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"We shall have him on our 'hands"
Fred Barnard
October 1895
Wood-engraving illustrating Gissing's "The Fate of Humphrey Snell"
5.4 cm by 6.9 cm.
The English Illustrated Magazine XIV (October 1895), p. 10.
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Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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Instantly he started for London, and on the following day, with money borrowed from his relatives, he travelled by rail to Shepton Mallet, where he spent twenty-four hours. He returned to London, frantic with alternate exultation and fear. His suspense was prolonged for a week; then the committee of the Workman's Club solemnly announced to him that his application would be favourably considered, if he and his wife were ready to enter upon their duties on that day fortnight.
Annie, whose handwriting was decipherable only by a lover’s eyes, answered his news by return of post:
"Send me money to come i shall want all i have for my things i cant tell you how delited I feal but its that sudin it taks my breth away with heepes of love and ——"
There followed a row of crosses, which Humphrey found it easy to interpret. A cross is frequently set upon a grave; but he did not think of that. [English Illustrated Magazine, 1895]
Commentary: A "Family Magazine" with a DifferenceThe tailpiece of the cheerful female figure may not have been Barnard's work, but that of a house artist. Her presence, surrounded by greenery, foils the sombre conclusion in which Gissing, like Hardy in Jude the Obscure shows a sensitive and thoughtful young man shackled for life with an inappropriate partner. Published on glossy paper with quality illustrations, The English Illustrated Magazine aimed at being a family magazine with a difference: Shorter's publishing this married-unhappily-ever-after story demonstrates the magazine's willingness to tackle challenging and even controversial subjects. Whereas quality magazines such as The Savoy (January to December 1896) publishing highbrow literature such as that of W. B. Yeats, Max Beerbohm, Joseph Conrad, and Aubrey Beardsley usually went under within a year because the readership to which they catered was rather exclusive, Shorter's deft touch at balancing family reading with such avant garde fiction as Gissing's seems to have paid off: his illustrated magazine survived for three decades.
Gissing, George. "The Fate of Humphrey Snell." Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The English Illustrated Magazine. No. 145 (Oct., 1895): 1-10.
Jacobs, Naomi. "Periodicals: Monthly Magazines." Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia, ed. Sally Mitchell. New York and London: Garland, 1988. 590-92.
Created 24 January 2021