Rice University

Assyrian Monsters and Domestic Chimeras

Author(s): Deborah A. Thomas
Source: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 48, No. 4, The Nineteenth Century
(Autumn, 2008), pp. 897-909
Published by: Rice University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40071374 .
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SEL48,4 (Autumn
2008):897-909
ISSN0039-3657

897

AssyrianMonstersand
DomesticChimeras
DEBORAH A.THOMAS
whichappearedto guardthe
"Theseextraordinary
figures,
innerrecessesofthe palace, wereofcolossal size, and united
the head ofa man withthebodyofa bull and thewingsofa
Thewordsare thoseofpioneering
Victorian
bird."1
archaeologist
AustenHenryLayard,whoexcavatedtheancientAssyriancity
- a citythathad been destroyed
neartheend ofthe
ofNineveh
fromtheIllustrated
London
BCE. An engraving
seventhcentury
Newsfor26 October1850 showsan Assyrianbull sculptureof
thistype,shippedbyLayardto theBritishMuseum(see Figure
to the Middle
I).2 Layardmade twoarchaeological
expeditions
East- thefirstfromOctober1845 toJune 1847 and againfrom
October1849 to April1851- and producedeagerlyread books
Hisdiscovaboutbothtripsas wellas a treasuretroveofartifacts.
in England.The London
excitement
eriesarousedextraordinary
TimesdescribedNinevehand Its Remains,Layard's1849 book
workofthe
as "themostextraordinary
abouthisfirst
expedition,
andpolitiI havediscussedthereligious
presentage."3Elsewhere,
evoked
oftheinterestthatLayard'sfindings
cal underpinnings
In thisessay,I shallfocus
contemporaries.4
amonghisVictorian
on theappealthatthemostspectacularoftheartifacts
brought
- the colossal,winged,human-headedbull
to lightby Layard
- heldforVictorians
fascinated
yetuneasy
byhybrids
sculptures
combinations.5
ofcertainheterogeneous
aboutthefreakishness
theseso-called
and in a sense domesticate,
toAnglicize,
Efforts
I argue,misgivings
aboutcross-culreflect,
Assyrian"monsters"
in threeVictorian
orearlythatare manifest
turalcombinations
She is
ofEnglishat VillanovaUniversity.
DeborahA.Thomasis professor
A Fable ofFragmentation
and Wholeness(1997),
theauthorof"HardTimes'1:
Thackerayand Slavery(1993), and Dickensand theShortStory(1982), as
wellas editorofDickens,SelectedShortFiction(1976).

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898

Monsters
Assyrian

Figure 1. "Human-Headedand Eagle-WingedBull." IllustratedLondon

News, 26 October 1850, p. 332.

ofand reactionto
twentieth-century
examples:(1) presentation
the NinevehCourtat the SydenhamCrystalPalace (openedin
withtheMockTurtleand Gryphon
1854); (2) Alice'sinteraction
in Alice'sAdventures
in Wonderland
(1865); and (3) an episode
thestatueofan Assyrian
bullinEdithNesbit'sTheStory
involving
oftheAmulet(1905-06).
TheNineveh
Courtwas an additiontotheenlarged
andrebuilt
PalacethatopenedintheLondonsuburbofSydenham
as
Crystal
an extension
ofthe1851Exhibition.
todisplay
promoted
Officially
the"Works
ofIndustry
ofAllNations,"
theearlierExhibition
had
and British
actuallyshowcasedBritishtechnological
superiority
as Jeffrey
A.Auerbachpointsout,an "invalues,thusconverting,
ternationalist"
celebration
intoa "supremely
nationalistic
event."6
In 1851,xenophobicanxietyhad goneintooverdrive.
Auerbach
- and ofthecrowds,disturbances,
and
notes,"fearofforeigners
- were
crimethatwereexpectedto be the likelyconsequences
[sic]rampantduringthe monthsprecedingthe openingofthe
exhibition."7
SomeBritonsevenworried
thattheexpectedhordes
offoreigners
diseases thatwouldspread
mightcarryinfectious
amongthe Britishpopulace.Afterthe predictedcatastrophes

