---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: 30 June 2004 00:00 -0500
From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
To: Recipients of VICTORIA digests <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: VICTORIA Digest - 28 Jun 2004 to 29 Jun 2004 (#2004-21)
There are 26 messages totalling 793 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Descriptions of rape (7)
2. Query concerning Victorian Conduct (2)
3. History of Victorian studies (was Victorian conduct)
4. Richard Redgrave's "The Sempstress" - new owner? (3)
5. HG Wells' broken leg (2)
6. water/latrines
7. Redgrave Semptress
8. Copyright and visual images - was RE: Redgrave Semptress (4)
9. seduction scenes
10. Daniel and Mordecai (2)
11. Descriptions of rape/seduction
12. George Eliot's contributions to periodicals.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 08:48:06 GMT
From: Lesley Hall <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Descriptions of rape
> I am looking at an accusation of rape laid in
1877/78, and am working on an
> assumption that the rape may not have taken place,at
least not at the time or
> location described. (There are other good reasons
for the accusation to have
> been made) What I would really appreciate from list
members is descriptions of
> rapes or explicit seductions, particularly in a
domestic environment in
> fictional accounts.
See Shani d'Cruze, _Crimes of Outrage_, which
addresses these issues.
Lesley Hall
[log in to unmask]
www.lesleyahall.net
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:31:32 EDT
From: Susan Hoyle <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Descriptions of rape
In a message dated 29/06/2004 02:37:15 GMT Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes: >>What I would really appreciate from
list members is descriptions of
rapes or explicit seductions, particularly in a domestic environment in
fictional accounts.<<
Tess in _Tess of the d'Urbervilles_
Susan
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:32:19 EDT
From: Susan Hoyle <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Descriptions of rape
In a message dated 29/06/2004 02:37:15 GMT Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
>> What I would really appreciate from list members is descriptions of
rapes or explicit seductions, particularly in a domestic environment in
fictional accounts.<<
Oh, and Hetty in _Adam Bede_.
Susan
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 16:16:07 +1000
From: Bradley Nitins <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Query concerning Victorian Conduct
Dear All,
Without meaning to give the impression of irritation or ingratitude i
wonder why no one yet has addressed my inquiry concerning Victorian conduct
which was posted before both Lesley Hall, Joanna Devereuax and Shelly
Martin's queries on much the same topic (23/06). I find it hard to believe
that nobody knows anything as clearly you all know so much ;) And so, just
in case it was lost for some of you in the cyber-ether i shall repeat it:
I would very much like to ask for help concerning information or directions
to obtaining information on the following more obscure titles:
(Anon) "Self-Reliance; A book for young men; Being brief biographic
sketches of men who have risen to independence and usefulness by
perseverance and energy" (1852); (Anon) "Success in Life: A book for young
men" (1852); as well as D.B Bunce's, "Don't; a manual of mistakes and
improprieties more or less prevalent in conduct and speech" (1883); and N.D
Umer's "Stop!: a handy monitor, pocket conscience and portable guardian
against the World, the Flesh and the Devil" (1884).
Furthermore, with all respect, i must disagree with James Eli Adams
suggestion of Michel Curtin's "Propriety and Position" as a necessary
secondary source for the study of Victorian conduct. I know, it all depends
on how you define conduct, but i think it is relatively uncontentious to
say that Curtin is primarily concerned with Victorian etiquette literature
and not conduct literature. Indeed Curtin, as well as a recent work by
Majorie Morgan "Manners Morals and Class in England", both forward the
dubious argument (in my humble opinion) that conduct literature had somehow
disappeared from the socio-cultural landscape during the Victorian period
(for Morgan this takes place by 1830, for Curtin it is the late 18th C, see
for example his "Question of Manners: Status and Gender in Etiquette and
Courtesy" in _The American Historical Review_). Amongst other things it is
exactly these claims that my thesis intends to disprove.
