Poems and Troubles for All the year Round

While the poetry here would be applicable, and thus connect to, by both American and British readers, and thus would not likely to have illustrations in Harper’s Weekly, Sir John’s Troubles has several elements even within its first sentence that would be alien to the American readers of the time. A newspaper job advertisement of “WANTED A GOVERNESS. Must be a Roman Catholic. A French Lady with a good knowledge of english preferred” (Dickens, 84)  would be a set of requirements far more specific and unlikely for Americans than it would be for British. The job of a governess would also be a foriegn job for a land lacking of nobility, and thus would be rather unknown to the readers across the Atlantic. This and other such foreign topics, create that difference and need for connection for American readers, which amongst other reasons are why illustrations for the American publication of The Moonstone were used.

Dickens, Charles. “Sir John's Troubles.” All The Year Round, 4 Jan. 1868, pp. 84–88.