想像福爾摩斯：論席德尼‧佩吉特替《岸濱月刊》繪製的福爾摩斯插畫

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(1)國立臺灣師範大學藝術史研究所碩士論文 National Taiwan Normal University, Graduate Institute of Art History Master’s Degree Thesis. Sherlock Holmes Incarnate: Sidney Paget’s Holmesian Illustrations for the Strand Magazine 想像福爾摩斯：論席德尼‧佩吉特替《岸濱月刊》繪製的福爾摩斯插畫. 指導教授 Advisor: Valentin Nussbaum. 黃書琳 Shu-Lin Huang. 中華民國 105 年 8 月 2016 August.

(2) Table of Contents. Abstract. iii. Acknowledgement. v. Introduction. 1. Chapter One: “The Game is Afoot”: Sherlock Holmes and the Strand Magazine 1.1. The Author, the Publisher, and the Illustrator. 4. 1.2. The Engraving Firms. 10. Chapter Two: Between Words and Pictures 2.1. Sherlock Holmes and the Strand’s Purification of Crime Narratives 2.2. Correspondence and Divergence: Interplay of Doyle’s Text and Paget’s Image 2.3. Anti-Sensationalism and Fragmentation in Sidney Paget’s Illustrations for the Adventures 2.4. A Style for the Strand’s Crime Fiction?. 13 17. 21 30. Chapter Three: Entering the World of Sherlock Holmes 3.1. Different Faces of Sherlock Holmes. 34. 3.2. The Making of the Iconic Detective. 40. Conclusion. 48. Bibliography. 50. Appendix I: Sherlock Holmes’ Pipes. 55. Appendix II: Figures. 58. ii.

(3) Abstract. This study focuses on the illustrations drawn by the British illustrator Sidney Paget of the Sherlock Holmes stories published by the widely-circulated monthly periodical Strand Magazine. Starting from June 1891, Paget had produced a total amount of 356 drawings for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective narratives over the course of his long-term collaboration with both the author and the Strand. His distinctive depictions of the legendary sleuth and his loyal sidekick are deemed as the authority among the vast visual representations based on the canon of Sherlock Holmes. In the first section of my study, the artist’s milieu and stylistic traits will be examined in the context of the prosperous pictorial journalism and publishing culture during the period, and a more technical discussion of the reproduced images, as seen by the readers in the magazine, will follow. Focusing on the relationship between image and text, the second part of my proposal aims to probe further into the social and historical contexts embedded within these images and lay bare the Strand’s discourse that corresponds to Doyle’s text and the puritanical ideology during the Victorian era. Both the complex interplay between Doyle’s text and Paget’s images and the particular illustrative strategies adopted by Paget and the other crime stories in the periodical will be analysed in the same vein. The final part tries to trace back the formation of Sherlock Holmes’ iconic image from the Paget illustrations to the current media adaptations, and further attempts to pinpoint a certain Sherlockian iconography within Paget’s corpus.. Keywords: Sidney Paget, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Strand Magazine, illustration, detective fiction, crime fiction, Victorian publishing culture, anti-sensationalism, image and text, physiognomy. iii.

(4) 中文摘要. 本研究聚焦於英國插畫家席德尼‧佩吉特（Sidney Paget）替《岸濱月刊》（Strand Magazine）長期連載的夏洛克‧福爾摩斯（Sherlock Holmes）探案小說所繪製的插圖。自西元 1891 年六月以來，佩吉特為英國作家亞瑟‧柯南‧道爾（Arthur Conan Doyle）的經典偵探小說創作了多達 356 張插圖；插畫家和作者、及出版社三方建立起長期的合作關係。在佩吉特的畫筆詮釋下，小說中近乎傳奇的偵探福爾摩斯以及他忠實的助手華生得以具象化。佩吉特的插圖不僅形塑出福爾摩斯的經典原型，更影響日後福爾摩斯偵探小說及各種大眾媒體改編的視覺表現。本文第一部分藉由回顧維多利亞時期出版文化（Victorian publishing culture）和圖像報刊雜誌盛行（pictorial journalism）的時空脈絡，深入探討畫家的社會背景及風格特色。此外，也將從維多利亞晚期圖像印刷的技術層面切入，討論原稿及印刷成果的差異，及其帶給讀者的視覺經驗。文章第二部分以圖文關係為重心，並同時爬梳、彙整《岸濱月刊》的出版史，重新回歸至社會歷史的脈絡，觀察佩吉特所創作的插圖如何與柯南‧道爾的文本彼此呼應，形成特有的乾淨印象及反煽情表現，反映出該時期社會中，一股亟欲淨化讀者心靈的道德改革風潮。並進一步延續該脈絡，嘗試解讀 Paget 福爾摩斯插畫的特色和繪製策略。最後一節企圖追溯大眾印象中的夏洛克‧福爾摩斯典型之形成。從《岸濱月刊》插圖開始，延伸觀察現今沿用 Paget 插圖的相關影視改編作品，嘗試界定出逐漸定型成熟的「神探夏洛克」形象。. 關鍵字：席德尼‧佩吉特、夏洛克‧福爾摩斯、約翰‧華生、亞瑟‧柯南‧道爾、岸濱月刊、插畫、偵探小說、犯罪小說、維多利亞出版文化、反煽情、圖文關係、面相學. iv.

(5) Acknowledgement. My endless gratitude for: my ever patient advisor Professor Valentin Nussbaum, every professor who has inspired me in one way or another, my friends, boss, colleagues and family, and everyone who has supported me through these years. Thank you.. v.

(6) Introduction. Back in the summer of 2014, an original Sherlock Holmes drawing by Sidney Paget (1860-1908) went up for Christie’s auction in New York (fig. 1). 1 Capturing the legendary sleuth and his faithful sidekick Doctor Watson engaged in conversation while on train, the said illustration stands as the beginning scene from the story “The Adventure of Silver Blaze” published by the Strand Magazine in December 1892. The fact that the lot was sold at an impressive price of $112,500, which notably surpassed the estimate, attests to the iconic detective’s everlasting popularity, and at the same time reaffirms the high regard of Paget’s distinctive portrayals of Holmes. Deemed as the classic pictorial source, Sidney Paget’s illustrations for the Strand established the fixation of Sherlock Holmes and his world in the public’s mind.2 Yet despite the canon’s tremendous success over the years, serious research on Sidney Paget and his Holmesian pictures is still scanty. Up until now, there have been less a dozen studies treating these illustrations as the main subject. The semiotic study on the image of window in the Sherlock Holmes canon by Sebeok and Margolis is the first serious attempt to explore the visual aspect of these stories. 3 Lorraine Jazen Kooistra makes a contribution in her monograph The Artist as Critic by her case study of Paget’s illustrative strategy.4 The academic field afterwards remained rather silent until Christopher Pittard highlights Paget’s illustrations as active agents participating in the Victorian literature’s campaign for order and censorship in his argument on the Strand Magazine’s purifying discourse. 5 A more systematic discussion on the interactions between text and image was published in the same year by Christophe. Christie’s (sale 2861, lot 223), accessed on February 11th, 2015. http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/doyle-arthur-conan-paget-sidney-il-5809056-details.aspx 2 Only the American illustrator Frederic Dorr Steele (1873-1944) is able to compete with the authority of Paget’s depictions. See “Frederic Dorr Steele,” in: Oxford Index, accessed on February 17th, 2015. http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00174708 3 Thomas A. Sebeok and Harriet Margolis, “Captain Nemo’s Porthole: Semiotics of Windows in Sherlock Holmes,” in: Poetics Today 3, no. 1, 1982, pp. 110–139. 4 Lorraine Jazen Kooistra, “Quotation,” The Artist as Critic: Bitextuality in Fin-de-siècle Illustrated Books, Aldershot: Scolar, 1995, pp. 54–90. 5 Christopher Pittard also highlights a few illustrations to support his argument on the Strand Magazine’s purifying discourse, see Christopher Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purtified Reading Communities,” in: Victorian Periodicals Review 40, no. 1, 2007, pp. 1–23. 1. 1.

