Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes Charlotte, Emily, Anne Brontë (Illustrated) (603 page)

‘C. Brontë.

‘As I was about to seal this I received your kind letter.  Truly glad am I to hear that Fanny is taking the path which pleases her parents.  I trust she may persevere in it.  She may be sure that a contrary one will never lead to happiness; and I
 
should think that the reward of seeing you and her mother pleased must be so sweet that she will be careful not to run the risk of forfeiting it.

‘It is somewhat singular that I had already observed to my sisters, I did not doubt it was Mr. Lewes who had shown you the
Revue
.’

The many other letters referring to Emily’s last illness have already been printed.  When the following letters were written, Emily and Anne were both in their graves.

TO JAMES TAYLOR, CORNHILL

‘
March
1
st
, 1849.

‘My dear Sir, — The parcel arrived on Saturday evening.  Permit me to express my sense of the judgment and kindness which have dictated the selection of its contents.  They appear to be all good books, and good books are, we know, the best substitute for good society; if circumstances debar me from the latter privilege, the kind attentions of my friends supply me with ample measure of the former.

‘Thank you for your remarks on
Shirley
.  Some of your strictures tally with some by Mr. Williams.  You both complain of the want of distinctness and impressiveness in my heroes.  Probably you are right.  In delineating male character I labour under disadvantages: intuition and theory will not always adequately supply the place of observation and experience.  When I write about women I am sure of my ground — in the other case, I am not so sure.

‘Here, then, each of you has laid the critical finger on a point that by its shrinking confesses its vulnerability; whether the disapprobation you intimate respecting the Briarchapel scenes, the curates, etc., be equally merited, time will show.  I am well aware what will be the author’s present meed for these passages: I anticipate general blame and no praise.  And were my motive-principle in writing a thirst for popularity, or were the chief check on my pen a dread of censure, I should
 
withdraw these scenes — or rather, I should never have written them.  I will not say whether the considerations that really govern me are sound, or whether my convictions are just; but such as they are, to their influence I must yield submission.  They forbid me to sacrifice truth to the fear of blame.  I accept their prohibition.

‘With the sincere expression of my esteem for the candour by which your critique is distinguished, — I am, my dear sir, yours sincerely,

‘C. Brontë.’

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘
August
16
th
, 1849.

‘My dear Sir, — Since I last wrote to you I have been getting on with my book as well as I can, and I think I may now venture to say that in a few weeks I hope to have the pleasure of placing the MS. in the hands of Mr. Smith.

‘The
North British Review
duly reached me.  I read attentively all it says about
E. Wyndham
,
Jane Eyre
, and
F. Hervey
.  Much of the article is clever, and yet there are remarks which — for me — rob it of importance.

‘To value praise or stand in awe of blame we must respect the source whence the praise and blame proceed, and I do not respect an inconsistent critic.  He says, “if
Jane Eyre
be the production of a woman, she must be a woman unsexed.”

‘In that case the book is an unredeemed error and should be unreservedly condemned. 
Jane Eyre
is a woman’s autobiography, by a woman it is professedly written.  If it is written as no woman would write, condemn it with spirit and decision — say it is bad, but do not eulogise and then detract.  I am reminded of the
Economist
.  The literary critic of that paper praised the book if written by a man, and pronounced it “odious” if the work of a woman.

‘To such critics I would say, “To you I am neither man nor woman — I come before you as an author only.  It is the sole standard by which you have a right to judge me — the sole ground on which I accept your judgment.”

‘There is a weak comment, having no pretence either to justice
 
or discrimination, on the works of Ellis and Acton Bell.  The critic did not know that those writers had passed from time and life.  I have read no review since either of my sisters died which I could have wished
them
to read — none even which did not render the thought of their departure more tolerable to me.  To hear myself praised beyond them was cruel, to hear qualities ascribed to them so strangely the reverse of their real characteristics was scarce supportable.  It is sad even now; but they are so remote from earth, so safe from its turmoils, I can bear it better.

‘But on one point do I now feel vulnerable: I should grieve to see my father’s peace of mind perturbed on my account; for which reason I keep my author’s existence as much as possible out of his way.  I have always given him a carefully diluted and modified account of the success of
Jane Eyre
— just what would please without startling him.  The book is not mentioned between us once a month.  The
Quarterly
I kept to myself — it would have worried papa.  To that same
Quarterly
I must speak in the introduction to my present work — just one little word.  You once, I remember, said that review was written by a lady — Miss Rigby.  Are you sure of this?

‘Give no hint of my intention of discoursing a little with the
Quarterly
.  It would look too important to speak of it beforehand.  All plans are best conceived and executed without noise. — Believe me, yours sincerely,

‘C. B.’

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘
August
21
st
, 1849.

‘My dear Sir, — I can only write very briefly at present — first to thank you for your interesting letter and the graphic description it contained of the neighbourhood where you have been staying, and then to decide about the title of the book.

‘If I remember rightly, my Cornhill critics objected to
Hollow’s Mill
, nor do I now find it appropriate.  It might rather be called
Fieldhead
, though I think
Shirley
would perhaps
 
be the best title.  Shirley, I fancy, has turned out the most prominent and peculiar character in the work.

