Browse Exhibits (4 total)

Linda Hughes has talked about the importance of “sideways reading” (1-2) and when reading Victorian texts, one should look at the surrounding texts, articles, pictures, advertisements, and so on in its original form. By doing this, the text’s meaning could change as there is cultural and historical context, but it also creates a conversation with the two or more different texts that are side-by-side.

Due to interpreting the texts in this way, the text analysis then relies on Roland Barthes’ Death of the Author theory as the texts around The Moonstone might be interpreted differently than how the author initially wrote it. As The Moonstone was written, the author’s intended interpretations of Miss. Clack could have been different, but due to the surrounding texts, the texts show her in a different light and might even paint her in a more vain and naïve character than written alone.

Due to the Death of the Author theory, the author’s intentions of the character is less relevant, while the relevance remains in the interpretation of the readers by also using the texts surrounding the first chapter narrated by Miss Clack. The texts around The Moonstone create dimension to the characters in the story, more so than the story itself provides. Miss. Clack’s character is critiqued and added to because of the surrounding illustrations, articles, and stories. The texts around the chapter create conversation around Miss Clack's Christianity and add to the comparison between her and Mr. Godfrey. 

Barthes, Roland. “Death of the Author.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, edited by Vincent B. Leitch et al., W.W. Norton, 2010, pp 1322-1326.

Hughes, Linda K. "SIDEWAYS!: Navigating the Material(ity) of Print Culture." Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 47 no. 1, 2014, p. 1-30. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/vpr.2014.0011.

            Although there are many diverse genres which use illustrations within texts, the term “picture books” often conjures an image of children’s books. The importance of reading to children, including picture books, is a widely researched and well supported field. Through this process, children not only develop important language skills, but they also learn the power of imagination and creativity. As philosopher and author G.K. Chesterton puts it, “Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.”. These stories tell children that we can overcome our greatest challenges and that anything is possible. As adults, the hope is that we have ingrained this ability, but unfortunately, more than not, we forget that important idea amidst our busy daily lives. Dr. Louise Joy, a professor at Homerton College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, argues that these stories we read as children still have the same effect on us as adults. “We cherish children’s classics precisely because they represent a world that does not resemble the world as we experience it”. With a growing trend of dissatisfaction in adults, the idea of returning to a simple childhood full of possibility is alluring.

            The United States in the mid-19^th century was another time where such desires for a simpler world were relevant. In the wake of the American Civil War, many people were struggling to identify what it meant to be an American, what their country stood for, and what it would come to stand for. The idea that anything is possible could extend to this idea of national identity as this newly unified country sought to define itself. In the American publication of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, the editors, Harper and Brothers, chose to commission illustrations to include as part of the story. Much like the children’s books of our youth, such richly illustrated publications would serve to spark the imagination of a country.

In the reading of this story, readers would be filled with a suspension of disbelief and lean into the supernatural elements of this book. In a mystery story such as The Moonstone, hallmarked as the defining detective novel, this inclusion of illustrations that depict the supernatural heightens the suspense of the reader, as they believe truly, that anything is possible.

Works Cited

“Children’s literature an escape from the adult world” University of Cambridge, 24 sep 2011 https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/childrens-literature-an-escape-from-the-adult-world

Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone, edited by John Sutherland, Oxford University Press, 1999