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"And just outside the door an old woman was engaged in washing."

John McLenan

24 December 1859

11 cm high by 11.4 cm wide (4 ⅜ by 4 ½ inches), framed, p. 821.

Fifth regular illustration for Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (1860).

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 it, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.

"And just outside the door an old woman was engaged in washing." — staff artist John McLenan's fifth composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 5, published on 24 December 1859 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. III. Part Four: "The Story Begun by Walter Hartright, of Clement's Inn, Teacher of Drawing," p. 821; Chapter XI, p. 38 in volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage: The Mystery at Mrs. Fairlie's Grave

I looked about me, wondering how the question was to be solved. No sign of a habitation could be discerned from the point at which I was standing — the burial-ground was left in the lonely possession of the dead. I returned to the church, and walked round it till I came to the back of the building; then crossed the boundary wall beyond, by another of the stone stiles, and found myself at the head of a path leading down into a deserted stone quarry. Against one side of the quarry a little two-room cottage was built, and just outside the door an old woman was engaged in washing. [Chapter XI, 805; p. 38 in the 1861 volume edition]

Related Material

  • McLenan's uncaptioned headnote vignette for the fifth serial number: Postlewaite punished for 24 December 1859.
  • Fred Walker's poster: The Woman in White for the Olympic's October 1871 adaptation

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. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert. London: Minerva, 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. Pp. 205-225.

Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. Pp. 44-46.



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