"I am thinking," said he, "whether I shall add to the disorder in this room by scattering your brains about the fire-place." (page 533) — final composite wood-engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, first published in Harper's Weekly for 25 August 1860, p. 533. 10 cm high by 12 cm wide (3 ⅞ by 4 ¾ inches), vignetted. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Walter Hartright confronts Fosco
The same livid leaden change passed over his face which I had seen pass over it at the theatre. The deadly glitter in his eyes shone steady and straight into mine. He said nothing. But his left hand slowly opened the table-drawer, and softly slipped into it. The harsh grating noise of something heavy that he was moving unseen to me sounded for a moment, then ceased. The silence that followed was so intense that the faint ticking nibble of the white mice at their wires was distinctly audible where I stood.
My life hung by a thread, and I knew it. At that final moment I thought with his mind, I felt with his fingers — I was as certain as if I had seen it of what he kept hidden from me in the drawer.
“Wait a little,” I said. “You have got the door locked — you see I don’t move — you see my hands are empty. Wait a little. I have something more to say.”
“You have said enough,” he replied, with a sudden composure so unnatural and so ghastly that it tried my nerves as no outbreak of violence could have tried them. “I want one moment for my own thoughts, if you please. Do you guess what I am thinking about?”
“Perhaps I do.”
“I am thinking,” he remarked quietly, “whether I shall add to the disorder in this room by scattering your brains about the fireplace.”
If I had moved at that moment, I saw in his face that he would have done it. ["Part the Third, Hartright's Narrative, IV," p. 533 in the serial, p. 246 in the 1861 volume.]
Commentary: Hartright Gambles on Fosco's Assumptions about Pesca
Both McLenan in New York and F. A. Fraser recognized the importance of this moment in the narrative when Hartright counts on Fosco's fear of the Brotherhood. In order to get away from England, Fosco must have his passport processed the following morning; however, if the Count does not agree to the drawing-master's terms, and especially if he murders Hartright to secure his escape to Paris, Pesca will learn through Hartright's letter who the Count really is: a former member of the revolutionary Brotherhood turned counter-revolutionary spy for the repressive regimes that Pesca and his fellows have sworn to bring down. Hartright now reveals that he knows Fosco still bears the mark of the Brotherhood, despite his much changed appearance. Ironically, Pesca has not actually recognised the Count at the opera as his former brother-in-arms, even though the Count has clearly recognised him. After Hartright has revealed both his security and his demands, Fosco concedes that the brains he considered spattering are a match for his own. Hartright presents a cool, controlled visage in McLenan's illustration, and the obese Fosco has his finger on the trigger of the revolver he keeps in that drawer.
With this dramatic illustration and cliff-hanger caption Harper's Weekly concluded its narrative-pictorial series for the novel, on the very day that Dickens completed the novel's forty-part serial run in All the Year Round with "The Story Concluded by Walter Hartright," Chapters 1, 2, and 3. But Harper's did not publish that material until 8 September 1860, albeit without further illustrations.
The curious point about the 15 August 1860 Harper & Bros. volume is that it contains neither this 25 August 1860 illustration nor the pair for the 18 August (thirty-ninth) number: "She held me by both both hands," etc. and Pesca shows his brand as a sign of the Brotherhood.
Related Material
- Relevant illustration from 1860 Sampson Low edition: "Wait a little," I said. "You have the door locked — you see I don't move", facing p. 462.
- F. A. Fraser's full-scale illustrations for the British first edition: Illustrations for The Woman in White (1860)
- Fred Walker's poster: The Woman in White for the Olympic's October 1871 adaptation
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.]
Bibliography
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. New York: Harper & Bros., 1861 (first printing, 15 August 1860; reissued in single-column format in 1902, 548 pages).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: A Novel. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Illustrated by John McLenan. Vols. III-IV (26 November 1859 through 8 September 1860).
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Illustrated by F. A. Fraser and Sir John Gilbert. London: Sampson Low, 1860; rpt., Chatto & Windus, 1875.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert and F. A. Fraser. Toronto: Broadview, 2006.
Peters, Catherine. "Chapter Twelve: The Woman in White (1859-1860)." The King of the Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. London: Minerva Press, 1992. 205-25.
Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November 1859 — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. 44-46.
Created 7 August 2024