#armadale

samhain, 30 april 2026

armadale, western australia

JOMP Book Photo Challenge - June - 09/06/25 - Favourite Character Archetype

The femme fatale has always captivated me - there’s something endlessly fascinating about this archetype, and honestly, she’s hands down the character type I love exploring most in literature.

Take Carmilla, for example. She’s one of the most notorious and compelling femmes fatales of Victorian Gothic fiction. A vampire who blurs the lines between predator and seductress, Carmilla embodies a haunting, otherworldly allure that’s as dangerous as it is seductive. She sits alongside other unforgettable Victorian femmes fatales like Rebecca Sharp from Vanity Fair, whose ruthless ambition and sharp wit cut through the hypocrisy of high society; Lydia Gwilt from Wilkie Collins’s Armadale, a master manipulator with a dark past; and of course, Lady Audley, whose secret identity and chilling duplicity make her one of the most famous characters in sensation fiction.

I guess what draws me the most to these women is how they expose the tensions beneath Victorian society’s polished exterior - how they wield their intelligence, charm, and often times deceit to seize control and subvert patriarchal power dynamics. They’re all products of their time and a rebellion against it, making them endlessly fascinating figures to dissect and re-imagine.

This is a book that places its emphasis not on loud people who laugh and speak loudly, but on the fears of the careful ones, of those always trying to stay one step ahead of life and its blows (and characters in whom I, as a woman, find myself immeasurably reflected), characters struggling with their conscience, with their darkness, characters who look at the light with doubt and suspicion.

Lydia Gwilt’s heart is wounded and bruised, yet it has managed to survive the storms of life, even in ways that might be described as inhuman or cruel. But deep down, does she possess an immense capacity for love? She is not shallow, she is not foolish, and this is perhaps her greatest flaw in life: she cannot deceive herself the way others do.

Ozias Midwinter believes that everything is predestined, and that fate often turns itself against human beings (and how could he think otherwise, after all the blows in his life and the inhuman treatment he received from nearly everyone around him?).

Allan Armadale is cheerful and carefree, constantly cast in the role of someone whose innocence must be protected.

Armadale teaches everything that has been forgotten today, in a world that believes in karma and in the morality of the universe. It reminds the fortunate that things are not as simple as they seem. It is a novel that tries to explain - and make you as a reader understand - that the same judgment cannot be applied to everyone, that a person’s circumstances and life matter, that the individual path is what truly determines everything.

One of my dearest novels for many years now. Below are some portraits of Lydia I made thru the years.

Armadale by Wilkie Collins (1864-6)

hello!

I’m hoping you guys could help me? I’ll be at the Armadale Markets tomorrow in Western Australia (so this is mostly for those who are from here!) if you guys know anyone that would love to look at my designs or grab some Christmas presents! please share!

I’ll be there from 8am to 1pm! check out my Facebook page for my designs!