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Miss Clack proseletizes in Lady Verinder's Library (uncaptioned)
William Sharp
pen-and-ink wood-engraving.
15.2 by 10.5 cm
Illustration of scene from Chapter 4 of the "Second Period," in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone, p. 210, in the 1946 Doubleday edition. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
As soon as we were alone, my aunt reclined on the sofa, and then alluded, with some appearance of confusion, to the subject of her Will.
"I hope you won't think yourself neglected, Drusilla," she said. "I mean to give you your little legacy, my dear, with my own hand."
Here was a golden opportunity! I seized it on the spot. In other words, I instantly opened my bag, and took out the top publication. It proved to be an early edition — only the twenty-fifth — of the famous anonymous work (believed to be by precious Miss Bellows), entitled The Serpent at Home. The design of the book — with which the worldly reader may not be acquainted — is to show how the Evil One lies in wait for us in all the most apparently innocent actions of our daily lives. The chapters best adapted to female perusal are "Satan in the Hair Brush;" "Satan behind the Looking Glass"; "Satan under the Tea Table"; "Satan out of the Window" — and many others.
"Give your attention, dear aunt, to this precious book — and you will give me all I ask." With those words, I handed it to her open, at a marked passage — one continuous burst of burning eloquence! Subject: Satan among the Sofa Cushions.
Poor Lady Verinder (reclining thoughtlessly on her own sofa cushions) glanced at the book, and handed it back to me looking more confused than ever.
I'm afraid, Drusilla," she said, "I must wait till I am a little better, before I can read that. The doctor —"
The moment she mentioned the doctor's name, I knew what was coming. — "Second Period. The Discovery of the Truth (1848-1849). First Narrative. Contributed by Miss Clack, Niece of the late Sir John Verinder," Chapter 4, p. 211.
In Sharp's narrative-pictorial sequence, Miss Clack, the narrator of the second movement of the story, appears just this once, whereas in the original serial illustrations for the "Second Period. The Discovery of the Truth (1848-1849). First Narrative. Contributed by Miss Clack, Niece of the late Sir John Verinder," she appears a number of times, with Lady Julia and Rachel Verinder, and with Godfrey Ablewhite, her "Christian​hero" (in whom she is most mistaken, as the reader sees, but she does not). Sharp suggests by her face and costume that she is an overdressed, artificially made-up old maid ("mutton got up as lamb"), and a fool — as the text illustrated may imply since through her moralising zealousness she does herself out of her inheritance.
As a butt for Collins's negative views about the hypocrisy of Christian fundamentalists Drusilla Clack provides a great deal of comic relief, but she is a middle class woman of limited means, and therefore would probably not be dressed as elaborately as in Sharp's illustration, although not perhaps as severely as in the original Harper's Weekly illustrations. In balance, F. A. Fraser's depiction of the evangelical old maid of limited means who is determined to hold her own with her wealthy relatives is the most credible.
Left: The American serial's depiction of the scene in which Miss Clack leaves pamphlets strategically placed in the Verinder house, Uncaptioned headnote vignette for the Second Period: First Narrative, "Chapter III" (p. 245, 18 April 1868). Centre: Right: F. A. Fraser's depiction of Godfrey Ablewhite and Miss Clack as observers of Rachel's devotion to her mother, "She stopped, ran across the room — and fell on her knees at her mother's feet." (1890). Centre Right: The serial's vignette of Miss Clack as a diarist, Uncaptioned headnote vignette for ​the Second Period: First Narrative (4 April 1868). Right: Godfrey embraces Drusilla Clack in order to get back into her good graces, "I don't think he put his arm round my waist to support me." (Ch. 7: 2 May 1868, page 277). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone: A Romance. with sixty-six illustrations. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. Vol. 12 (1868), 4 January through 8 August, pp. 5-503.
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone: A Romance. All the Year Round. 1 January-8 August 1868.
_________. The Moonstone: A Novel. With many illustrations. First edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, [July] 1868.
_________. The Moonstone: A Novel. With 19 illustrations. Second edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1874.
_________. The Moonstone: A Romance. Illustrated by George Du Maurier and F. A. Fraser. London: Chatto and Windus, 1890.
_________. The Moonstone. With 19 illustrations. The Works of Wilkie Collins. New York: Peter Fenelon Collier, 1900. Volumes 6 and 7.
_________. The Moonstone: A Romance. With four illustrations by John Sloan. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908.
_________. The Moonstone: A Romance. Illustrated by A. S. Pearse. London & Glasgow: Collins, 1910, rpt. 1930.
_________. The Moonstone. Illustrated by William Sharp. New York: Doubleday, 1946.
_________. The Moonstone: A Romance. With nine illustrations by Edwin La Dell. London: Folio Society, 1951.
Karl, Frederick R. "Introduction." Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone. Scarborough, Ontario: Signet, 1984. Pp. 1-21.
Leighton, Mary Elizabeth, and Lisa Surridge. "The Transatlantic Moonstone: A Study of the Illustrated Serial in Harper's Weekly." Victorian Periodicals Review Volume 42, Number 3 (Fall 2009): pp. 207-243. Accessed 1 July 2016. http://englishnovel2.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/files/2014/01/42.3.leighton-moonstone-serializatation.pdf
Nayder, Lillian. Unequal Partners: Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, & Victorian Authorship. London and Ithaca, NY: Cornll U. P., 2001.
Peters, Catherine. The King of the Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. London: Minerva, 1991.
Reed, John R. "English Imperialism and the Unacknowledged crime of The Moonstone. Clio 2, 3 (June, 1973): 281-290.
Stewart, J. I. M. "A Note on Sources." Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966, rpt. 1973. Pp. 527-8.
Vann, J. Don. "The Moonstone in All the Year Round, 4 January-8 1868." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: Modern Language Association, 1985. Pp. 48-50.
Winter, William. "Wilkie Collins." Old Friends: Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard, & Co., 1909. Pp. 203-219.
Last updated 20 October 2016