"I wish all good women were as good as I!" — Arthur Hopkins's fourth monthly illustration for Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native" in "Belgravia" (April 1878)

"I wish all good women were as good as I!"

Arthur Hopkins

6.4 inches high by 4.3 inches wide, framed

Hardy's The Return of the Native

Belgravia XXXV (April 1878), to face p. 235.

[Click on illustration to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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

Text illustrated: The Virtuous Thomasin a Foil to the Egocentric Eustacia

"Yet why, aunt, does everybody keep on making me think that I do, by the way they behave towards me? Why don't people judge me by my acts? Now look at me as I kneel here, picking up these apples — do I look like a lost woman? . . . I wish all good women were as good as I!' she added vehemently." [Book II, "The Arrival," Chapter II, "The People at Blooms-End make ready," 235]

Commentary: Thomasin Yeobright, Hardy's Blonde Heroine

The same quality of interior action and inner vision seen in the March plate is captured in April's illustration, "I wish all good women were as good as I!" This composite woodblock engraving is important to decoding the narrative because it highlights Thomasin as a major rather than a secondary character, helping her to retain a prominent position in the reader's mind after the introduction of Hardy's 'dark' heroine, the more fascinating and passionate Eustacia. This interpretation of Hopkins is a reflection of Hardy's own, as communicated to the artist in the February 8th letter:

"Thomasin, as you have divined, is the good heroine, & she ultimately marries the reddleman, & lives happily. Eustacia is the wayward & erring heroine" (Letters I: 53).

Hardy had seen the April illustration already: "Strangely enough I myself thought that Thomasin in the apple-loft would be the best illustration for the fourth number" (Letters I: 52), a passage which suggests that Hopkins had sent him several proposed illustrations, and that the appleloft scene with its wistful secondary heroine had been Hopkins' favourite as well.

Related Material

Illustrations for the Monthly Serialisation of Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native

Bibliography

Hardy, Thomas. The Return of the Native. Illustrated by Arthur Hopkins. Part Four: Book Two, "The Arrival," Chapter II, "The People at Blooms-End make ready." The Return of the Native. Belgravia, A Magazine of Fashion and Amusement (London) Vol. XXXV (April 1878). Pp. 234-274.

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 Four. Book II, "The Arrival," Chapters 1-5. April 1878. The Return of the Native in Belgravia, January-December 1878.” Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 84.

Created 27 October 2007

Last modified 10 June 2025