Best regards,
Bradley Nitins
University of Queensland
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 08:20:02 -0400
From: James Eli Adams <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Query concerning Victorian Conduct
At 04:16 PM 6/29/2004 +1000, you wrote:
Furthermore, with all respect, i must disagree with James Eli Adams
suggestion of Michel Curtin's "Propriety and Position" as a necessary
secondary source for the study of Victorian conduct. I know, it all depends
on how you define conduct, but i think it is relatively uncontentious to
say that Curtin is primarily concerned with Victorian etiquette literature
and not conduct literature. Indeed Curtin, as well as a recent work by
Majorie Morgan "Manners Morals and Class in England", both forward the
dubious argument (in my humble opinion) that conduct literature had somehow
disappeared from the socio-cultural landscape during the Victorian period
(for Morgan this takes place by 1830, for Curtin it is the late 18th C, see
for example his "Question of Manners: Status and Gender in Etiquette and
Courtesy" in _The American Historical Review_). Amongst other things it is
exactly these claims that my thesis intends to disprove.
Curtin is indeed "primarily concerned with Victorian etiquette
literature and not conduct literature," as he himself stresses; he argues
that the social anxieties of the Victorians in effect transformed
(diminished, he would argue) conduct literature into etiquette literature,
a distinction that he tries to establish through close reading and
comparison of over a hundred primary sources. If Mr. Nitins wishes to
argue against the claim, then Curtin's book is indeed a "necessary
secondary source," because it offers the most effective argument for that
claim. The significance of a piece of scholarship, as I hope Mr. Nitins
will discover, does not turn on whether one agrees with its conclusions.
Best,
James Eli Adams
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of English
Cornell University
Goldwin Smith 250
Ithaca, NY 14853-3201
607-255-4895/5-6800 fax: 607-255-6661
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 10:03:04 -0400
From: Michael Wolff <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: History of Victorian studies (was Victorian conduct)
I, too was puzzled at the limited response to my asking for comments on
various aspects of Victorian studies from VICTORIA subscribers. I'm
emboldened by Mr. Nitins' repeating his request to repeat mine.
Here it is:
I'm planning a sort of professional memoir:
1) going back to 1955 and the beginnings of the journal "Victorian
Studies"--it's my impression that interdisciplinarity as stressed in our
earliest editorials was not as obvious a mode as it is now; and
2) going back to 1967 and my starting the "Victorian Periodicals Newsletter"
and later the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals--again it's my
impression that the press wasn't the widely used primary source that it now
seems to be.
I should very much like to hear from VICTORIA subscribers (and others) about
their sense of the impact of VS and VPR and the various regional and
national Victorian groups on their work and their sense of the period.
Modesty suggests private replies but common sense (mine at least) thinks
this sort of archeological dig might be of general interest.
Michael Wolff
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 15:13:57 +0100
From: Nicola Bown <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Richard Redgrave's "The Sempstress" - new owner?
The Forbes Collection sale was handled by Christies, rather than Christopher
Wood. I know lots of items were unsold at the end of the sale (bought back
in), but I'm sure The Sempstress wasn't one of them. Dealers and auction
houses are not allowed to tell inquirers who has bought works in sale, but
they will normally pass on a letter addressed 'to the owner of ......'.
Nicola Bown
Birkbeck College
-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 10:08:39 -0500
From: Kathleen O'Neill Sims <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Richard Redgrave's "The Sempstress" - new owner?
Yes, it was handled by Christie's, but Christopher Wood lists the price at
which *The Sempstress* was sold on his website. At points in his "blurb"
on the sale, he does identify buyers. And he also lists both past and
upcoming sales, in which he seems to be involved. In his article, he
mentions "Kip Forbes" with familiarity. I erroneously assumed he had
something to do with that sale. I also find it hard to distinguish between
what is considered art history, and therefore within the public, academic
domain, and what is considered private commerce. I had no idea until about
a year ago that Christopher Wood was not a professor at some distinguished
university.
Likewise, I was, and still am not, sure how to distinguish between how the
dealer functions for an individual client and how he relates to the auction
house. What is considered public information? And what is regarded as
private?
Perhaps, you could oblige by posting a little more information, or at least
maybe the titles of a book or two that describes these processes? And
where would one go to find an exhaustive catalogue of prices and buyers, if
it's not good etiquette for dealers to divulge this information? How would
one go about finding the type of letter you describe? Or do you have to
wait for it simply to turn up in an attribution in a book or gallery at
some later date?
