She lifted her left hand. Wood engraving (dark plate) by Arthur Hopkins for the second monthly instalment of Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native as serialised in Belgravia, A Magazine of Fashion and Amusement (February 1878): Vol. XXXIV, to face page 493 (4.3125 inches high by 6.375 inches wide). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Text illustrated from Hardy's The Return of the Native
Far away down the valley the faint shine from the window of the inn still lasted on; and a few additional moments proved that the window, or what was within it, had more to do with the woman's sigh than had either her own actions or the scene immediately around. She lifted her left hand, and revealed that it held a closed telescope. This she rapidly extended, as if she were well accustomed to the operation, and raising it to her eye directed it exactly towards the light beaming from the inn. [Book One, "The Three Women," Chapter VI, "The Figure Against the Sky," pp. 493-494]
Commentary: Curious Heath-cropping Ponies are her Only Audience
Disappointed with Hopkins' depiction of Eustacia in this number, in the first of five plates in which she figures, Hardy wrote the artist on the 8th of February, expressing dissatisfaction:
It is rather ungenerous to criticise; but since you invite me to do so I will say that I think Eustacia should have been represented as more youthful in face, supple in figure, &, in general, with a little more roundness and softness than have been given here. [Note the passive.]
My opinion, & I believe that of most novelists, is that the writer and illustrator of a story can hardly ever be in thorough accord unless they live in constant communication during its progress, & in these days that is almost impossible. However I trust some day to make your acquaintance, & obtain your pardon for my remarks. [Letters I: 52]
Hopkins has, under the pastoral spell of the novel's opening, given Belgravia's readers at best a Roman matron rather than a Greek divinity, hiding what Hardy describes as her voluptuous adolescent curves behind drapery characteristic of the monumental statuary of the late Roman empire. Even the pair of heathcroppers, putting their heads together conversationally, and the wind-blown furze are more visually interesting than Hardy's youthful heroine, Eustacia Vye. The focal point of the illustration is the telescope that she carries to keep watch on her lover, Wildeve, at the Quiet Woman Inn.
Jackson describes Hopkins' version of Eustacia here as "dumpy . . . , unromantic and unsophisticated" (89), although she is quick to point out that Hardy himself indicates that his dark heroine is "full-limbed and somewhat heavy." Hopkins' intention in introducing her in this second monthly plate seems to have been to stress "her eventual alienation from the world of Egdon."
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Bibliography
Hardy, Thomas. Part Two: Book One, "The Three Women," Chapter VI, "The Custom of the Country." The Return of the Native. Illustrated by Arthur Hopkins. January through December 1878. Belgravia, A Magazine of Fashion and Amusement (London) Vol. XXXIV (November 1877-February 1878). Pp. 257-287.
Hardy, Thomas. The Return of the Native. Illustrated by Arthur Hopkins. Part Two: Chapter VI, "The Figure Against the Sky," Belgravia, A Magazine of Fashion and Amusement (London), Vol. XXXIV. (November 1877-February 1878). Pp. 481-508
Hardy, Thomas. The Return of the Native. With an etching by H. Macbeth-Raeburn. London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1895.
Jackson, Arlene M. Illustration and the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Towtowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981.
Purdy, Richard Little, and Millgate, Michael, eds. The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy . Oxford: Clarendon, 1978. Vol. 1 (1840-1892).
Vann, J. Don. “Part Two. Book 1, Chapters 1-4. February 1878. The Return of the Native in Belgravia, January-December 1878.” Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 84.
Created 5 December 2000
Last modified 8 June 2025