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"Laura, Lady Glyde, was standing by the inscription, and was looking at me over the grave."
John McLenan
19 May 1860
11.2 cm high by 9 cm wide (4 ⅜ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted, p. 309; p. 170 in the 1861 volume.
Twenty-sixth regular illustration for Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel (1860).
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
"Laura, Lady Glyde, was standing by the inscription, and was looking at me over the grave." — staff artist John McLenan's twenty-sixth composite woodblock engraving for Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White: A Novel, Instalment 26, published on 19 May 1860 in Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vol. IV, "The Second Epoch; "The Narrative of Walter Hartright, Resumed. II," p. 293; p. 170 in the 1861 volume. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
“My dream! my dream!” I heard her say those words softly in the awful silence. She sank on her knees, and raised her clasped hands to heaven. “Father! strengthen him. Father! help him in his hour of need.”
The woman came on, slowly and silently came on. I looked at her — at her, and at none other, from that moment.
The voice that was praying for me faltered and sank low — then rose on a sudden, and called affrightedly, called despairingly to me to come away.
But the veiled woman had possession of me, body and soul. She stopped on one side of the grave. We stood face to face with the tombstone between us. She was close to the inscription on the side of the pedestal. Her gown touched the black letters.
The voice came nearer, and rose and rose more passionately still. “Hide your face! don’t look at her! Oh, for God’s sake, spare him ——”
The woman lifted her veil.
“Sacred to the Memory of Laura, Lady Glyde ——”
Laura, Lady Glyde, was standing by the inscription, and was looking at me over the grave. [The Second Epoch of the Story closes here.] [Part 26: "The Narrative of Walter Hartright. II," p. 289; p. 171 in the 1861 volume.]
The figure of Walter Hartright is instantly recognizable, although he seems older, or, at least, shaggier, perhaps as a result of his recent brushes with death in Honduras and the Caribbean. The plate's setting, too, should be familiar to the serial reader: the monument and grave of Laura Fairlie's mother in the churchyard near Limmeridge, last seen in "The hand holding the damp clot with which she had been cleaning the inscription dropped to her side; the other hand grasped the marble cross," etc. in Part 6 (31 December 1859). Since Laura in this illustration hardly looks like a spirit or ghost, this dramatic composition is not likely a realisation of a dream or vision. Consequently, McLenan's full-scale, captioned illustration immediately telegraphs the fact that, in spite of the inserts certifying her death and burial (see below) and the cook's account of her death, Laura is not dead. "The Certificate of Death," giving the cause as "aneurism," although undoubtedly correct, must then apply to Anne Catherick, Laura's double. However, the place of Laura's supposed demise is significant: 12 Croydon Gardens, St. John's Wood, is highly informative, for it is the new London address of the devious Foscos. The headnote vignette for this number alerts the reader to the Count's role in the scheme to rob Laura of her fortune, for he is not so much sad about her heart attack as he is pensive as he worries whether anybody will detect the substitution of Anne Catherick for Laura.
Left: Certificate of Lady Glyde's Death; centre: The Tombstone of Laura, Lady Glyde; right: The Tombstone of Laura, Lady Glyde: 28 July 1850. in Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization in "The Narrative of the Doctor," "The Narrative of the Tombstone," and "The Narrative of Walteer Hartright, Resumed. II," on pages 168, 169, and 171 respectively in the 1861 volume edition. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
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 and F. A. Fraser. Toronto: Broadview, 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. 205-25.
Vann, J. Don. "The Woman in White in All the Year Round, 26 November 1859 — 25 August 1860." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. Pp. 44-46.
Created 19 July 2024