This week we looked at the 1907 edition of Oscar Wilde’s Salome which included 16 drawings by Aubrey Beardsley. I had never heard of this one act play before, so it was interesting to read through it and learn some of the context surrounding the play’s publication. Throughout the course (so far), I can better appreciate the importance of the image, text, and context connections because of all the important relations between the play, the drawings and Wilde’s story of creating the play.

During the virtual presentation of different editions and renditions of “Goblin Market” from Ryerson’s Archives and Special Collections it was interesting to see how many versions of this one text have been published internationally, especially the little pocket version. When tasked with individually curating these different editions for an exhibition, it was a challenge to find precise information because of how many different editions have been circulated over time.

For today’s class we were tasked with annotating Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol and working with John Leech’s illustrations for the novella. I found it surprising to learn that illustrations were included with the book when it was first published. This adds to the importance of looking at image, text and context in relation to each other. It was also interesting to learn about the different types of drawings Leech created for the novella and discuss as a class the impact of these illustrations.

Back in May when we were given the option for which topic to pick for ENG 910, Illustrated Books stood out for because of its focus on Victorian literature and that period of time. From high school up through university, I have read various pieces from this era so exploring a new aspect of Victorian literature struck me with potential. Since this is a capstone seminar, a lot of work from this course will be collaborative and it was interesting to hear the professor explain how Victorian illustrated books are seen as collaborative projects as well.