(7) Gelly.6 The most recent academic research on Sherlock Holmes in relation to Sidney Paget’s drawings would be the catalogue complied by Alex Werner for the exhibition held by the Museum of London in 2014 as a response to the recent revival of the iconic detective.7 Together, the studies above pave the way of my research and prepare the preliminary steps for my theoretical arguments. Continuing with theses previous efforts, my thesis proposes a more thorough and precise analysis of Sidney Paget’s Holmesian illustrations and their later day influences. To understand the great success of Sherlock Holmes in his own times, the first chapter begins with the well-known adventure stories published on the Strand Magazine in the late Victorian era. In this chapter, I try to reconstruct the collaboration between Arthur Conan Doyle (the author), the Strand (the publisher) and Sidney Paget (the illustrator) in wish to explore not only the artist’s milieu and style, but also the material and formal aspects (the engraving firm) of this particular illustrated periodical in the context of Victorian publishing culture. The second chapter aims to recognise the significance of Paget’s illustrations by probing further into the social and historical meanings embedded within these images. Christopher Pittard’s interpretation of Victorian detective fiction as a mechanism to police moral dirt serves as the main inspiration and theoretical framework that supports my analysis in this chapter. It should also be noted that the majority of examples discussed in this chapter are taken from the twenty-four episodes published between 1891 and 1893. Though these Adventures were later compiled under separate titles The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), here I would like view them as a whole since the stories from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes were meant to be additional episodes for the first series. Stories from The Hound of Baskervilles and The Return of Sherlock Holmes are not included in my discussion as there was yet again a shift of. 6. Christophe Gelly, “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Stories—Crime and Mystery from the Text to the Illustrations, in: Cahiers victoriens et Edouardiens 73, 2011, pp. 107–130. There are also some literary studies referring to Paget’s illustrations, but they are only mentioned in a quick pass or as visual aids. 7 Alex Werner (ed.), Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die, London: Ebury Press, 2014.. 2.

(8) tone in these stories, and the rather long interval between their times of publication would further complicate the situation. While my initial attempt is to view both Doyle’s text and Paget’s images in the Strand as a joint response to the puritanical ideology during the Victorian era, there is surely more to it than that. The complex interplay between word and image, whether it concerns the format arrangement or the story contents, then becomes the primary focus. Delving into Paget’s illustrative strategies and choices on scenes, I observe that not only do his illustrations show a tendency to supress sensational elements, these images are often fragmented in representation. To apprehend such peculiars, I again turn to the Strand Magazine’s discourse to seek explanation. Eventually I have come to the conclusion that this particular visual language was in fact not of the artist’s own, and the Strand could very possibly play a part in forming such traits. The final chapter looks into the myth of Sherlock Holmes’ everlasting popularity over the century. Tracing back the formation of Sherlock Holmes as an iconic figure from the Strand illustrations to the current media adaptations, I further attempt to pinpoint the visual archetypes developed within Paget’s corpus and wish to prove the authority of Sidney Paget as one of the most important illustrator of Sherlock Holmes.. 3.

(9) Chapter One “The Game is Afoot”: Sherlock Holmes and the Strand Magazine. 1.1. The Author, the Publisher, and the Illustrator Late spring of 1891 — on the desk of the Strand Magazine’s newly appointed editor Greenhough Smith (1855-1935) were two stories that would launch a series of gripping adventures, appealing not only the British public but also readers across the seas. “I at once realised that here was the greatest story writer since Edgar Allan Poe. I remember rushing into Mr Newnes’s room and thrusting the stories before his eyes,” recalled Smith forty years after that very start.8 These two stories turned out to be “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Red-Headed League”, comprising the first two adventures in the series published by the Strand from July, later known under the collective title The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. With literary agent A. P. Watt’s assistance, Arthur Conan Doyle proposed to write a series of “adventures” in which a character would be consistently presented and carried throughout every instalment; the plots, though somewhat related, would be respectively independent on their own.9 The idea and his detective narratives were accepted by the public with enthusiasm. Within months after the publication of the first “adventure,” Arthur Conan Doyle became a household name, and the Sherlock Holmes’s popularity surpassed that of Poe’s Dupin or Gaboriau’s Monsieur Lecoq.10 First published in January, 1891, the Strand Magazine was a British monthly periodical founded by George Newnes (1851-1910), who was by then already known. 8. Reginald Pound, “Enter Sherlock Holmes,” Mirror of the Century: The Strand Magazine, 1891-1950, London: Heinemann, 1966, p. 41. Greenhough Smith was the Strand’s first literary editor. He had been supporting Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes serial stories from the very beginning. 9 To know more about the role played by Watt in the business, see Peter D. McDonald, “The Adventures of the Literary Agent: Conan Doyle, A. P. Watt, Holmes, and the Strand in 1891,” in: Victorian Periodicals Review 30, no. 1, 1997, pp. 17-26. Doyle further claimed that he was the first to realise the idea of running a series of stories with the same protagonist, see Arthur Conan Doyle, Memoirs and Adventures, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 2012, pp. 95–96. “Clearly the ideal compromise was a character which carried through, and yet instalments which were each complete in themselves, so that the purchaser was always sure that he could relish the whole contents of the magazine. I believe that I was the first to realize this and ‘The Strand Magazine’ the first to put it into practice.” 10 Pound, “Enter Sherlock Holmes,” p. 42.. 4.

(10) for his weekly miscellany Tit-Bits.11 With the ambitious slogan “a picture on every page,” Newnes further boasted the magazine as a publication abounding with graphic stimuli.12 Such advertising strategy that calls for visual appeals not only expresses a strong wish to offer entertaining experience, but also suggests a rather recreational attitude toward reading. Yet, despite the promised pleasure from reading, the magazine aimed at providing its reader with interesting and informative contents other than simply a good, hearty laugh. Mostly sold at railway station stands, the Strand targeted city commuters as its potential reading community. Its contents, composed of short fiction pieces, celebrity interviews as well as articles that would reflect bourgeois interests, were aimed to draw an aspirational middle class eager for “higher forms of literature” instead of sporting papers.13 The title “the Strand,” which geographically refers to a major street in central London near the River Thames, also clearly implied the said urban context — this is the place where the editor’s office of Strand was located. Continuing into Fleet Street, this district was at the time the very centre of publishing enterprises in England.14 With its carefully selected literature and Newnes’ wise marketing strategies, the Strand Magazine soon swept through the country, establishing a firm reading community at the turn of the century. As the sale numbers hit the record, the once unknown Arthur Conan Doyle and his detective became household names. The 11. Tit-Bits, or in its full title Tit-Bits from all the interesting Books, Periodicals, and Newspapers of the World, was a weekly British miscellany founded by George Newnes earlier on October 22nd, 1881. Drawing heavily on drama and sensation, the magazine featured stories of human interests and was a quick success among the British public. For a more in depth description of Tit-Bits’ publishing history , see Pound, “March of the ‘Tit-Bits’ Brigade,” Mirror of the Century: The Strand Magazine, 18911950, pp. 18–27. 12 Pound, “And So— ‘The Strand Magazine’,” Mirror of the Century: The Strand Magazine, 18911950, p. 30. “He emerged from his ruminative phase with the conviction that there was a chance for a British magazine with ‘a picture on every page.’ No magazine anywhere had yet carried illustration that far. Technically, as soon he found, it was not then practical. He modified his plan to allow for a picture at every opening of the magazine, which was novelty enough.” 13 Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” p. 2; Newnes’ desire to provide literature of higher quality was already apparent during the 1880s when he replied to a challenge about the integrity of Tit-Bits’ advertising strategy, see Pound, “March of the ‘Tit-Bits’ Brigade,” pp. 24–25. “You may call it cheap journalism…but I will tell you this. An enormous class of superficial readers, who crave for light reading, would read the so-called sporting papers if there were no Tit-Bits to entertain them.” 14 Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” pp. 3–4; for a brief summary of the publishing industry’s development in the Victorian era, see Richard D. Altick, “Publishing” in: Herbert F. Tucker (ed.), A Companion to Victorian Literature & Culture, Malden, Mass: Blackwell, 2004, pp. 289–304.. 5.

