Christmas at Noningsby – Evening

Christmas at Noningsby – Evening

John Everett Millais

Wood engraving by the Dalziels

6¼ x 4¼ inches

Anthony Trollope,Orley Farm, Vol 1, facing p. 175.

Trollope uses the game of blind man’s bluff to give his characters the opportunity to reflect on the blindness of justice while also engaging is some flirtatious behaviour. However, the illustration stresses the Christmas mood, with grandpapa blundering around while the children tug on his coat-tails. In a novel which is predominantly sombre, Millais injects a sense of joyousness to match the humour of the ‘commercial’ gentlemen’s banter at The Bell.

Click on image to enlarge it.

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

[You may use this image, which has been reproduced with permission of Professor Julia Thomas, DMVI, Cardiff University, Wales, UK, 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.]