Although best remembered for his creation of the character of Svengali in his novel Trilby, George du Maurier was first and foremost an artist in black and white who delighted readers of Punch for over 30 years with his satirical drawings of upper-class English society. Besides illustrating his own novels, he also illustrated numerous books of the period by such authors as Henry James, Wilkie Collins and William Makepeace Thackeray.