(11) nationwide zealous over the periodical was to such a degree that one might argue that it started to incorporate a sense of nationhood, and this phenomenon was well observed by Doyle during his trip to the Continent. In his letter to the Strand’s literary editor, the author wrote: Foreigners used to recognise the English by their check suits. I think they will soon learn to do it by their Strand Magazines. Everybody on the Channel boat, except the man at the wheel, was clutching one.15 While the Strand and Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories established a symbiosis relationship, boosting each other’s popularity over the years, the accompanying illustrations drawn by Sidney Paget definitely also played a crucial role in making this myth of success. Before proposing his Holmes series to the Strand, Doyle had already published two full-length novels staging the sleuth and his good doctor as the protagonists. Several illustrators had previously tried their hands on shaping the characters in A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, but eventually none of them were able to leave a deep impression on the reading public like Paget. Based on what could be found and determined, current studies show that there were at least five illustrators before Sidney Paget came to the scene. 16 A Study in Scarlet, the very beginning of the whole canon, was first published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. The publication was accompanied by four drawings from David Henry Friston (1820-1906) (fig. 2). Charles A. Doyle, the author’s father, also produced six drawings when the novel was later published in book form by Ward, Lock & Co in 1888. The second edition was released in the next year and illustrated by George Hutchinson, whose illustrations were reprinted several times in the subsequent printings (fig. 3). As for The Sign of the Four, drawings for its publication in Lippincott’s Magazine in 1890 were probably done by Herbert Denman, while the book edition released in the same year by Spencer Blackett included illustrations from Charles 15. Pound, “Dawn of a New Century,” Mirror of the Century: The Strand Magazine 1891-1950, p. 63; Pittard also quotes this particular passage in his article in order to discuss the formation of the Strand’s reading community, see “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” p. 2. 16 Alex Werner, “Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Paget and the Strand Magazine,” in: Alex Werner (ed.), Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die, London: Ebury Press, 2014, pp.112– 113; Kooistra gives a brief but clear summary on these illustrators in her footnote no. 6 of chapter chapter 3 “Quotation” in her monograph The Artist as Critic: Bitextuality in Fin-de-siècle Illustrated Books, p. 82.. 6.

(12) Henry Malcolm Kerr (1858-1907). Kerr was a major illustrator in the late Victorian era’s press market, yet even he had failed to convince the readers with his sturdy portrayal of Sherlock Holmes (fig. 4). 17 The long-lived popular image of Paget’s detective today proved his illustrations to be a key element in the visual making of Sherlock Holmes and his world. How Doyle came to form his successful alliance with Sidney Paget is an intriguing story. It all started with a simple, fortuitous mistake. According to W. J. K. Boot, the art editor of the Strand, the commission was originally intended for Sidney’s younger brother Walter Paget (1863-1935), who was at the time also an illustrator employed by various newspapers and journals in London.18 Upon seeing Walter’s meticulous drawings accompanying the report about the General Gordon Relief Expedition in Africa in the Illustrated London News, Boot felt the younger Paget was the right choice for the upcoming Holmes series. Subsequently, a letter simply addressed to a certain “Mr. Paget” was sent. It is said that Boot did not put the full name on the envelope because he forgot Walter’s forename. Sidney Paget, out of sheer chance, picked up the letter and accepted the offer — an error of circumstance — and thus began a long-term partnership with Doyle and the magazine. Best known as the prime illustrator for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series in the Strand Magazine, Sidney Edward Paget was born in 1860 to a rather well-off family in Clerkenwell, London.19 Trained at the Royal Academy Schools, he later graduated both as an exhibition portraitist and an illustrator for London’s illustrated press.20 Starting from June in 1891, Paget had produced illustrations for every Sherlock Holmes story issued by the magazine. The collaboration lasted until 17. Charles Henry Malcolm Kerr (1858-1907) was perhaps best known for his illustrations for H. Rider Haggard’s adventure novels. In the same chapter on illustrators’ quotation strategies Kooistra also contributes an analysis on Kerr’s illustrations for Black Heart and White Heart (1896) by Rider Haggard, see pp. 70–74. 18 Werner, “Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Paget and the Strand Magazine,” p. 111. This anecdote so far can be traced back to Richard Lancelyn Green and John Michael Gibson (eds.), A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle, Oxford: Clarendon, 1983; for a short biography of Walter Paget, see Philip V. Allingham, “A Biographical Sketch of Illustrator Walter Paget (1863-1935),” in: The Victorian Web, accessed on April 15th, 2015. http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/paget/pva212.html. Working for the Sphere during the Boer Wars, Walter Paget was assigned to reproduce complete illustrations basing on the sketches sent from South Africa. He was also employed by the Illustrated London News and had illustrated several novels, such as Robinson Crusoe in the 1890s. Their oldest brother, Henry Marriott Paget (1856-1936) also worked as a “special artist” during the Balkan War of 1912-13 for the Sphere. 19 Pound, “Enter Sherlock Holmes,” Mirror of the Century: The Strand Magazine 1891-1950, p. 42. 20 Ibid.. 7.

(13) the artist’s death in 1908. 21 When The Return of Sherlock Holmes ended, he had illustrated 37 short Holmes stories along with the serialised long novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, contributing a total of 356 drawings in 47 issues.22 Like his younger brother Walter, Sidney Paget also worked as a pictorial journalist for periodicals like The Sphere and the Illustrated London News, a common practice among many Victorian illustrators hired by publishers of popular fiction. The publishing industry during the late Victorian period witnessed a strong divergence in markets: one sought to expand circulation at lower costs, whereas the other catered to a more sophisticated clientele through aesthetic refinement.23 Commercial publishers essentially belonged to the first category. Producing the “Book Beautiful” was never their first priority, nor could they care less about the scorns and disdain from the critics of the time. 24 Rather, saleability was what mattered most, and for mass circulation press with comparatively tight time constraints — that is, newspapers and periodicals — whether the fixed schedule could be duly followed became the main concern. Consequently, it is not difficult to imagine the time pressure the artists, especially those pictorial journalists, should undergo when facing the impending deadlines. To cope with the urgency of contingent time limits, the illustrators had to adapt and gradually came to develop a sketchy yet realistic style. Works of this type tend to. OBITURARY, Times London, February 1st, 1908, accessed on March 5th, 2015. http://homepage2.nifty.com/shworld/03h_s_paget/1908/obituary.html “The death took place on Tuesday, at Margate, after a long illness, of Mr SINDNEY EDWARD PAGET, a well-known artist, formerly on the staff of the Illustrated London News and the Sphere, and illustrator of Sir A. Conan Doyle's works ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Rodney Stone.’ Mr Paget, who was 47 years of age, was a son of the late Mr. Robert Paget, for many years vestry clerk of Clerkenwell, whose portrait, which he painted, was shown at the Royal Academy and now hangs on the walls of the Finsbury Town-hall. He also painted portraits of Sir John Aird as Mayor of Paddington and of Mr. Frank Dethridge, the late town clerk of that borough, which are now hung in the council chamber of the town-hall, Harrow-road. The funeral takes place to-day at 2 o’clock at Marylebone Cemetery, East Finchley.” 22 Randall Stock, “Sidney Paget: Painting by the Numbers,” in: The Baker Street Journal 59, no. 2, 2009, pp. 6–10, p. 7. 23 Percy Muir, Victorian Illustrated Books, London: B. T. Batsford, 1971, p. 4. Cited by Kooistra, “Quotation,” pp. 35–36. “Victorian publishers pursued two markets. One was concerned with cheapness and large circulation; the other aimed for aesthetic appeal and a limited market.” 24 Richard D. Altick, The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public 18001900, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1967, p. 343. Cited by Kooistra, “Contextual / Bitextual: aesthetes, socialists, journalists,” The Artist as Critic: Bitextuality in Fin-de-siècle Illustrated Books, pp. 25–53, p. 39. “By the same token, the commercial publishers eager to add the artists’ drawings to their stock were less concerned with producing the ‘Book Beautiful’ than they were with increasing a work’s saleability.” 21. 8.