Thanks,
Kathleen O'Neill Sims
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 11:16:07 -0400
From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Descriptions of rape
The problem with finding these sources is that descriptions of rape in most
middle-class novels would be simply elided, as in _Tess_. Other novels
invoke threats of sexual violence, such as _Barnaby Rudge_, where Dolly
Varden is frightened senseless (if one can say that about Dolly) by Malpole
Hugh and later abducted. _Aurora Leigh_ includes Marian Erle's story of
abduction of rape, though she understandably glides over the details.
Novels of the Indian Mutiny will have more explicit references to rape.
James Grant's _First Love and Last Love_ offers the most vivid examples of
those I've read. Sensation fiction does offer a couple of examples,
especially in Sheridan Le Fanu's work. In _Uncle Silas_, Maud is imprisoned
by Silas and it's certainly spooky and tense. There is a suggestion of
sexual violence there, but _Carmilla_ is a better example. In this story,
Laura is seduced by a female vampire, and the language she uses to describe
the experience is very passionate: "it was hateful and yet overpowering . .
. her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses." But I've found that in
sensation fiction, in general, women are more frequently in power (and a
threat to men) than victimized. Probably the better place to look for these
examples is in the penny bloods, the lower-class cousins of sensation
fiction. M.E. Braddon's _The Black Band_ has a heroine who is twice
threatened with rape (never successful). In the second she is drawn to a
house in Blackfriars under the pretense of doing charity, and locked in;
she sets the house on fire to escape.
You might also look at Victorian erotica. Peter Webb's article "Victorian
Erotica" in _The Sexual Dimension of Literature_ (London: Vision, 1982)
includes some descriptions of rape. I assume you've also looked at Anna
Clark's _Women's Silence, Men's Violence_ and Carolyn Conley's Victorian
Studies article "Rape and Justice in Victorian England."
If you find any other good examples in mainstream literature, I'd be
interested in hearing about them.
Best,
Robin Barrow
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 15:00:38 +0000
From: Dale Bailey <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: HG Wells' broken leg
Hello All:
Every biography of H. G. Wells I've consulted describes how Wells broke his
leg at age 7 and fell in love with books while he was incapacitated during
his recuperation. None of them that I've consulted tells me which leg it
was he broke. Does anybody on the list know?
Thanks,
Dale Bailey
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 08:58:05 -0700
From: Sheldon Goldfarb <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Descriptions of rape
Robin Barrow speaks of "elided" sex scenes, as in Tess.
I have just come across another quite marvellous one of these, in Madame
Bovary.
And even though this was France rather than puritianical England, this is
all that Flaubert feels he can say about Madame Bovary's first time with her
lover Rodolphe:
"The broadcloth of her dress clung to the velvet of his coat. She
tilted back her head and her white throat swelled in a sigh. She suddenly
felt weak and a long tremor ran through her body; weeping and hiding her
face, she abandoned herself.
There is then a perhaps significant extra space in the text.
(This is from the Bantam translation of Part 2, Chapter 9; but I have
consulted the French, and it looks the same.)
Interestingly, as I understand it, Flaubert got into trouble for even this
much description (and for writing a whole novel about adultery, I suppose).
Sheldon Goldfarb
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 13:15:23 -0400
From: Pat and Govind Menon <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: water/latrines
Lucinda Lambton, <Temples of Convenience and Chambers of Delight> St
Martin's Press, New York,1995 contains a historical introduction (with some
quotations) and bibliography, although it is chiefly given over to coloured
photographs with explanatory text.
One item in the bibiography that reflects back to the List's discussion of
titles is Wallace Reyburn's <Flushed with Pride, the Story of Thomas
Crapper> (London: Macdonald 1969).
Pat Menon
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 19:01:53 +0100
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Jan=20Marsh?= <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Redgrave Semptress
write or email Martin Beisly or Peter Brown at
Christies and ask them to fwd yr inquiry to the
purchaser. the work WAS sold, for 100 000 pounds.
=====
**************************
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___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo!
