"Some vulgar, some dashing widow" for Jane Austen's "Emma" (1905) by Hugh Thomson (p. 246, Chapter XXXII)

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Some vulgar, some dashing widow

Hugh Thomson

1905

Photomechanical reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing

11.3 by 8.8 cm (4 ½ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted

Jane Austen, Emma, facing page 247.

For passage illustrated and commentary, see below.

Scanned image 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: Mrs. Elton sails down the high street, much admired

It was as much as Emma could bear, without being impolite. The idea of her being indebted to Mrs. Elton for what was called an introduction — of her going into public under the auspices of Mrs. Elton’s — probably some vulgar, dashing widow, who, with the help of a boarder, just made a shift to live! — The dignity of Miss Woodhouse, of Hartfield, was sunk indeed! [Chapter XXXII, 245]

Commentary: Not Just Any Widow 'Sailing down' the High Street of Highbury in Surrey

The second illustration for Chapter XXXII shows just such a vulgar figure as Mrs. Elton, sailing down the high street as several fashionably dressed young men admire her from a distance. She is, of course, dressed for the outdoors, carrying an umbrella and wearing an ornately embroidered shawl. If she is a woman of modest means, she has taken great pains to hide it. We can well imagine that Emma would prefer not to be associated with such a woman.

Related Material

Bibliography

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. Austin Dobson. With forty pen-and-ink illustrations by Hugh Thomson. The Novels of Jane Austen. London: Macmillan, 1896, rpt. 1905.

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. R. Brimley Johnson. With coloured illustrations by C. E. Brock. The Novels and Letters of Jane Austen. 2 vols. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906.

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. George Justice. 4th edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

Austen, Jane. Emma: An Annotated Edition. Ed. Bharat Tandon. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard U. P., 2012.

Last modified 25 May 2026