(14) feature character illustration as the dominant motif, often depicting characters in isolation against indistinctive background. In spite of their prompt drawing manner, the artists did not compromise the Victorian journalism’s thriving quest for social realism, which was to represent the reading public with portrayals of contemporary events. With minimal details and occasional use of scant props, they managed to create a convincing sense of space and time. Considering the conditions under which these illustrators had to work, it is thus understandable that artists like Sidney Paget were classified as “journalists” by contemporary critics; and could partly explain why the majority of illustrations for Victorian popular fiction also took on the social realistic approach and focus on character illustration.25 Paget’s experience in pictorial journalism, as part of the artist’s milieu, certainly had influenced how he handled fictional narratives. A quick skim through his illustrations for the Holmes adventures shows that similar illustrative methods were adopted. Most of these pictures focus on representing the main characters in semirealistic scenes. While his previous academic training in portraiture enabled him to capture each character’s individual traits, the artist consciously refrained from delineating a complete surrounding background. Instead, he frequently chose to render only a few objects in close proximity. These props, albeit sparse, are implicit details which are aimed to invoke a sense of time and space, sometimes even participating in setting the tone. For instance, furniture like armchairs and chaise lounges often serve as visual cues to hint interior space and domestic cosiness, and they are constantly associated with 221B Baker Street throughout the corpus. As the elaborate depictions of human figures stand in stark contrast against the sketchy and often bland background, Paget’s black-and-white illustrations strike a balance between realistic representation and compositional simplicity. Despite their comparatively coarse quality as opposed to those more refined publications like The Yellow Book, these Holmesian pictures do encompass a certain crisp impression, and the Strand Magazine was able to retain and further intensify this peculiar quality in its achromatic reproductions. Although Paget had painted a tremendous amount of 25. Simon Houfe, The Dictionary of British Book Illutrators and Caricatuists, 1800-1914, with introductory chapters on the rise and progress of the art, Woodbride: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1978, p. 152. Cited by Kooistra, “Contextual / Bitextual: aesthetes, socialists, journalists,” p. 37. “Victorian newspapers and periodicals developed a new ‘social realism’ approach to contemporary events which aimed at presenting the reading public with portrayals of domestic destitution and international strife.”. 9.

(15) drawings for the Sherlock Holmes stories, only about thirty of them are known to survive until now. 26 These original gouache and watercolour drawings by Paget, normally twice the size of a Strand facsimile, are rendered in fine grisaille and mostly signed with his initials “S P” in corners.27 With his abbreviated brushwork, the artist exploited the merits of the medium to the full — there is a certain softness and fluidness with watercolour that allows washes of tonal greys and blacks to blend perfectly together, creating an atmospheric background.. 1.2. The Engraving Firms The Strand employed mixed media and mechanical processes for image reproduction.28 Over the last quarter of the 19th century, the printing industry had experienced a succession of rapid technological changes in image creation. The introduction of new printing methods incorporating photography, collectively known as photomechanical processes, led to a boost in late Victorian illustrated periodicals in Great Britain.29 Also, boundaries of different graphic techniques became ostensibly blurred during this period. To achieve the desired result with maximum accuracy, Paget’s watercolour drawings were mainly reproduced through a halftone photomechanical engraving process. The originals were first transferred onto metal plates via photography, with a screen positioned in between the lens and photographic plates in an attempt to create grains.30 As essential elements for halftone prints, these grains constitute the delicate shades of greys and create an illusion of continuous tones.. 26. Randall Stock has compiled a comprehensive census of Paget’s remaining original drawings for the Sherlock Holmes canon, see “Sidney Paget Original Drawings and Artwork: A Census and Checklist Update from His Sesquicentennial,” accessed on September 15th, 2014. http://www.bestofsherlock.com/sidney-paget-original-art.htm#holmes 27 Stock, “Sidney Paget: Painting by the Numbers,” p. 6. “An original Paget is quite different from the familiar reproductions. A typical drawing is approximately 10 x 7 inches, or nearly twice the size of a Strand illustration.” 28 Werner, “Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Paget and the Strand Magazine,” p. 113. 29 Gerry Beegan, The Mass Image: A Social History of Photomechanical Reproduction in Victorian London, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, p. 8; Rachel A. Mustalish, “The Development of Photomechanical Printing Processes in the Late 19th Century,” in: Topics in Photographic Preservation 7, 1997, pp. 73–87, p. 73. 30 Werner, “Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Paget and the Strand Magazine,” p. 115; Beegan, The Mass Image: A Social History of Photomechanical Reproduction in Victorian London, p.8; Mustalish provides a thorough technical explanation in her observation, see “The Development of Photomechanical Printing Processes in the Late 19th Century,” pp. 78–84.. 10.

(16) The processed plates would be retouched by engravers so as to retain the overall image quality while accentuating obscure details. Major late Victorian publishers usually contracted specialised engraving firms for such tasks. In the case of the Strand, a number of partner firms, including Waterlow & Sons Ltd, Hare & Co. and Swain, can be identified through their tiny recurring trademarks among the illustrations in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (fig. 5–7), with one single anomaly signed under the name of Paul Naumann (fig. 8), who later became the sole engraver for The Memoirs series.31 The one in charge of the facsimiles for The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Return of Sherlock Holmes remains unidentifiable since the existing signature imparts few clues (fig. 10).32 The reworking approaches of these engravers varied, thus resulting in quality disparities and inevitably altering the impression of the Paget originals. One can easily perceive this discrepancy in execution by comparing similar scenes from “A Scandal in Bohemia” (1891) (fig. 11) and “The Adventure of the Yellow Face” (1893) (fig. 12).33 Both illustrations depict Sherlock Holmes having a conversation in Baker Street living room with the other character, in the previous drawing being Doctor Watson while the latter one the client Mr. Grant Munro. Yet aside from the matching furnishings, the two pictures were treated in almost opposite manners. The former image produced by Waterlow & Sons Ltd draws heavily on watercolour’s softness and expressive washes, giving priority to atmospheric chiaroscuro over linear clarity, whereas the scene retouched by Paul Naumann gives off a sharper impression with acute lines and profuse hatchings. Technically Naumann’s work is closer to traditional engraving, for Naumann only used halftone as a supplementary device on small areas. No matter how fervently the advocates claimed the halftone method to be an ideal mean for image duplication, completely exact direct copies were impossible in 31. One particular trademark appearing only in “The Adventure of Copper Beeches” (1982), in spite of its clear image, still remains unidentifiable (fig. 9). The exception retouched by Naumann is from “A Scandal in Bohemia,” captioned “HE GAVE A CRY AND DROPPED.” Werner suggests that the shift to Paul Naumann for The Memoirs was done in the purpose to maintain the same image quality throughout the whole series. See Werner, “Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Paget and the Strand Magazine,” p. 115–116. 32 The trademark of the supposed engraving firm only appears in The Hound of the Baskervilles, but based on style resemblances the two series are very likely executed by the same hand. 33 Published in July 1981, “A Scandal in Bohemia” was counted as the first case in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; “The Adventure of the Yellow Face” was released by the Strand in February 1893 and later compiled in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.. 11.