Messenger - sooooo many all-new ways to express yourself
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 14:02:15 -0500
From: Martin A Danahay <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Copyright and visual images - was RE: Redgrave Semptress
The several helpful replies I have received in regard to Redgrave's painting
have underscored for me how murky copyright can be with visual images. It
was suggested to me by an eminent art historian that since the painting was
out of copyright I could simply obtain a copy of the image from Forbes and
use that. This would accord with my own sense of the copyright situation -
that if I can obtain a copy of the image from a non copyrighted source (for
instance, a reproduction in a nineteenth century book) then I am free to use
that - or if I want an image made from the painting itself then I have to
pay the museum or institution that owns it whatever fees they see fit to
impose.
Would that be a correct interpretation?
Martin Danahay
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 20:40:30 +0200
From: Amelia Yeates <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: seduction scenes
Regarding Miranda's question, there's the seduction scene in Tess which I'm
sure will get suggested. There's also Hetty's in George Eliot's Adam Bede.
It isn't particularly explicit but I think it takes place around Chapter
12: In the Wood. Best wishes,
Amelia Yeates
[log in to unmask]
--
Whatever you Wanadoo:
http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/time/
This email has been checked for most known viruses - find out more at:
http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/help/id/7098.htm
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 15:41:57 -0400
From: Patrick Scott <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Copyright and visual images - was RE: Redgrave Semptress
The painting itself is not in the public domain; a nineteenth or early
20th century (through 1920 ish) engraving, lithograph, etc, is now in
the public domain and can be used for whatever fee you negotiate with
the library that makes you a copy.
Patrick Scott
Director of Special Collections,
Thomas Cooper Library,
& Professor of English,
University of South Carolina,
Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
Tel: 803-777-1275
Fax: 803-777-4661, attn Dr Scott
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 16:53:36 EDT
From: Susan Hoyle <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Daniel and Mordecai
It is a long time since I read _Daniel Deronda_ but rereading it now, I am
very struck (amongst much else...) by the interview between Daniel and
Mordecai in chapter 40 . Mordecai is older than Dan, but not by much:
one in his early thirties, the other in his late twenties -- and one dying
and the other, we are often reminded, a beautiful healthy man. In this
chapter, Mordecai is waiting for Dan on Blackfriars Bridge -- not by
arrangement, but because of his inner vision -- and Dan turns up on cue.
Being such a nice chap, he falls in, as far as due modesty allows, with
Mordecai's account of him as the answer to his prayers or dreams -- of a
messianic saviour. Dan has just seen Mirah for the first time since he
became aware of the fact that Hans is in love with her -- which has made
him more aware of his feeling for her (so his mind is on sex), but he also
feels himself 'strangely wrought upon' by Mordecai. They make their way to
Mordecai's workplace -- the bookshop:
"In ten minutes the two men, with as intense a consciousness as if they had
been two undeclared lovers, felt themselves alone in the small gas-lit
bookshop and turned face to face, each baring his head from an instinctive
feeling that they wished to see each other fully. Mordecai came forward
to lean his back against the little counter, while Deronda stood against
the opposite wall hardly more than four feet off....."
What I wonder is whether George Eliot intended any of the reading that we
have of this passage -- and the rest of the chapter. Perhaps volumes have
been written about the homoeroticism of this relationship: or not?
Susan
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 23:23:20 +0100
From: Lee Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Copyright and visual images - was RE: Redgrave Semptress
Having looked at copyright as a librarian, I think this is broadly right ...
a museum, library, gallery etc. can impose whatever restrictions it wishes
on reproduction of items in its collection, by making this a condition of
your entering the premises or accessing the item in question - whatever the
correct legal phrase is, its essentially a contractual agreement between you
and the museum. It doesn't matter whether the item is 'out of copyright' due
to its age, or not.
Reproductions are themselves copyright images; you can only reproduce *them*
if the creator of the photograph/reproduction has been dead 70 years ... or
70 years from date of publication if anonymous. I *think* these lengths of
time are now an international standard and hold good in US as well as UK,
but I could be corrected on that.
regards,
Lee
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 23:05:19 +0100
From: simon poe <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Copyright and visual images - was RE: Redgrave Semptress
Martin,
It's not the ownership of the original that matters, but of the negative or
digital image that you need to use for your reproduction. If the painting
was reproduced in a recent Christie's sale catalogue then Christie's Images
will be able to email it to you. There'll be a charge for this of course
(towards the cost of sending it to you, plus a reproduction fee), but in my
limited experience not so high a charge as many art galleries charge for the
same service.