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A.Thomas
Deborah

899

failedto materialize,the 1851 Exhibitionin HydeParkwas hailed

as a huge success, and a permanenthome was sought forthe
- theso-calledCrysenormouslypopularglass and ironstructure
tal Palace thathad housed the 1851 exhibits.8
When the new CrystalPalace opened at Sydenhamin 1854,
the fearof a vast floodof foreignvisitorswas replaced by more
domesticpreoccupations.The targetaudience ofthe Sydenham
CrystalPalace was primarilyBritish.One of its featureswas a
series of Fine ArtsCourts,which not onlywere intendedto instructviewersabout the evolutionofarchitecturebut whichalso
documented,as J. R. Piggotthas suggested,"the fall of proud,
"9
wealthyand luxurious civilisations. The largestof these Fine
- Court,a reconstructed
Nineveh
or
ArtsCourtswas theAssyrian
set of chambers in an Assyrianpalace, preparedunder the supervisionof the architectJames Fergusson, as well as Layard
himself,and accompanied by a handbook that Layardwrotefor
theexhibit.The goal ofbringing
AssyriahometoVictorianviewers
of
was intrinsicto the concept the NinevehCourt. Its verycontext- in the northwestsectionofa vast glass greenhouse,near a
area, and a ladies' room- was a
water-lilybasin, a refreshment
locationnear Mosul (now
desert
farcryfromthe Mesopotamian
found
the originalsof these
had
where
in modernIraq)
Layard
reproductions.
The NinevehCourt also seems to have been deliberatelydesignedto appeal to Britishnationalistsensibilities.The colossal,
winged,man-headed bull and lion sculptures at the Nineveh
Courtallowedviewersto feelkinshipwithand yetdistancethemselves fromimperial monuments that were intrinsicallyalien
and other.In his handbook forThe NinevehCourtin theCrystal
Palace, Layard repeatedlyrefersto these huge hybridAssyrian
- negativeconnotationsrarelyfoundin
sculpturesas "monsters"
his originaldescriptionsof these hybridfiguresin Ninevehand
Its Remains.10Clearly,in writingthe handbook forthe Nineveh
Court,Layard recognizedthe need to describe the greathybrid
sculpturesforaverageBritishviewerswho mightbe intriguedby
these astonishingfiguresyet desire an officially
approvedlabel
to hold themat some remove.11
Bothbulls and lions had been plentifulin theAssyrianruins
that Layard excavated, and he sent examples of each to England, includingthe lion sculpturedepicted,like the bull, in the
IllustratedLondonNews for26 October1850 (see Figure2). Why
then did the NinevehCourt display fourpairs ofbulls but only
of bulls at Sydenham may
one pair of lions? The proliferation

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900

Monsters
Assyrian

Figure2. "Human-Headed and WingedLion."IllustratedLondonNews,

26 October1850, p. 332.

wellreflect
an awarenesson thepartofLayardand Fergusson
thatitwas theexoticbull sculptures,morethanthecousinsof
the Britishlion,thathad especiallycapturedBritishattention
and that- despitethefundamentally
aliennatureofthesearti- viewersperceiveda kinshipbetweenthemselves
facts
and the
ancientAssyrians.
As earlyas 1846,Sir Stratford
Canning,theBritishambassador to Constantinople,
had quicklymade this identification
as soon as he heardabouttheexistenceofsuch sculptures.As
CanningwrotetoLayardin 1846,"I quiteagreewithyouthatthe
Bull- thegigantic
bullwitha humanhead- is theverythingfora
British
museum; I presumeyoumeanas a typeofJohnBull."12
ofthereactionof"A
Eightyearslater,Punch'ssatiricdescription
at
the
Palace"
(12 August1854)also focuses
Clodhopper
Crystal
on theidentification
betweenJohnBull and thebulls featured
so prominently
at Sydenhamin whatwas widelyassumed to
be a representation
ofroomsin thepalace oftheAssyrianking
Sennacherib.13
thestatuesthathe
totheClodhopper,
According
has seen in theCrystalPalace are "Sitchrumuns, zumon 'em;

