Illustration of Carinthia Jane, in Meredith's "The Amazing Marriage," by Herbert Bedford

Carinthia Jane

Herbert Bedford (1867-1945)

First published 1914

Reproduction of a miniature painting on ivory

Source: Bedford, facing p. 160

Bedford depicts Carinthia Jane, in George Meredith's The Amazing Marriage (1895), as perhaps the most androgynous of all the heroines, not only with short hair, but with what looks like a shirt with a brown jacket or coat with wide lapels, and no touch of jewellery or any other sign of alluring femininity. [Commentary continues below; click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Image scan and text by Jacqueline Banerjee.

[This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

In his description of Carinthia here, Bedford quotes from Lord Fleetwood's thoughts on their wedding day. She had, Fleetwood decides, "beauty — of its kind," but far from the conventional kind: "Her reddish hair — chestnut if you will — let fall a skein over one of the rugged brows, and softened the ruggedness by making it wilder ... Conceived of the mountains, built in their image, the face partook alternately of mountain terror or splendour; wholly, be remembered, of the splendour when her blood ran warm" (qtd. p. 159-60). Bedford then points out that Carinthia struck different characters in the novel differently, and that hers "was one of those faces that, while having no place in the ranks of beautiful women, could at times outshine them by the very luxuriance of her vitality" (160).

Bibliography

Bedford, Herbert. The Heroines of George Meredith. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914. Internet Archive, from a book in the University of California Libraries. Web. 15 March 2026.

Created 15 March 2026