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The Plot Thickens: Toward a Narratological Analysis of Illustrated Serial Fiction in the 1860s (review)

In Radiant Textuality, Jerome McGann reminds us that the material form of a text always signifies; however, critics have yet to consider the crucial narratological role of illustration in the Victorian serial novel. This study of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's sensational Eleanor's Victory and Elizabeth Gaskell's realist Wives and Daughters argues that illustration richly complicates the linear development of plot and plays a key role in constituting and negotiating the generic interplay of sensation and realism. By considering illustration and layout as key constituents of plot rather than mere bibliographical paratext, this essay models how scholars might undertake a narratological analysis of serial fiction that takes full account of illustration.