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DeborahA.Thomas

901

specially the bulls in Snatchacrab's pallus, my eye, what bulls!

bulls wi' wings and faces like Christians. I never heard o' a bull
wi' a human veace afore 'cept John Bull, and he hant got no wings
like these here."14Punctts squib underscores the way in which
unsophisticated British viewers moderated their shock and surprise at these "monstrus figgers"(to use the Clodhopper's words)
by quickly relating them to a familiarVictorian context.15
The excitement generated by Layard's discoveries and the
presence of the Nineveh Court in the newly opened Sydenham
Crystal Palace gave wide currency to the image of the Assyrian
bull, but circulation of this image did not end in the 1850s or its
assimilation into the domestic British image ofJohn Bull. In the
1860s, an echo of the Assyrian bull can be found in two of John
Tenniel's illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland (Figures 3 and 4). Lewis Carroll's Alice books swarm
with chimeras, perhaps the most terrifyingof which is the Jabberwock in Through the Looking Glass. Yet it is Tenniel's representation of the hybrid Mock Turtle, paired with the lion-bodied
Gryphon, that bears the imprint of Layard's legacy. Tenniel's
drawing ofthe Mock Turtle differsstrikinglyfromthe ineffectively
conceived, seal-faced creature with plate-size scales that Lewis
Carroll himself drew in his original gift-bookversion for Alice

As RichardKellynotes,
UnderGround.
Alice's Adventures
Liddell,
"Mockturtlesoupis usuallymadeofveal,andthusTennieldraws
ofa calfand a turtle."16
thecreatureas a composite
Nevertheless,
in givinghis compositecreaturethehead,hindhooves,and tail
well-known
ofa calf,Tennielalso suggeststhe,by-then,
hybrid
was
Tenniel
with
which
an
amplyfamiliar,
Assyrianbull, image
sincehe had himself
depictedLayardas "theNineveh
previously
theMockTurtle'scomBull"in thepages ofPunch.17
Moreover,
evokes
leonine
and
the
Gryphon,
panion, eagle-headed winged,
of
colossal
theotherwell-known
Assyriansculpture,
hybrid
type
thehuman-headed,
wingedlion- likethebull,sentbyLayardto
theBritishMuseumand reproduced,
alongwithbullsculptures,
in theNinevehCourt.Indeed,thisVictorianpairingofthetwo
makesonewonderifTenniel
distinctive,
hybrids
Assyrian
gigantic
October1850 depictionsof
mind
the
26
in
have
had
not
might
Victorian
overordinary
thesetwoAssyriansculptures,
towering
LondonNews(seeFigures1 and2),when
intheIllustrated
viewers
he placedAlicein heruneasypositionbetweenLewisCarroll's
in chapters9 and 10.
MockTurtleand Gryphon
withthesecreatures
Alice's,uneasinessin her interactions
withtheotherthatcaused
also seemsrelatedto thediscomfort

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902

Monsters
Assyrian

Figure3. Alice,Gryphon,and Mock Turtle.Alice's Adventuresin Wonderland,chap. 9 (Philadelphiaand London:J. B. Lippincott,[1923]), p.

183.

in 1851 or
manyVictoriansto fearan onslaughtofforeigners
to tryto relatethe colossal hybridAssyriansculpturesto the
familiar
symbolofGreatBritain,JohnBull. Kellyhas observed
thatis so
conventional
that,withherconsistently
wayofthinking
to
Alice
"resembles
a
Victorian
ill-suited
Wonderland,
comically
an explorerencountering
strangeculturesthat
anthropologist,
to Alice*
s Advenshe choosesnotto understand"(introduction
turesin Wonderland,
In
collaboration
between
the
close
p. 15).
authorand illustrator
thatresultedin the 1865 editionofAlice's
Adventures
in Wonderland,
thisculturalcontrastbetweenAlice
in a numberof
and theinhabitants
ofWonderland
is reflected
Tenniel'sillustrations.18
In particular,
subtledetailsinTenniel's
illustrations
underscorethe emotionaldistancebetweenAlice
on theonehandand theMockTurtleand Gryphon
on theother.

