Tag Archives: illustrations

231B: A young woman decides to be a book illustrator

I’m trying to locate a short story I read years ago. The protagonist is a young woman who decides she will set herself up as a book illustrator. She advertises her services and her first client pays her a call. The author describes the scene he wants as the cover to his book, full of contradictory requirements: show the moon behind the young lovers and the rising sun in their faces, the reflection of the young lady in the eyes of her beaux, and the glorious sweep of the landscape behind them, etc., etc.. The young woman is so hopelessly overwhelmed by the client’s demands that she retires from the business, having never painted a single cover.

My memory is that it was Edwardian or Victorian short story, and written in a typically late-19th/early-20th century light, satirical tone. It was in a collection of short stories, but possibly may have originally appeared in a British periodical like “Punch” or “The Idler”.

Can anyone identify the story?