(17) the late 19th century due to technical limitations. 34 This might also be the partial reason why manual manipulation was still needed for the reproduction of late Victorian hand-drawn illustrations. As for Paget’s drawings, besides his liberal brushstrokes the artist was exceptionally skilful at depicting light through subtle dabs of white and pale ochre.35 The intricate highlighting and chiaroscuro could be quite challenging for halftone reproduction since the photographic film used in this period was not sensitive enough to fully capture the spectrum and consequently tended to produce false tonal balance; hence manual intervention became necessary.36 To remedy these alterations caused during reprography, Paget sometimes provided the engraver with concrete instructions, which can be clearly seen from one surviving frontispiece, captioned “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (fig. 13). Portraying the mystical hound spurring forward in the hazy dark, the illustration effectively evokes the hound’s eerie and monstrous nature by circling the contour of its head and muzzle with very intensive white washes. On the back of this drawing Paget specifically wrote to the engraver, requesting him to “keep background of fog as flat as possible” so that the dense white outline could stand out and manifest the illusion of strong glows against the dim night.37 In doing this, though the reproduced images unavoidably sacrificed some finer details and textural richness, the halftone facsimiles released by the Strand succeeded in preserving the intended effects and atmosphere of the originals. What is even better and probably an unintentional result is that the transformation induced by the halftone process — the heightened chiaroscuro, filtered configuration and exclusion of chromatic elements — together had reinforced the already existing austerity of Paget’s illustrations, exuding an even bleaker feeling. 34. Mustalish, “The Development of Photomechanical Printing Processes in the Late 19th Century,” p. 81. 35 One particularly good example of the artist’s skilful representation of light and reflection can be seen in the frontispiece of “The Second Stain” (1905, The Return of Sherlock Holmes), which is the last Sherlock Holmes story illustrated by Sidney Paget. 36 Mustalish, “The Development of Photomechanical Printing Processes in the Late 19th Century,” p. 81. “In addition because the film used in this period was unable to capture the entire visible spectrum it created pictures with a false tonal balance, a problem which reworking could partially remedy.” 37 Werner, “Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Paget and the Strand Magazine,” p. 113. According to Stock’s meticulous census recordings, the said drawing under inspection is currently owned by Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. The work is framed with a clear glass backing so viewers would be able to see Paget’s instructions: “To engraver | Keep background of fog as | flat as possible | S.P.” See http://www.bestofsherlock.com/sidney-paget-original-art.htm#holmes, last updated on October 20th, 2010.. 12.

(18) Chapter Two Between Words and Pictures. 2.1. Sherlock Holmes and the Strand’s Purification of Crime Narratives With the de facto royal patronage from the Queen Victoria, by the end of the 19th century the Strand had reached a prestigious status nationwide. “Mirror of the century,” as hailed by the late editor Reginald Pound in his memoir of the Strand’s history, the periodical claimed to offer a faithful reflection of the British middleclasses in print. 38 A mirror that echoes their tastes, prejudices and intellectual limitations, the Strand Magazine further projects the moral views of people as well as the moral climate of its country and age. In the late 19th century a surging wave of social purity movement swept through the Anglosphere, and the British Empire was no exception. Along with this tide of moral reform, the late Victorian advocates raised issues with licentiousness, prostitution and other sexual activities that were considered immoral by Christian standards.39 In response to such social ethos, journalism in the late Victorian era also saw a rise in concerns over potential moral pollution, but in very different manners. While some journalists sought to cut through the image of normalcy and lay bare the society’s foulest secrets with the power of words, there were milder ones who chose to express their worries by consciously shunning away from what was deemed morally harmful. The Strand Magazine under George Newnes’ supervision clearly belonged to the latter category. In his correspondence with fellow editor W. T. Stead (1849-1912), Newnes once explicitly describes his personal ideology on journalism:. 38. Pound, “A British Institution,” Mirror of the Century: The Strand Magazine 1891-1950, p. 7. “Certainly the middle-classes of England never cast a clearer image of themselves in print than they did in The Strand Magazine. Confirming their preference for mental as well as physical comfort, for more than half a century it faithfully mirrored their tastes, prejudices, and intellectual limitations.” 39 To better understand the reform movement in the Victorian era, see Linda K. Hughes, “1870,” in: Tucker (ed.), A Companion to Victorian Literature & Culture, pp. 35–50. The supporters of the social purify movement were primarily composed with women, and it greatly influenced the development of feminism afterwards. Their campaigns eventually led to several important changes in legislation, including the passing and following alternations of the Contagious Diseases Acts in the 1860s.. 13.

(19) It is content to plod on, year after year, giving wholesome and harmless entertainment to crowds of hard-working people craving for a little fun and amusement. It is quite humble and unpretentious. That is my journalism.40 Contrary to Stead’s avid investigations of slum life and child prostitution, the journalism envisioned by Newnes does not seek to reveal truth nor directly demand social justice. Rather, he attempted to form a certain sort of moral censorship through various publications. Call it a sense of social responsibility or yet another subtle marketing strategy, Newnes’s concern over the readers’ cultural health was already manifested at multiple occasions ever since the publication of Tit-Bits.41 Aside from offering pleasure, one of Newnes’s goals for founding the Strand, as stated in his foreword for the magazine, was to supply “cheap and healthful literature” for its reader-consumers.42 He continually spoke of his journalism as a cultural filter — to select untainted materials and omit contents overly contaminated by sensationalism. As the first one to propose an in-depth analysis and complete discussion on British detective fiction in relation to Victorian purity, Christopher Pittard suggests in his recent study of late Victorian detective fiction that the Strand had played a crucial role in the early formation of British detective fiction and further proposes an innovative perspective to interpret the periodical as Newnes’ attempt to purify the reading communities at the time.43 In short, Newnes sought to purify and improve the 40. Pound, “And So— ‘The Strand Magazine’,” Mirror of the Century: The Strand Magazine, p. 28–29. William Thomas Stead (1849-1912) was an English journalist and editor known for his active participation in social issues. He had cofounded the monthly journal Review of Reviews with George Newnes, but the two’s relationship later came under strain due to ideological conflicts. Frist drawing public attention with his lurid reports of London slums in the early 80s, Stead later went to the extreme when he published his controversial investigation of child prostitution “Maiden Tribute to Modern Babylon” (1885) in Pall Mall Gazette, which ironically became sensational due to its much provoking contents. For more about Stead’s journalism, see also Stephen Arata, “1897,” in: Tucker (ed.), A Companion to Victorian Literature & Culture, pp. 55–56; Christopher Pittard, Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011, pp. 68–69. 41 Pound, “March of the ‘Tit-Bits’ Brigade,” Mirror of the Century: The Strand Magazine, 1891-1950, pp. 24–25. Newnes’s earnest attitude towards the quality of his publication can be seen from “his scrutiny of every line printed in his paper, down to the joke ‘fillers’ at the foot of the columns.” His concern over readers’ cultural health was well expressed in one note he left on the page proof: “We should avoid any subject that may have an injurious effect on our readers.” 42 George Newnes, “Introduction,” in: The Strand Magazine 1, no. 1, 1891, p. 3. “The past efforts of the Editor in supplying cheap, healthful literature have met with such generous favour from the public that he ventures to hope that his new enterprise will prove a popular one.” 43 Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” pp. 1–23. The article was later revised and collected under the same title in Pittard’s monograph, Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011, pp. 63–104. Also, see Pittard, “From Sensation to the Strand,” in: Charles J. Rzepka and Lee Horsley (eds.), A Companion to Crime Fiction, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, pp. 105–116.. 14.