Simon.
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 08:55:59 +1000
From: Ellen Jordan <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Richard Redgrave's "The Sempstress" - new owner?
Were there a number of versions of this painting? I am sure I saw what I
took to be an original oil painting in the Kensington Palace Museum seven
or eight years ago. Could this have been a photoreproduction or a painted
copy? I don't seem to have kept the brochure, but I remember the painting
was described because the author conflated (as indeed Redgrave may have
done) the occupations of dressmaker and sempstress.
Ellen Jordan
University of Newcastle
Australia
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 17:39:36 -0400
From: Daniel Hack <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Daniel and Mordecai
See Jeff Nunokawa, _The Afterlife of Property: Domestic Security and
the Victorian Novel_ (he actually discusses the passage you cite not in
his chapter on Daniel Deronda but in the following chapter, which is
mainly on Silas Marner; both chapters are relevant, though); and Jacob
Press, "Same-Sex Unions in Modern Europe: Daniel Deronda, Altneuland,
and the Homoerotics of Jewish Nationalism," in Sedgwick, ed. _Novel
Gazing_.
On Tuesday, June 29, 2004, at 04:53 PM, Susan Hoyle wrote:
>
> What I wonder is whether George Eliot intended any of the reading that
> we
> have of this passage -- and the rest of the chapter. Perhaps volumes
> have been
> written about the homoeroticism of this relationship: or not?
>
> Susan
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
Daniel Hack
Department of English
University at Buffalo
SUNY
306 Clemens Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260
(716) 645-2575 x1038
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 22:42:30 +0100
From: Mike Newman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: HG Wells' broken leg
On Tue, 2004-06-29 at 15:00 +0000, Dale Bailey wrote:
> Every biography of H. G. Wells I've consulted describes how Wells
> broke his leg at age 7 and fell in love with books while he was
> incapacitated during his recuperation. None of them that I've
> consulted tells me which leg it was he broke. Does anybody on the
> list know?
Wells details the incident in his "Experiment in Autobiography" (New
York, The Macmillan Company, 1934) p53:
> From Ch 2 - Origins: "A Broken Leg and Some Books and Pictures (1874)"
"My leg was broken for me when I was between seven and eight. Probably I
am alive today and writing this autobiography instead of being a worn-
out, dismissed and already dead shop assistant, because my leg was
broken. The agent of good fortune was 'young Sutton', the grown-up son
of the landlord of The Bell. I was playing outside the scoring tent in
the cricket field and in all friendliness he picked me up and tossed me
in the air. 'Whose little kid are you?' he said, and I wriggled, he
missed his hold on me and I snapped my tibia across a tent peg."
Mike
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 18:37:46 -0700
From: "Margot K. Louis" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Descriptions of rape
Although I discuss poetry rather than fiction or nonfiction, you may find
something useful in my article, "Swinburne on Rape," _Journal of
Pre-Raphaelite Studies_ N.S. 9 (Fall 2000): 55-68, which touches briefly on
Shelley's _The Cenci_, Barrett Browning's _Aurora Leigh_ (which makes some
interesting points about the division between seduction and rape and how
often that distinction was overlooked at the time), and "Runaway Slave,"
Matthew Arnold's "Philomela," and Macaulay's _Lays of Ancient Rome_ as well
as on the various appearances of rape in Swinburne's poetry. There is an
essay on rape in _Tess_ in _Rape and Representation_, ed. Lynn Higgins and
Brenda Silver. You could also take a look at the moderately graphic
description of rape (called "seduction"!) in W. T. Stead's famous series of
articles, "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" (1885); I think the key
passage is reprinted in Patricia Hollis' _Women in Public_. (I am sure
even more graphic representations of both rape and seduction are available
in the porn of the time.)
While you may be right in your theory that the event in the
accusation you're concerned with did not occur, I would add that a person's
description of something that really happened may well be influenced by
fiction. With a topic so difficult to discuss, people will use whatever
discourse is available to express their experiences.
