Victorian Aesthetics of Erasure in Fiction and Illustration

From Table of Contents: A Theoretical Approach to Erasure; Charlotte Bronte's Cancelations by Scissors; George Eliot's Cancelations for the Beauty of Illustration and Serialization; Charles Dickens' Rejection of Illustration: A Toll on His Writing; Millais' Illustrations: Fuel for Trollope's Writing. Victorian Aesthetics of Erasure in Fiction and Illustration by Ileana Marin is the first major study dedicated entirely to the practice of erasure as a creative strategy in 19th century British literature. Marin recovers and brings to light passages suppressed in novels by Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope, providing a unique insight into a distinctly Victorian practice of experimentation with narrative strategies, character portrayal and what moderns might call self-reflectivity. Using the tools of a textual archeologist and forensic detective, and meticulously tracing the marks left by the quills of writers and the pencils of artists, Marin constructs a multi-layered narrative that keeps readers hooked to the puzzling history of manuscripts and proofs. Various chapters focus on the collaboration established by Eliot, Trollope, and Dickens with illustrators such as Frederic Leighton, John Everett Millais, George Cruikshank, Hablot Knight Browne (known as Phiz), and Marcus Stone. - Raimonda Modiano