"I brushed past Dunning, and went right up to her" — third illustration by Frederick Barnard for Gissing's "An Inspiration" (1895)

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"I brushed past Dunning, and went right up to her"

Fred Barnard

December 1895

Lithograph illustrating George Gissing's "The Inpiration"

19.1 cm by 12.6 cm.

The English Illustrated Magazine XIV (December 1895), p. 274.

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Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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

Passage Illustrated: Conclusion

"Yes, you were right. I'll tell you about it. I got out of the cab at the end of Prince of Wales Road, and walked to the house. I knocked at the door. A servant came, and I told her I wished to see Mrs Dunning — the widow lady. I'd hardly spoken when James Dunning came out of a room; he had heard my voice. "What's the meaning of this ?" he said in his brutal way, pushing up against me. "Didn't you understand me?" "Yes, I did, and better than you think. I have come to see a lady who happens to live in your house ——" And just then I saw Lucy herself at the back of the hall. I brushed past Dunning, and went right up to her. "Mrs. Dunning, I wish to speak to you. Will you let me? Or do you want me to be turned out of the house like a beggar?" "No, no!" [English Illustrated Magazine, 1895, p. 275]

Commentary: A Comic Crescendo

Finally, in the penultimate illustration, Nangle triumphantly elbows past a surprised James Dunning (with a look of consternation) to address his romantic appeal directly to the wealthy widow, his former sweetheart Lucy, on the page facing the passage, telegraphing to the astute magazine reader the story's climax in advance of the reader's actually encountering it in the text. Nangle has already confided in Harvey Munden (and the reader) that Lucy's brother-in-law, Dunning is a "brute" (because, of course, he intends to sequester the widow and retain control over his late brother's fortune), but Barnard convinces the reader by his pompous reaction that Dunning is outraged at having been outmaneuvered.

Related Material

Bibliography

Gissing, George. "An Inspiration." Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The English Illustrated Magazine. No. 147 (Dec., 1895): 268-75.

Created 24 January 2021