'Raffles started up and stared round him in terror'

Grayscale illustration of a man with a candle standing over a man startling awake in a bed.

The illustration depicts the banker Nicholas Bulstrode standing over the dying blackmailer John Raffles, capturing the exact moment Raffles wakes in terror before Bulstrode willfully neglects his medical care. This scene is significant because it marks the novel's moral climax, where Bulstrode's religious hypocrisy transforms into a "providential" crime, ultimately leading to the public scandal that unravels the lives of the Middlemarch elite. "He had watched for a couple of minutes or more the shudderings and pantings which seemed likely to end in waking, when Raffles, with a long half-stifled moan, started up and stared round him in terror, trembling and gasping" (Book 7, Chapter 68).

Brock, Charles E. (1870-1938)

George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org

1908

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Brock, Charles E. (1870-1938), 'Raffles started up and stared round him in terror', George Eliot Illustrations Gallery, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/83488