(20) reading community by providing his readers with healthful and hygienic reading materials in an affordable price. Whereas his once fellow Stead was busy brandishing his pen against “the filthy” via newspaper articles, Newnes chose popular literature — especially crime fiction — as his battle field, the “unhealthy” sensation novels and penny dreadfuls his opponents.44 An age full of paradox, the Victorian era’s contradictory character is also visible in the literary scene. As the sensation novel began to flourish in Great Britain during the 1860s, what existed among the general public at the same time was an indescribable urge to get rid of everything unclean. Purity, in every sense of the word, became a latent obsession in almost every aspect of the Victorian life. From the increasing attention on hygiene issues to the manifesting fear of spiritual contamination, the Victorians developed a tendency to associate material filth with moral degradation, and it was under this metaphorical framework that Newnes tried to shape the Strand into a defence against mind pollution.45 Newnes’ discourse on mind purification, in concert with Victorian morality, stresses on the Strand reader’s moral healthiness and seeks to dispel the fear and impurity of crime through reading experience. To create a new kind of “healthful” crime fiction competitive to sensation fiction, Newnes presumably had turned to detective fiction for solutions. Although both genres feature tales woven around crime and its repercussions, the two’s stands and approaches to criminality essentially differ. Dwelling upon the details of crime itself and the strong feelings triggered by vivid descriptions, the sensation novel often presents a romanticized vision of blood and lust draped in fraud, treachery and insanity, while the latter, on the contrary, focuses on the solving of mysteries and crimes, in which the process of investigation becomes the main plot. As a genre that privileges order and rejects disorder, detective fiction happens to provide a matching fictional expression for the moral temper of the Victorian era, and this genre trait could probably explain why the Strand held a particular publishing interest for mystery and detective narratives. The fact that Doyle’s Holmes stories, 44. Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction, pp. 83–84. 45 Pittard, “Introduction: (Mrs.) Hudson’s Soap: Reading Purity in Detective Fiction,” Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction, pp. 6–7, 13–14.. 15.

(21) one of the Strand’s biggest successes, had underwent a shift in ethos after its debut in the periodical also further validates this discourse of purification.46 Characteristically different from Doyle’s previous novella (A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four), the Sherlock Holmes adventures published by the Strand contain considerably less graphic violence, blood and gore. Heinous crimes out of carnal desires are consciously avoided by the author in case of causing uneasiness. Instead of blood feud or crime of passion, many of the crimes in the Adventures have the plots revolving around bourgeois concerns as property and money become the primary motivation.47 In addition to Doyle’s self-censorship, these short detective stories also tend to evoke a sense of stability through serial format, for a recognisable and reliable narrative model was gradually built with each issue of the Strand. Not only does the narrative always end in Sherlock Holmes restoring the disrupted order and purging the uncanny and evil, the majority of these narratives follow a more or less stable paradigm.48 Generally, an adventure of Sherlock Holmes could be roughly divided into three sections. That the plot always begins at the cosy apartment on Baker Street has undoubtedly become a literary convention in the canon. Through Sherlock’s confident deductions and witty comments during his conversation with Doctor Watson, the 221B flat is established as a place where reason discovers and recovers order. Then here comes intrusion — a mystery would be brought into the house — either by the police or a potential client seeking advice from the “consulting detective”. As the 46. Ian Ousby, Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction from Godwin to Doyle, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press: 1976, pp. 151, 158; Peter D. McDonald, British Literary Culture and Publishing Practice 1880-1914, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 160. Both Ousby and McDonald have noticed and pointed out the shift in ethos among the canon. McDonald went further to suggest that such change was not only caused by the periodical’s editorial censorship, but also consciously made by the author himself in the attempt to avoid harsh criticism and prevent possible reputation damage. Cited by Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction, p. 84. 47 Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction, pp. 85–86. 48 A frequently spotted exception would be “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” (1983), which would be deleted from the series when The Memoirs was later published in book format. The exclusion, as specifically pointed out and discussed by Christopher Metress, was probably due to the story’s twist ending. In his final words Holmes expresses his doubts and uncertainty in human reason; this action of self-questioning proves to be problematic, for it undermines the series’ usual celebration of reason and logic. See Christopher Metress, “Thinking the Unthinkable: Reopening Conan Doyle’s “Cardboard Box,” in: The Midwest Quarterly 42, 2001, pp.183–198.. 16.

(22) scenario unfolds, the duo move away from their haven onto the streets of London or to the English countryside, where the mystery broods and the impending disorder starts to threaten. Yet no matter how far the detective and his doctor have gone, in the end they always return to Baker Street, or on their way back to 221B. The onceviolated order would be restored, and the inconceivable once again becomes conceivable with Sherlock’s deduction and explanation.49. 2.2. Correspondence and Divergence: Interplay of Doyle’s Text and Paget’s Image When reading the Adventures in the Strand, one can find that at least one illustration would accompany the text at almost every opening of the pages. Following the said verbal paradigm, most illustrations of these stories also vaguely possess a tripartite structure. Opening with a depiction presenting Sherlock Holmes and John Watson immersed in conversation, the pictorial sequence normally proceeds with portrait-like introductions of clients, scenes taken from the recounting of mysteries or crimes, as well as further investigations.50 The ending, however, tend to strays from the textual convention. Instead of returning to 221B Baker Street, the illustrations often cease when the story reaches its climax. Either capturing the detective’s fight with notorious villains (fig. 14), or depicting the moment when the suspect’s true identity is revealed (fig. 15), Sherlock Holme’s confrontation with others becomes the main subject of the final scenes in many cases.51 The verbal and pictorial patterns overlap and fuse together, repeating throughout the series and thus creating a sense of familiarity. One may argue that it is natural for illustrations to bear a similar pattern with the text since these images drawn by Sidney Paget are fundamentally based on Doyle’s words. Yet, it should be made clear that 49. Ibid., pp. 186–189; besides Metress’ thorough analysis, Pittard provides a concluding comment on the series’ textual structure, see Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” p. 5. “[…] detective fiction, as a genre which not only privileges order and rejects disorder out of hand, but which presents its readers with recognisable and comfortable narrative models through the serial format.” 50 For the type of portrait-like illustrations that represent characters, the detective in disguises is occasionally shown in such format; see Kooistra, “Quotation,” pp. 66–67. 51 The pattern is not exactly applicable to The Hound of Baskerville running from August 1901 to April 1902 as the story was formatted as serialised long novel instead of individual short narratives when it was first published in the Strand. Nevertheless, the general plotline of the completed narrative also corresponds to this tripartite textual paradigm.. 17.