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DeborahA.Thomas

903

Figure4. AlicewithdancingMockTurtleand Gryphon.Alice's Adventures

in Wonderland,chap. 10 (Philadelphiaand London: J. B. Lippincott,
[1923]), p. 194.

In thefirst(Figure3), Alice- likethewell-brought-up

Victorian
that
she
is
sits
between
these
two
Wonderland
primly
younggirl
creatureswithherskirtwelloverherkneesand herfeetfirmly
She also has a tenseexpressionon herfaceand her
together.
handstightly
clasped.In thesecond(Figure4), she continuesto
havean anxiousfacialexpressionand holdsoutherhandsand
armsina defensive
positiontokeepthedancingMockTurtleand
from
hertooclosely.
Gryphon approaching
InAlice'sencounter
withthesetwohybrids,
textand illustrationworktogether
forcomiceffect.
LewisCarroll's
texthumorously
callsattention
tohowalientheMockTurtleand Gryphon
are for
Aliceand linguistically
the
idea
of
witha
emphasizes
hybridity
virtuososeriesofpuns.As soonas she sees theGryphon,
"Alice
did notquitelikethelookofthecreature"(pp. 126-7),and the

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904

Monsters
Assyrian

MockTurtlesubsequentlyemphasizesthegeographicremoteness
ofhis originsby explainingthathe "wentto school in the sea" (p.
128). Withits line "ThefurtherofffromEngland the neareris to
France"(p. 134), his song forthe Lobster-Quadrillealso reminds
thereaderofthetraditionaltensionbetweenEnglandand France.
In addition,in this section ofAlice's Adventuresin Wonderland,
Lewis Carroll seems to be having conspicuous fun withverbal
hybrids.A remarkablesequence ofpunningdoublemeaningsruns
throughthe remarksofthe Mock Turtleand Gryphon,fromthe
Mock Turtle'srecollectionof the "Tortoise. . . [who]taughtus"
(p. 129) to this Wonderlandcreature'sinsistencethat "no wise
fishwould go anywherewithouta porpoise"(p. 136). Perhapsthe
bestjoke ofall, however,is the one producedin the illustrations
ofthe powerfulhybridAssyrianbull
byTenniel'stransformation
intothe weepyhalf-calfMockTurtle.
combinaabout cross-cultured
As late as 1905-06, discomfort
in still
is
evinced
bulls
of
tions conjuredby the image Assyrian
The
literature
children's
work
of
anotherpopular
Storyof the
some
include
novel
for
children
This
Nesbit.
may
AmuletbyEdith
Palace
visits
to
the
of
memories
oftheauthor's
SydenhamCrystal
in the 1860s.19Since the NinevehCourtwas destroyedby fireon
30 December 1866 and notrebuilt,Nesbit(born 15 August 1858)
vividmemoryof
would have been relyingon her extraordinarily
most of the
because
In
earlychildhoodexperiences.20 addition,
were
Nineveh
Court
the
at
reproductionsoforiginals
sculptures
much latervisitsto that
Nesbit's
British
at
the
housed
Museum,
The
work
on
as
she
museum
StoryoftheAmuletas wellas
began
with
the
museum's
hersubsequentfriendship
KeeperofEgyptian
and AssyrianAntiquities,Wallis Budge, undoubtedlyreinforced
Details in theresultingwork
these earlychildhoodimpressions.21
offictiononce again show a clash betweenBritishand othersento Anglicizewhat is otheror contain
sibilitiesas well as an effort
it in a familiarBritishcontext.
The greatAssyrianhuman-headed bulls put in a briefbut
startlingappearancein chapter8 ofTheStoryoftheAmuletThese
bulls are byno means the onlycompositecreaturesin thisnovel,
whichfeaturesNesbit'sownwish-granting
hybridcalledthePsammead. The bulls appear,however,at a notablyupsettingmoment
British
in this story'srepeatedcollisionsbetweencontemporary
childrenofthetale initially
and othercultures.The time-traveling
encountertheQueen ofBabylonin herancientland. Then- to the
children'sdismay- theQueen visitsthemin London.Forreasons
thatare unclear,NesbitblursthedistinctionbetweenAssyriaand

