[“Ellen — oh! I have killed her!”] — illustration for G. W. M. Reynolds’s “The Mysteries of London” by G. Stiff

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“Ellen — oh! I have killed her!”

G. Stiff

c. 1843

Wood engraving

Source: The Hathi Trust version of G. W. M. Reynolds’s The Mysteries of London 1.369

The illustration depicts a passage in Chapter 119.

Click on image to enlarge it and see passage illustrated below,

The many occupations of Ellen Monroe

Ellen becomes a sculptor’s model

“The face of your Venus is my own!”

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Passage illustrated

"Ellen! Ellen! thou hast broken thy father's heart," murmured Mr. Monroe, averting his face from his suppliant daughter. "Oh! heaven be thanked that thy mother has been snatched from us! But tell me, unhappy girl, who is the villain that has dishonoured thee — for, in the moment of my intense agony, when I read the fatal letter that disclosed thy dishonour and marked the name of thy child, I vilely — ungratefully accused our generous benefactor of thy ruin.

"What! Richard? — oh! no, no!" ejaculated Ellen, in a tone of ineffable anguish; then, as the thought of who the father of her child really was flashed across her memory, she gave utterance to a terrible moan, and sank backwards, senseless, upon the floor.

"Ellen! Ellen!" cried the old man: "Ellen — my dearest daughter, Ellen — oh! I have killed her!" — Chapter 119, “Poor Ellen” [1.369]

Commentary

All is forgiven, Mr. Monroe quickly comes to delight in little Richard, his newly discovered grandson who becomes legitimized once Ellen blackmails Greenwood into marrying her. Since this novel always seems to have just one more plot twist, the closing pages reveal that Montague Greenwood, the swindling, seducing villain, is really Eugene Markham, Richard’s brother.

Bibliography

Reynolds, George W. M. The Mysteries of London. vol 1. London: George Vickers, 1846. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Web. 6 October 2016.

Last modified 6 October 2016