"He was resting one hand carelessly on the golden locks of a child."
John McLenan
1861
11.6 cm. by 11.5 cm.
Bulwer-Lytton's A Strange Story
Harper's Weekly 5 (28 September 1861): 622.
Scanned image and commentary 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: The Radiant Young Man in the Garden
Never have I seen human face so radiant as that young man’s. There was in the aspect an indescribable something that literally dazzled. As one continued to gaze, it was with surprise; one was forced to acknowledge that in the features themselves there was no faultless regularity; nor was the young man’s stature imposing, about the middle height. But the effect of the whole was not less transcendent. Large eyes, unspeakably lustrous; a most harmonious colouring; an expression of contagious animation and joyousness; and the form itself so critically fine, that the welded strength of its sinews was best shown in the lightness and grace of its movements.
He was resting one hand carelessly on the golden locks of a child that had nestled itself against his knees, looking up to his face in that silent loving wonder with which children regard something too strangely beautiful for noisy admiration; he himself was conversing with the host, an old gray-haired, gouty man, propped on his crutched stick, and listening with a look of mournful envy. To the wealth of the old man all the flowers in that garden owed their renewed delight in the summer air and sun. Oh, that his wealth could renew to himself one hour of the youth whose incarnation stood beside him, Lord, indeed, of Creation; its splendour woven into his crown of beauty, its enjoyments subject to his sceptre of hope and gladness. [Chapter XXIII p. 622]
Commentary: The Mysterious Mr. Margrave, An "Arcadian Youth"
Thus, McLenan depicts Dr. Allem Fenwick's first meeting with the handsome, enigmatic occultist Margrave, who apparently possesses the secret of eternal youth, the "Elixir of Life." In McLenan's illustration he hardly looks a Gothic villain, Fenwick's foil: an amoral, enigmatic, soulless sorcerer and supernatural occultist. The two seem to hit it off instantly.
Bibliography
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G. D. A Strange Story. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly V, 10 August — 21 December 1861.
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Created 21 November 2007 Last modified 17 June 2026