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A.Thomas
Deborah

905

Babylonia.Herdescriptionofitems- such as thebulls- generally

associatedwithAssyriaas, instead,Babylonianartifactsmayhave
somethingto do withBudge's personal hostilitytowardLayard,
who was widelyassociated in the public mindwithAssyriaand
Nineveh.22Nesbit's Queen of Babylon creates an uproar at the
BritishMuseum when she triesto reclaimthe plundereditems
she regardsas herown.Ejected,standingin themuseum's courtyard- in the presenceofthe Psammead- she expresses a desire
"thatall those Babylonianthingswould come out to me here."23
In response,numerousancientMesopotamianobjects,including
at least twobulls (as picturedin H. R. Millar'soriginalillustration
forthis scene), come crashingout ofthe museum. Nearlyall of
the irate museum officialsjump away fromthe flowof objects.
Yet one gentleman"was not quick enough, and he was roughly
pushed out ofthewaybyan enormousstonebull thatwas floating
steadilythroughthe door"(p. 145). In this comicepisode, Nesbit
literallydemonstratesthe potentialofthese colossal sculptures
to startle and unsettle. The visitingQueen herselfrepeatedly
upsets the inhabitantsofLondon untila bystander'sremark- "I
wish to goodness it was all a dream" (p. 154), expressed in the
hearingofthe Psammead- returnsher to Babylon.Atthe end of
in British
hervisit,thebulls thatshe triedto claimremainfirmly
Museum.
British
of
the
collection
in
the
hands
M. Daphne Kutzerhas observedabout Nesbitthat"thenineteenthcentury,includingthe tropesofimperialismand empire,
is omnipresentin her works."24In the contextofVictorianand
EdwardianimperialistassumptionsconcerningBritain'ssuperior
positionin relationto othercultures,itis relevantto considerthe
remarkablehuman hybridwithwhichNesbitconcludes hertale.
and
In theirtimetravels,the childrenencountera partlyfriendly
Rekh-maraancient
who,
Egyptianpriestpartlytreacherous,
like themselves,possesses half of the magic amulet and who
pursues themintomodernLondon.Theyhave also befriendeda
who lodges in the house wheretheyreside
solitaryEgyptologist,
and who asks them to call him Jimmy.Throughthe magic of
the amulet,the souls ofJimmythe scholar and Rekh-marathe
Egyptianpriestbecomejoined. Yettheresultinghybrid,as Nesbit
depicts it, is not an equal union. The Psammead explains, "All
thatwas good in Rekh-mara"(p. 291) passes throughthe magic
amulet and becomes "one withJimmy,the good" (p. 290), but
what is evilin Rekh-marafailsto become part ofthis synthesis.
Instead,theevilpartofRekh-maratakes the shape ofa wriggling
centipedethatis promptlycrushed under the footofRobert(one

