ABSTRACT
George Du Maurier's commentaries on illustration are of crucial significance in helping us to understand his collaborations with authors. His writing identifies the duality of his position, and highlights the way in which he was placed, as a mid-Victorian illustrator, in a role of uncertain status. In his earlier work, Du Maurier was unquestionably bound by this arrangement. His illustrations for Braddon's 'Eleanor's Victory', serialized in Once a Week, are a case in point. The author needed to make her sensational tale of forgery and retribution as arresting as possible, and Du Maurier's task was to focus attention on the interplay between the main characters. In a bold development of his theorizing in 'The Illustrating of Books', Du Maurier uses his illustrations to compel the reader/viewer to see his characters as both actors and real people at the same time.