Margot K. Louis
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 10:12:47 +1000
From: Lee O'Brien <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Descriptions of rape
Miranda asked for fictional accounts of seduction/rape which means, sadly,
that poetry is not required, but for the "dramatic moments finely tuned" you
mention it is hard to beat. As Robin Barrow has already mentioned *Aurora
Leigh* I will add Tennyson's wonderful "Two Sisters" which has the
pathologised domestic setting of the gothic and, in 6 stanzas, two
seductions and a murder -remarkably good value, I think. The gender
politics are interesting as well - the speaker's revenge for her sister's
fall is exhilarating:
I curl'd and comb'd his comely head,
He look'd so grand when he was dead.
The wind is blowing in turret and tree.
I wrapt his body in the sheet,
And laid him at his mother's feet.
O the earl was fair to see!
Browning's tortured sinner in "The Confessional" - a woman - is neither
raped nor seduced, but for a "dramatic moment finely tuned" could you ask
for more -
I had a lover - shame avaunt!
This poor wretched body, grim and gaunt,
Was kissed all over till it burned,
By lips the truest, love e'er turned
His heart's own tint: one night they kissed
My soul out in a burning mist.
Sorry - this probably doesn't help at all, but don't you think sensation
poetry gives sensation fiction a run for its money?
Good luck with your work,
Regards,
Lee
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 10:17:39 +0800
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Tamara=20Wagner?= <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Descriptions of rape/seduction
An intriguing twist is posed by violent marriage
proposals in Victorian fiction: ostensibly respectable
men working towards the respectable end of marriage
(whether for financial interests or to satisfy
uncontrollable passion) feel they have to resort to
more or less violent means once all other persuasion
has failed. I'm thinking of Mr Pecksniff in _Martin
Chuzzlewit_, among others. His pursuit of Mary Graham
is at once bizarrely comical (as all Pecksniff-scenes
are) and grotesquely sinister, stripping off the last
veneer of hypocritical affectation from Pecksniff's
pretentions. The way he grasps at Mary (likened to the
hug of a bear and the caress of a snake &c.),
violently thrusts his fingers between hers, forcing
them apart, and alternately hits and fondles her hand,
which at one point gets folded up inside his
waistcoat, is perhaps among the most explicitly sexual
scenes in mid-Victorian fiction.
Other violent marriage proposals that spring to mind
include Bradley Headstone's in _Our Mutual Friend_
(his own fist ends up all bloody), and Mr Moss's in
Trollope's _The Landleaguers_ (my thanks to Ellen
Moody for recommending this novel when I was looking
for American businessmen in fiction). After repeatedly
offering marriage, combined with a business
partnership, Mr Moss attempts to fold his adored in
his arms - we never learn what else he would dare to
do as he ends up on the floor, stabbed by the slight
girl (who faints away right next to him), and dying.
Apparently the girl (an Anglo-Irish singer) always has
a dagger hidden somewhere on her body... (To my
amusement/consternation, exactly the same sentence is
used in the SF movie _Chronicles of the Riddick_ to
describe a gorgeous, but untouchable, prison-girl
named "Jack".) Mr Moss dies meekly in a state of
forgiveness - so no legal action is taken. Would there
have been a concept of self-defence in attempted rape
cases?
A related question would be issues of rape within
marriage. Again, I'm thinking of _Martin Chuzzlewit_
(as I am currently rereading the novel perhaps):
whatever happened to Merry Chuzzlewit nee Pecksniff?
=====
Tamara S. Wagner
http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/staff/home/ELLTSW/
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 14:49:19 +1000
From: Ellen Jordan <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: George Eliot's contributions to periodicals.
M.M. Bevington, in his book on the Saturday Review, lists four reviews
from March 1856 two of which may be those referred to in the Cross Life as
written by Eliot. Has anything been turned up since then to confirm or
repudiate his guesses?
In fact I would be grateful if anyone could point me to the most
recent/complete bibliography of George Eliot's periodical writings.
Ellen Jordan
University of Newcastle
Australia
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End of VICTORIA Digest - 28 Jun 2004 to 29 Jun 2004 (#2004-21)
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