SOURCE: Turner, Mark W. “George Eliot v. Frederic Leighton: Whose Text Is It Anyway?” In From Author to Text: Re-Reading George Eliot's Romola, edited by Caroline Levine and Mark W. Turner, pp. 17-35. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 1998.

In the following essay, Turner examines the relationship between text and illustrations in Romola to illuminate the interpretation of Victorian illustrated fiction in general.

Romola, serialized in the popular monthly Cornhill Magazine, was the only novel by George Eliot to be accompanied by illustrations in its first form. In his drawings for the serial, Frederic Leighton, now best remembered for his large paintings of classical and Renaissance themes, undertook the task of bringing fifteenth-century Florence alive for readers. It is the interface between Eliot's written text and Leighton's visual depictions that I will discuss here, to indicate ways the illustrations form a parallel text—a text that actually highlights the domestic conflict...