On going up to the fire

"On going up to the fire to throw a pitch of dead weeds upon it, she found that he did the same on the other side. The fire flared up, and she beheld the face of D'Urberville. The unexpectedness of his presence, the grotesqueness of his appearance in a gathered smock-frock such as was now worn only by the most old-fashioned of the labourers, had a ghastly comicality that chilled her as to its bearing. D'Urberville emitted a low, long laugh." by Hubert Von Herkomer.

Plate 21 [5 December 1891] from the monthly serialisation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the Durbervilles in the London Graphic. At 81 words, this is by far the longest title of HH's six plates. Format: double-page (the only other such layout being that of the first illustration, also by Herkomer, this one being the larger of the two) p. 668, bottom of column 1 (towards the end of Ch. L and of 21st Format: whole-page (33 cm high x 44.7 cm wide).

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Last modified 14 December 2000