"A silvery whiteness — vaguely shaped as a human form — receding, fading, gone!"
John McLenan
1861
11.5 cm. by 11.5 cm.
Bulwer-Lytton's A Strange Story
Harper's Weekly 5 (21 September 1861): 606.
Scanned image and commentary by Philip V. Allingham.
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Passage Illustrated: Lilian as a Spiritual Visitation in the Night
Suddenly, beside me I distinctly heard a sigh, — a compassionate, mournful sigh. The sound was unmistakable. I started from my seat, looked round, amazed to discover no one, — no living thing! The windows were closed, the night was still. That sigh was not the wail of the wind. But there, in the darker angle of the room, what was that? A silvery whiteness, vaguely shaped as a human form, receding, fading, gone! Why, I know not — for no face was visible, no form, if form it were, more distinct than the colourless outline, — why, I know not, but I cried aloud, “Lilian! Lilian!” My voice came strangely back to my own ear; I paused, then smiled and blushed at my folly. “So I, too, have learned what is superstition,” I muttered to myself. [Chapter XX, 606]
Commentary
McLenan makes very clear that the "silvery whiteness" of the vision is the image of Lilian Ashleigh, rather than a mere "colourless outline." In going to sleep after working all night on his book, Fenwick again hears the mysterious sigh, which he classifies as an auditory hallucination. The next day, the incident with the steward follows, leaving the reader puzzled as to the meaning and significance of the visitation of the spirit of Lilian.
Bibliography
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G. D. A Strange Story. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly V, 10 August — 21 December 1861.
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Created 21 November 2007 Last modified 24 June 2026