Coming Home
Title
Coming Home
Alt Text Description
Grayscale illustration of a woman waiting for the arrival of a cloaked figure on a set of stairs. She leans her elbow high on the wall, face solemn.
Description
After waiting for hours at the top of the stone steps, Romola leans from the doorway as Tito finally returns home late from Florence’s festivities, his delay intensifying her anxiety. When he arrives distant and guarded, wearing chain armor and absorbed in his own fears rather than her concern or faith, the moment exposes the deepening emotional divide and mistrust in their marriage.
“She waited and listened long, for Tito had not come straight home after leaving Niccolo Caparra, and it was more than two hours after the time when he was crossing the Ponte Rubaconte that Romola heard the great door of the court turning on its hinges, and hastened to the head of the stone steps" ("The Young Wife", Chapter 27).
“She waited and listened long, for Tito had not come straight home after leaving Niccolo Caparra, and it was more than two hours after the time when he was crossing the Ponte Rubaconte that Romola heard the great door of the court turning on its hinges, and hastened to the head of the stone steps" ("The Young Wife", Chapter 27).
Illustrator
Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896)
Contributor
Swain, Joseph (1820-1909), engraver
Publisher
George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org
Date
1863, 1880
Rights
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Work Illustrated
Romola
Citation
Leighton, Frederic (1830-1896), Coming Home, 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/83593
Illustration