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906

Monsters
Assyrian

ofthe children).The message is that,howeverineffectual

Jimmy
has been, this Britishscholar ofthe presentis morallysuperior
to an Egyptianpriestofthe past, and a youngBritishmale can
rightlydestroyalien evil. Because the childrengive the finally
whole amulet to Jimmy,and he, in turn,eventuallydonates it
to the BritishMuseum, it is possible to see, as Eitan Bar-Yosef
has remarked,that the children"operate... as 'agents' of the
The "greatstone bulls" (p. 146) are also part
ImperialArchive."25
ofthisarchive,and theirrolein thistale aboutjourneysintoearlierempiresagain suggeststhe Britishdesire to Anglicizethings
alien and other.
The huge,Assyrianhuman-headedand wingedbull and lion
sculpturesthat arrivedin the BritishMuseum in 1850 were objects ofawestruckexcitement.As hybrids,theyappealed to the
contemporaryfascinationwith freakishcomposites.As monumentsofa long-vanishedEastern civilizationbroughtto modern
England, theyrepresenteda cross-culturalcollision.The initial
awe was temperedafterthe morepopular ofthese twoAssyrian
types- the bull- became associated with the familiarBritish
image ofJohn Bull, and reproductionsofboth ofthese formsof
monumentalAssyriansculpturewere made readilyavailable to
the public after1854 in the SydenhamNinevehCourt.Later,the
image of the Assyrianbull was tamed furtheras it was parodicallyechoed byTennielin his 1865 depictionofthe MockTurtle
in Alice'sAdventuresin Wonderland.Even later,afterthe turnof
thecentury,thefigureoftheAssyrianbull appears as simplypart
ofa clutterofMesopotamianobjects unsuccessfullyclaimed by
a queen fromancientBabylonwho visitsLondon in Nesbit'sThe
StoryoftheAmulet In these last two cases, the hybridAssyrian
bull entersintotherealmoffantasyand becomes associated with
increasinglybizarre combinations- with the Mock Turtle and
Gryphonas describedby Lewis Carrolland depictedby Tenniel
and withNesbit's and Millar'srepresentationsof a Babylonian
,
queen's incursionintoLondon,the fusionofRekh-mara/
Jimmy
and themultiplecompositionofthe Psammead (a "sand-fairy"
[p.
1]who resemblesa monkey,a spider,and a snail). In thisrealmof
fantasticchildren'sliterature,
theAssyrianbull has lostitsformer
The
colossal
from
anotherculturethatVictorians
potency.
hybrids
ofthe 1850s foundso awesome and disturbingevokedthe sense
of "abjection"that Julia Kristevadescribes as being caused by
"whatdisturbsidentity,system,order."26
As it became absorbed
into domestic Britishthinking,however,and as that thinking
grewincreasinglyhegemonicin the laternineteenthcentury,the