‘Cornhill may decide between
Fieldhead
and
Shirley
. — Believe me, yours sincerely,

‘C. Brontë.’

The famous
Quarterly Review
article by Miss Rigby, afterwards Lady Eastlake,
  
appeared in December 1848, under the title of ‘
Vanity Fair
,
Jane Eyre
, and Governesses.’  It was a review of two novels and a treatise on schools, and but for one or two offensive passages might have been pronounced fairly complimentary.  To have coupled
Jane Eyre
with Thackeray’s great book, at a time when Thackeray had already reached to heroic proportions in the literary world, was in itself a compliment.  It is small wonder that the speculation was hazarded that J. G. Lockhart, the editor of the
Quarterly
, had himself supplied the venom.  He could display it on occasion.  It is quite clear now, however, that that was not the case.  Miss Rigby was the reviewer who thought it within a critic’s province to suggest that the writer might be a woman ‘who had forfeited the society of her sex.’  Lockhart must have read the review hastily, as editors will on occasion.  He writes to his contributor on November 13, 1848, before the article had appeared: —

‘About three years ago I received a small volume of ‘Poems by Currer, Acton, and Ellis Bell,’ and a queer little note by Currer, who said the book had been published a year, and just two copies sold, so they were to burn the rest, but distributed a few copies, mine being one.  I find what seems rather a fair review of that tiny tome in the
Spectator
of this week; pray look at it.

‘I think the poems of Currer much better than those of Acton and Ellis, and believe his novel is vastly better than those which they have more recently put forth.

 
‘I know nothing of the writers, but the common rumour is that they are brothers of the weaving order in some Lancashire town.  At first it was generally said Currer was a lady, and Mayfair circumstantialised by making her the
chère amie
of Mr. Thackeray.  But your skill in “dress” settles the question of sex.  I think, however, some woman must have assisted in the school scenes of
Jane Eyre
, which have a striking air of truthfulness to me — an ignoramus, I allow, on such points.

‘I should say you might as well glance at the novels by Acton and Ellis Bell —
Wuthering Heights
is one of them.  If you have any friend about Manchester, it would, I suppose, be easy to learn accurately as to the position of these men.’ 
 

This was written in November, and it was not till December that the article appeared.  Apart from the offensive imputations upon the morals of the author of
Jane Eyre
, which reduces itself to smart impertinence when it is understood that Miss Rigby fully believed that the author was a man, the review is not without its compensations for a new writer.  The ‘equal popularity’ of
Jane Eyre
and
Vanity Fair
is referred to.  ‘A very remarkable book,’ the reviewer continues; ‘we have no remembrance of another containing such undoubted power with such horrid taste.’  There is droll irony, when Charlotte Brontë’s strong conservative sentiments and church environment are considered, in the following: —

‘We do not hesitate to say that the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority, and violated every code, human and divine, abroad, and fostered chartism and rebellion at home, is the same which has also written
Jane Eyre
.’

In another passage Miss Rigby, musing upon the
 
masculinity of the author, finally clinches her arguments by proofs of a kind.

‘No woman
trusses game
, and garnishes dessert dishes with the same hands, or talks of so doing in the same breath.  Above all, no woman attires another in such fancy dresses as Jane’s ladies assume.  Miss Ingram coming down irresistible in a
morning
robe of sky-blue crape, a gauze azure scarf twisted in her hair!!  No lady, we understand, when suddenly roused in the night, would think of hurrying on “a frock.”  They have garments more convenient for such occasions, and more becoming too.’

Wuthering Heights
is described as ‘too odiously and abominably pagan to be palatable to the most vitiated class of English readers.’  This no doubt was Miss Rigby’s interpolation in the proofs in reply to her editor’s suggestion that she should ‘glance at the novels by Acton and Ellis Bell.’  It is a little difficult to understand the
Quarterly
editor’s method, or, indeed, the letter to Miss Rigby which I have quoted, as he had formed a very different estimate of the book many months before.  ‘I have finished the adventures of Miss Jane Eyre,’ he writes to Mrs. Hope (Dec. 29th, 1847), ‘and think her far the cleverest that has written since Austen and Edgeworth were in their prime, worth fifty Trollopes and Martineaus rolled into one counterpane, with fifty Dickenses and Bulwers to keep them company — but rather a brazen Miss.’
 

When the
Quarterly Review
appeared, Charlotte Brontë, as we have seen, was in dire domestic distress, and it was not till many months later, when a new edition of
Jane Eyre
was projected, that she discussed with her publishers the desirability of an effective reply, which was not however to disclose her sex and environment.  A first preface called
 
‘A Word to the
Quarterly
’ was cancelled, and after some debate, the preface which we now have took its place.  The ‘book’ is of course
Shirley
.

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘
August
29
th
, 1849.

‘Dear Sir, — The book is now finished (thank God) and ready for Mr. Taylor, but I have not yet heard from him.  I thought I should be able to tell whether it was equal to
Jane Eyre
or not, but I find I cannot — it may be better, it may be worse.  I shall be curious to hear your opinion, my own is of no value.  I send the Preface or “Word to the
Quarterly
” for your perusal.