(23) each adventure of Sherlock Holmes holds essentially different plots and mysteries. Paget had many other choices, but he chose to frequent those similar scenes over and over again, and many of his illustrations bear striking resemblances. A Strand reader at the time must have a feeling of déjà vu when reading “The Adventure of Silver Blaze” (1892) as the train scene strongly recalls the first scene in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” (1891) (fig. 16, 17).52 An economical factor may play a partial role behind these unmistakable similarities. There is nothing wrong for the illustrator to recycle his previous compositions, and it is only legitimate and habitual that the artist would revisit his own repertoire in search for inspirations; nevertheless, it would never be the sole reason, nor could it offer a sufficient explanation. To presume that such repetition is a calculated repercussion from the illustrator would be a valid argumentation, for the sense of familiarity holds a certain psychological value to the Strand readers especially in the context of the magazine’s purification discourse. As repetition brings forth stability and subsequently conjures a sense of security, the pattern, acting as a form of reinforcement, keeps repeating itself as if it is a ritual that dispels the uneasiness when facing the unknown. Not only structurally corresponding to Doyle’s narratives, in some cases one can also spot in Paget’s compositions repeating motifs that echo Doyle’s story plots and deliberately invite readers’ attention. Every now and then, the artist would emphasise objects that are crucial to the events in his pictorial sequences. In “The Red-Headed League” (1891), the client Jabez Wilson, a London pawnbroker, finds himself caught up in a web of deceit and eventually comes to 221B Baker Street to seek consultation. Decoyed by a strange yet promising newspaper want-ad, which turns out to be part of some bank burglary scheme premeditated by a notorious criminal gang, the oblivious Mr. Wilson was made to regularly leave his pawn shop so that the thieves were able to dig out an underground tunnel from the shop’s basement to the vault of the bank nearby. As a key of the whole conspiracy, the newspaper likewise becomes an 52. Werner, “Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Paget and the Strand Magazine, p. 116–7. When talking about the individual differences of engravers reworking the plates, Werner picks out these similar train scenes as examples for a style comparison, which also conveniently show their strikingly similar composition. It is true that all train cabins somehow look alike, but the arrangements and the angle in which the scenes are depicted are totally identical; aside from the train scenes, there are still more compositional repetitions among the series. One good example would be the living room scene discussed in the first chapter.. 18.

(24) important element in visualisation. Employing the newspaper motif multiple times in succession (fig. 18–21), Paget further uses it as a device to ensure visual continuity by duplicating both the object and the characters’ body postures. Set in different times and locations with essentially different characters, the scenes are somehow still connected with each other through compositional similarity (fig. 19, 20).53 Another recurrent motif worth notice would be the image of the box in “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (1893). Unlike the newspaper previously discussed, the box motif here takes shape in various forms throughout the story. It could be a real object, like the ones shown in the opening scene as the pair looks over the detective’s “curious collection” preserved from an earlier case (fig. 22). In front of them stands a large tin chest, and there is yet another small wooden box in Holmes’ hands. Interestingly, Paget drew out the boxes, but he deliberately hid the contents from the viewer. “A crumpled piece of paper, an old-fashioned brass key, a peg of wood with a ball of string attached to it, and three rusty old discs of metal,” these trinkets, though clearly listed out in Doctor Watson’s description, none of them could be seen in the illustration. 54 While the two characters appear to be attentively observing what is inside the wooden box, the reader is teased with its outward appearance and the chest’s wide opened lid, and it is only after reading the text that the viewer is able to know what is exactly kept in the box. In addition to literally drawing out the box, the artist is also inclined to manipulate architectural space in his compositions to create box-like impressions. By employing corner views and frames of entryways, along with the help of linear perspective, Paget turns the room into a box (fig. 23, 24). While the characters are enclosed within the architectural box, the door, acting like the box’s lid, becomes the opening that allows the viewer to see through. This allusion is particularly obvious in the story’s last illustration, where Sherlock Holmes and his friend Musgrave found the missing butler, dead cold in front of a treasure trunk unlocked, up from the secret chamber’s opening hole (fig. 25). Portraying the box in both reality and metaphor, 53. Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction, pp. 94–95. This same technique could be observed again in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” where Paget attempts to unify the pictorial sequence through the posture continuity built between Watson reclining on the chaise longue and the detective crawling on the ground in search of clues. 54 Doyle, “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual,” The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, pp. 248– 249.. 19.

(25) the ending scene further invokes a box-within-a-box impression — a clever design which mirrors the sequence’s beginning when Holmes takes out the small wooden box from the huge tin chest. Other than compositions, how the image and text are arranged on pages also plays a crucial role when one reads these Sherlock Holmes stories. Set at a page later or mostly positioned at the same opening, Paget’s illustrations are arranged and grouped with the corresponding text so they could simultaneously affect one’s reading experience. As columns of text wrap around the illustrations, the images are integrated with the storyline and fused naturally into the Strand’s discourse. While normally these pictorial sequences stick to the progression of plot, the last story of the second Adventures series, which was originally presumed as the canon’s final episode, interrupted this pattern. In December 1893, “The Adventure of the Final Problem” was published with the author’s wish to end the life of his legendary detective.55 Like a tragic hero the detective plunges to his supposed death deep in the water along with the criminal mastermind Professor Moriaty, and for the first time in the Strand, the Sherlock Holmes story adopted a full page drawing in the beginning of its pictorial sequence. Fully taking the advantage of the image’s scale and position, Paget successfully produced one of the most impressive and memorable scenes in the canon. With the shocking bold caption “THE DEATH OF SHERLOCK HOLMES” shown below, the illustration in question immortalises the struggling between the great detective hero and the evil kingpin on the cliff’s edge near the Reichenbach Falls (fig. 26). Out of all the drawings Paget had done for the Sherlock Holmes series hitherto, this illustration’s composition is apparently the most complex not only because the artist painstakingly drew such realistic and detailed landscape, but also for his subtle mixing of multiple perspectives within one single image. Basically an overlook view, the scene is depicted as if readers are witnessing this dangerous fight from a higher point within a short distance. The road curve at the bottom left is tilted up probably in an attempt to both dwarf and stress the two dangling men on the verge of falling at the 55. Doyle, Memoirs and Adventures, p. 93. “It was still the Sherlock Holmes stories for which the public clamoured, and these from time to time I endeavoured to supply. At last, after I had don two series of them I saw that I was in danger of having my hand forced, and of being entirely identified with what I regarded as a lower stratum of literary achievement. Therefore as a sign of my resolution I determined to end the life of my hero.”. 20.

(26) same time, whereas the depth of the water at the lower right is highly exaggerated as the thick mist and rigid slopes, it highlights the risk of fighting beside deep waterfalls. These distortions, together with the contrast between the small human figures and grand waterfalls, are aimed to make the fight by the waterfall even more dangerous, and Holme’s fallen hat in the air aptly strengthen this tension, making the whole image even more dramatic. Referring to Doyle’s complaint on a similar occasion, Pittard contends in his study of the Strand’s crime fiction that such arrangement is probably Paget’s most anti-climactic ploy on the reader. 56 Instead of keeping one’s anticipation until the last moment, by putting a dramatic statement like this at the very beginning the illustrator already spoils the dramatic twist and any possible chance to shock the reader at the end.57 Pittard’s argument may seem fair if considered from the author’s side. Yet from a reader’s perspective this illustration could be one that best reflects the artist’s autonomy among the whole Adventure series so far. Despite his divergence from the route set by Doyle’s text, the illustrator still managed to reconcile and further complement the narrative. It should be pointed out that Paget’s switching of the later scene to the beginning could actually bring positive effects to one’s reading experience. In stead of ruining the story’s climax, the dominant image is able to seize the moment of suspense, possibly even reinforce it, making sure to secure the reader’s attention at the start and fuel his desire to know the story’s ending.. 2.3. Anti-Sensationalism and Fragmentation in Sidney Paget’s Illustrations for the Adventures Paget’s illustrations — specifically those from the earlier two Adventures series — work in the visual aspects to supress sensationalistic elements within the 56. Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities, p, 90. “Doyle occasionally complained that Paget’s images ruined the surprise of the narrative. Yet such a technique was perfectly consistent with the Strand’s ideology of purifying experience and defusing sensation; the potential shock ending of ‘The Final Problem,’ for instance, was rendered less powerful by its opening illustration, a full page image of Reichenbach Falls with the unambiguous caption ‘The Death of Sherlock Holmes.” 57 Doyle complained to the Strand editor Greenhough Smith in his letters that, by giving away endings, the illustrations undermined his narratives. See Cameron Hollyer, “Author to Editor: Arthur Conan Doyle’s Correspondence with H. Greenhough Smith,” in: ACD: The Journal of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society 3, 1992, pp.11–34, p.26. Cited by Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction, p. 90.. 21.