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DeborahA.Thomas

907

less
monumentalAssyrianbull began to seem less extraordinary,
alien, and less unsettling.
NOTES
1AustenHenryLayard,TheNinevehCourtintheCrystalPalace (London:
CrystalPalace Library,1854),p. 11.
2One well-known
literary
responseto Layard'sdiscoveriesis DanteGabrielRossetti's"TheBurdenofNineveh."See Rossetti'sPoems,ed. Oswald
Doughty(London:Dent, 1961),pp. 14-9. For a discussionoftherelationship betweenthe 1856 versionof this poem and allusionsto Ninevehin
"Punchon Nineveh,
Punchbetween1851 and 1856,see AndrewM. Stauffer,
Studies 10 (Spring
Catholics,and the P. R. B," JournalofPre-Raphaelite
2001): 58-69.
3Times(London),9 February1849,p. 5.
4In unearthing
ofsomeelements
confirmation
Nineveh,
Layardprovided
theBibleas simply
inbiblicalstoriesat a timewhenskepticsweredismissing
such as
civilization
the factthata mighty
a collectionoffables.Moreover,
- whichat theheightofitspowerhad dominatedthe
thatofancientAssyria
- could disappearand leave such littletraceforalmost
world
then-known
twoand a halfmillenniacarriedan ominousmessageforGreatBritain.See
DeborahA.Thomas,"Uncovering
Nineveh,"
Archaeology
Odyssey7 (Septem2004): 24-31, 54. In Ninevehand ItsRemains,as "Uncovering
ber/October
theruinsofanidentified
Nineveh"
pointsout(pp.31, 54),Layardmistakenly
- for
otherancientAssyrian
city(Kalhu)- underthemoundknownas Nimrud
Nineveh
north
real
site
of
at the
thoseofNineveh.Layardexcavatedbriefly
- on hisfirst
underthemoundknownas Kuyunjik
ofNimrud,
archaeological
and he eventually
on his secondexpedition,
and moreextensively
expedition
evidenceindicatedKuyunjik
realizedthatgraduallydecipheredcuneiform
his handbookto TheNinevehCourtin
as thelocationofNineveh.However,
theCrystalPalace,as wellas variouseditionsofhis hugelypopularNineveh
Nimrudand Nineveh.
and ItsRemains,persistedin confusing
5Jeffrey
A. Auerbachobservesin TheGreatExhibition
of1851:A Nation
on Displaythat"duringtheVictorianera interestin freakswas at its high
J.C. Young,noting
point"([NewHaven:YaleUniv.Press,1999],p. 187).Robert
recordedbytheOED priorto the
fewuses oftheterm"hybrid"
therelatively
word"
is thenineteenth
declaresthat"'Hybrid'
nineteenth
century's
century,
and Race [London:Routledge,
inTheory,
Culture,
(ColonialDesire:Hybridity
- or
the so-calledpolygenist
1995],p. 6). Youngalso contends,concerning
with
the
"It
was
of
human
increasingvigour
origins:
multispecies theory
was assertedthatled to thepreocwhichtheracialdoctrineofpolygenesis
in themid-nineteenth
(p. 9). GillianBeer
century"
cupationwithhybridity
link'"
whichwas popular
idea
of
'the
that
"the
missing
suggests
provocatively
- had "implications
... forrace and
and laterVictorians
amongmidcentury
class, and sometimesgender"(ForgingtheMissingLink:Interdisciplinary
Stories[Cambridge:
CambridgeUniv.Press, 1992],p. 10). Myessay builds
theVictoofAuerbach,Young,and Beerconcerning
upon theobservations
withfreaksand hybridsand focuseson a specificinstance
rianfascination
ofAssyrian"monsters."
ofthisfascination-thepopularity

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908

AssyrianMonsters

6Auerbach, p. 165. The fullname ofthe eventwas the Great Exhibition

ofthe Worksof IndustryofAll Nations.
7Auerbach, p. 180.
8For
examples of the fear of foreigndiseases or foreigntransgressions
against British cultural norms, see Auerbach, pp. 183-5. For the debate
about what to do withthe CrystalPalace at the end of the 1851 Exhibition,
see Auerbach, pp. 193-5.
9J. R. Piggott,Palace of the People: The Crystal Palace at Sydenham,
1854-1936 (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2004), p. 75; see also p.
78.
10See
Layard's handbook (pp. 11, 26, 43) fordescriptionsof the hybrid
Assyrianbull or lion sculptures as "monsters."
1! In similar fashion,a writerin the British
QuarterlyReview referredto
"the (to us) monstrous formswhich Mr. Layard has disinterred"("Nineveh
and the Bible," rev. of Ninevehand Its Remains, by Austen Henry Layard,
BritishQuarterlyReview 9 [May 1849]: 424). The WellesleyIndex to Victorian
Periodicals 1824-1900, vol. 4 (Toronto:Univ. ofTorontoPress, 1987), p. 133,
identifiesthe author of this reviewas J. R. Beard.
12Qtd.in Gordon Waterfield,Layard ofNineveh(London: John Murray,
1963), pp. 135-6. Waterfielddoes not provide specificarchival information
forthis letter.In the introductionto his biographyofLayard,Waterfieldcites
"the three hundred and fortyvolumes of Layard Papers in the Manuscript
Room ofthe BritishMuseum" (p. 5) as an importantsource. In a statement
heading the notes forthe part of the book containingthis letter,he cites as
sources among the Layard Papers "thelettersfromPaul Botta, fromCharles
Alison, and those exchanged between Sir StratfordCanning and Layard (L.
P. 40637, 38976 to 38980)" (p. 493).
13See
Piggott,p. 111. Layard himselfstated carefully,"The court is not
a complete restorationof any particularAssyrianbuilding"(p. 52).
"
14"A
Clodhopperat the CrystalPalace, Punch27(1 854) : 5 1. This description appears in the contextof a letterby a presumably fictitiousindividual
called "JeacobTrott,"writingto his uncle. Both nephew and uncle, according
to Punch,"are agriculturists"(p. 51)- in otherwords, farmers.
15Ibid.
16Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,ed. Richard
Kelly
(PeterboroughON: Broadview, 2000), p. 126nl. Subsequent citations to
Kelly'sor Lewis Carroll's words are fromthis editionand will appear parentheticallyin the textby page number. IllustrationsfromAlice's Adventures
in Wonderlandare reproduced fromthe J. B. Lippincotteditionofthis work
(Philadelphia and London, [1923]).
17M. H.
Spielmann, The Historyof "Punch"(London: Cassell and Company, 1895), p. 255. According to Spielmann, John Tenniel told him, "I
have a wonderfulmemoryof observation- not fordates, but anythingI see
I remember"(p. 463).
18
Nancy Armstronghas pointed out that Tenniel gave Alice "a 'salon'
body"- a child's body representativeof "an elite female" ("The Occidental
Alice," differences2, 2 [Summer 1990]: 23, 11, 14). In contrast,according
to Armstrong,Tenniel depicts the hideous Duchess and terrifying
Queen
of Hearts by illustrating"a body that would identifythem with the women

