One Too Many, by G. H. Thomas

One Too Many

George Housman Thomas, 1824-1868

Engraved by William Luson Thomas (Thomas's brother)

1866

From Wilkie Collins's novel Armadale, Vol. II, facing p.3443

Source: the 1866 Smith, Elder edition, uploaded to the Internet Archive by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Although the narrative is packed with dramatic incidents, G. H. Thomas has again chosen to illustrate a simple moment of meeting. Ozias Midwinter greets his close friend Allan Armadale at the terminus of the "tidal train" from the coast, at London Bridge station. [continued below]

Caption and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the source and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print document]

Commentary

The train was late. Steam is still billowing out of the engine into the station shed, and people are pouring out of the crowded carriages. A little girl clutching her spade and perhaps shrimping net is crying: she has been separated from her mother, who hurries anxiously to claim her. But the figures at the centre of the hubbub, one tall and fair, the other rather touchingly "slim, dark, undersized" (781), are quite still: "For the moment they both stood speechless, hand in hand, looking at each other" (783).

Why are the pair so dumbfounded? Allan is surprised because Midwinter is supposed to be in Naples, busy with his writing. Midwinter is taken aback because he had expected to confront some stranger with whom, he imagined, his wife was having an affair. Also gaping in confusion is an elderly man in a top hat. This is Allan's steward Mr Bashwood, whom Midwinter had been tracking. Bashwood has already approached Allan with the false news that his beloved Neelie is ill. On the pretext of taking him to visit her, he will now conduct them both to the ironically named Fairweather Vale Sanatorium, where Lydia Gwilt has found a new and apparently foolproof way of getting rid of Allan, so that she can inherit the Thorpe-Ambrose estate.

Thomas's caption is brilliant. Allan and Midwinter are both "one too many" for Lydia now, while (for the time being) Bashwood is "one too many" for them. But Midwinter's unexpected reappearance is no less than a Godsend for Allan. After their initial silence, "Allan was the first to recover himself," says the narrator. "'Thank God for this,' he said fervently" (783). He speaks more truly than he realises. Midwinter will foil Lydia's plan by changing rooms with him at the sanatorium, and prove to be exactly what the Reverend Brock had prophesied, "the man whom the providence of God has appointed to save him" (624). In this way, this last illustration of Volume II again emphasizes the central importance of the relationship highlighted by the frontispiece of Volume I. It also reminds us that an artist needs to be the ideal reader of a work before he or she can be its ideal illustrator. In this connection, notice the other man in the top hat looking at Allan and Midwinter from amongst the crowd (just over Allan's shoulder). Would it be fanciful to suggest that this is Thomas's self-portait?

"Authenticism and Post-Authenticism: The Case of Wilkie Collins's Armadale and Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night: A Confession"

References

Collins, Wilkie. Armadale Ed. Catherine Peters. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2008.

Last modified 9 November 2011