(27) stories. One distinctive trait of Paget’s works is the often blank background. Bereft of minute details, these illustrations depend on minimal props to construct the space. This is especially evident when he depicts characters in interior settings. Just one armchair or a sofa with carpet would be sufficient to imply the interior space. The almost austere atmosphere produces a simple and neat impression, and this cleanness effectively helps to keep the tone calmly and steadily in check. Nonetheless, the calmness perceived throughout the narrative comes not only from pictorial simplicity, but also from the obvious lack of action in these illustrations. In spite of the title “adventure,” the images accompanying Doyle’s text appear to be less eventful and tend to acquire an air of domestic ordinariness. It is hard to overlook the recurring scenes of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (occasionally with other characters) in conversation while seated (fig. 27–30) as they keep appearing in almost every adventure. Complementing Doyle’s faith in the power of logic and rationality, such “sit and talk” motif seems to hint at the better use of the brain instead of the body and further highlight the importance of thinking during investigation. In addition to the emphasis on the mind and thoughts, the peculiar quiescence in Paget’s illustrations could also partially result from the artist’s intention to subdue sensationalism, which is quite ostensible in his conscious avoidance from graphic depictions of violence. Among all the Holmesian illustrations done by Paget, scenes that could be perceived as violent are noticeably few in number as compared to those portraying characters in relatively static states.58 These images, ranging from fierce physical fights to milder confrontations, are virtually aimed to represent either conflict or opposition in different forms. Whether the representations could be deemed as rousing is defined by the characters’ physicality — the body language, posture as well as proximity of their physical contact, in which various degrees of dynamism are at play. Upon a closer look, the majority of these dynamic representations in the Adventures are in fact variations of the same archetypal posture (fig. 31–35). Uplifting arms, twisted torso, and a contrapposto stance, these representations differentiate from each other in their intensity. The more the limbs are. 58. The approximate ration is one tenth (only the illustrations from the first two series of Adventures are counted as my statistics), and the criteria used to determine whether a presentation should be considered violent would be: the degree of physical closeness and hostility, intensity of the confrontation or conflict between the characters, etc.. 22.

(28) stretched and the body is contorted, the more drastic the movement will be, and hence the sentiment and dramatic impact encompassed within the image. Interestingly, in comparison with Paget’s animated renditions of military scenes for newspapers like The Sphere and The Illustrated London News (fig. 36, 37) or his later illustrations for Doyle’s adventure story The Tragedy of the Korosko (fig. 38), most of times Paget’s Holmesian characters tend to bear a certain frozen rigidity even in those representations considered dynamic.59 Carrying an air of detachment, these characters are shown in a way as if they are posing on stage (fig. 39–41). These images do not seek to absorb the audience with sentiment as their contemporary competitors like the penny dreadful or sensational sporting papers do. Maybe it would be a bit imprecise to call them “competitors” since these publications targeted at readers who craved for sheer thrills of gruesome crimes and attracted reading communities different from the Strand. Whereas illustrations for the latter kind commit themselves to the representation of crime itself by drawing on blood, violence and gore as baits for more readers, Paget’s illustrations intentionally go toward the opposite direction. It does not mean that Paget would wipe out every trace of crime in his works, though. Crime, as the crucial factor that drives the plots in detective fiction, is a theme impossible for the illustrator to ignore. However, the graphical representation of crime is another matter. It could be manipulated, and that is exactly what Paget had done with his restraint of sensational elements. Paget’s self-censorship manifests itself mainly in the form of concealment, but in different levels. It is not uncommon for the artist to deliberately eschew brutal scenes. In “The Adventure of the Stockbroker’s Clerk” (1893), the story reaches its morbid climax when Sherlock and his entourage manage to force their way into the locked room and interrupt the swindler Pinner’s attempted suicide. Upon describing their discovery of the would-be-suicide, Doyle provides a rather extraordinary depiction full of vivid details: A coat and waistcoat were lying on the floor, and from a hook behind the door, with his own braces round his neck, was hanging the managing director of the. 59. Serialised in the Strand between May to December 1897, The Tragedy of the Korosko is a novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle about a group of European tour traveling in Egypt. Sailing on the boat named “Korosko” along the Nile, the group later encounters a band of Dervish warriors, and then the tragic starts to unfold.. 23.

(29) Franco-Midland Hardware Company. His knees were drawn up, his head hung at a dreadful angle to his body, and the clatter of his heels against the door made the noise which had broken in upon our conversation.60 These concrete visual clues, despite their pictorial potential, were forgone by Paget, while the previous scene where the detective forced his way through the locked door was preferred (fig. 42) — a choice that could be interpreted as a calculated concealment.61 That Paget hardly depicts the moment of killing is probably the artist’s most obvious act of veiling violence. In the twenty-four Adventures published before The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901-1902), only three stories contain actual depictions of malicious attacks: the scene from “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” (1892) capturing Mr. Victor Hatherley, a young consultant hydraulic engineer trying to escape from the just-discovered counterfeiter Colonel Stark, clinging onto the sill for dear life, with the uplifting axe in the villain’s hands which foresees the impending horror of thumb-cutting )62 ; the concluding piece of “The Cardboard Box” (1893) which re-enacts the climax of the murderer Jim Browner’s confession — infidelity, an eloping couple on boat, and an angry estranged husband betrayed, these eventually leads to a crime of passion, and with a couple ferocious strokes taking the lives of the adulterers (fig. 35) 63 ; representation of Sherlock Holmes pinned on the floor and strangled by the Cunninghams after the duo realises the sleuth is close to expose their crime in “The Adventure of the Reigate Squires” (1893), which is particularly rare as Holme’s is seldom depicted as the weak throughout the canon (fig. 44)64. 60. Doyle, “The Adventure of the Stockbroker’s Clerk,” in: The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, p. 232. 61 Pittard, “Cheap, Healthful Literature: The Strand Magazine, Fictions of Crime, and Purified Reading Communities,” Purity and Contamination in Late Victorian Detective Fiction, p. 97. 62 Doyle, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb,” The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, p. 133. “He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had to let myself go, and was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the garden below.” 63 Doyle, “The Cardboard Box,” The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, p. 212. “The haze was like curtain all round us, and there were we three in the middle of it. My God, shall I ever forget their faces when they saw who was in the boat that was closing in upon them? She screamed out. He swore like a madman, and jabbed at me with an oar, for he must have seen death in my eyes. I got past it and got one in with my stick, that crushed his head like an egg. I would have spared her, perhaps, for all my madness, but she threw her arms round him, crying out to him, and calling him ‘Alec.’ I struck again, and she lay stretched beside him.” 64 Doyle, “The Adventure of the Reigate Squire,” The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, p. 266. “His words were cut short by a sudden scream of ‘Help! Help! Murder!’ With a thrill I recognised the voice as that of my friend. I rushed madly from the room on to the landing. The cries, which had sunk. 24.