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DeborahA.Thomas

909

Victorian
sciencewas portraying
as sexuallydefective"
(p. 23)- thatis, prosorAsianwomen(p. 9).
ill,and African
titutes,thementally
19As Julia Briggsobserves,Sydenhamwas near EdithNesbit'schildhood home,and a tripto the SydenhamCrystalPalace may have been
outing"(A WomanofPassion:TheLifeoJE.Nesbit,
youngNesbit's"favourite
1858-1924 [London:Hutchinson,1987],p. 8).
20Fora disussionofthepresenceofNesbit'searlychildhoodexperiences
see Briggs,pp. 1-9.
in herwritings,
21Nesbitbecameromantically
involved
withWallisBudgefora timeand
dedicatedTheStoryoftheAmuletto him.See Briggs,pp. 245-9.
22As Waterfield
observes,Budgewas one ofLayard'senemiesnearthe
end ofLayard'slife,and Budgedidwhathe couldto damageLayard'soncereputation(pp. 3-4). FrederickN. Bohrerexplainsthatthe land
towering
situatedbetweentheTigrisand Euphratesrivers"inantiquity. . . was . . .
thesiteofmanyand variedcultures,chiefamongthemtheAssyrianempire
ofsouthern
centeredinnorthern
Mesopotamiaand theBabyloniankingdom
were
The best-known
capitalsofthesetwoancientkingdoms
Mesopotamia.
ThenamesofbothresoundedinWestern
Ninevehand Babylon,respectively.
and VisualCulture:
discourse(andalso blendedtosomeextent)"
[Orientalism
in
Europe
Nineteenth-Century
[Cambridge:
Cambridge
Mesopotamia
Imagining
Univ.Press,2003],p. 49).
23Nesbit,TheStoryoftheAmulet
Books,1996),
(1906;rprt.London:Puffin
are
from
thisedition
the
Amulet
The
to
citations
145.
of
Story
Subsequent
p.
in thetextbypage number.
and willappearparenthetically
24M. DaphneKutzer,
inClassic
andImperialism
Empire
Empire'sChildren:
Books(NewYork:GarlandPublishing,
BritishChildren's
2000), p. 63.
25EitanBar-Yosef,
"E. Nesbitand theFantasyofReverseColonization:
inTransition
46, 1
HowManyMilesto ModernBabylon,"EnglishLiterature
(2003): 13.
26JuliaKristeva,
trans.LeonS.
AnEssay onAbjection,
PowersofHorror:
Roudiez(NewYork:ColumbiaUniv.Press,1982),p. 4.

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