luke Fildes. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vols. I-III. In three volumes. London: Smith, Elder, 1872, Rpt. London: Chapman & Hall, 1873. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 19 August 2010.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter XVI, "Exile on the Adriatic, 1867-1872." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell and Russell, 1939; rpt. 1969. Pp. 277-296.
Sutherland, John A. "Lord Kilgobbin." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 382.
Created 7 June 2023 Updated 19 June 2023