'One winter evening I was sitting over the fire engrossed in "Jane Eyre"...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes Print: Book
'[Philip Inman] loved everything by Charlotte Bronte, partly for what she had to say about the class system: "Characters like Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe were humble individuals in the eyes of the world, with only their dogged determination and lack of 'frills' as weapons against the dash and arrogance of those haughty and wealthy rivals among whom their lot was cast". Yet he admired Jane Austen for an equal but opposite reason: "The world of which she wrote, in which elegant gentlemen of fortune courted gentle, punctilliously correct ladies in refined drawing rooms, was a remote fairy-tale country to me. Some day, I thought, perhaps I would get to know a world in which voices were always soft and modulated and in which lively and witty conversation was more important than 'brass'."'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book
'[Philip Inman] loved everything by Charlotte Bronte, partly for what she had to say about the class system: "Characters like Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe were humble individuals in the eyes of the world, with only their dogged determination and lack of 'frills' as weapons against the dash and arrogance of those haughty and wealthy rivals among whom their lot was cast". Yet he admired Jane Austen for an equal but opposite reason: "The world of which she wrote, in which elegant gentlemen of fortune courted gentle, punctilliously correct ladies in refined drawing rooms, was a remote fairy-tale country to me. Some day, I thought, perhaps I would get to know a world in which voices were always soft and modulated and in which lively and witty conversation was more important than 'brass'."'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book
'By age fourteen Durham collier Jack Lawson would find... emancipation at the Boldon Miners' Institute... "And didn't I follow the literary trail, once I found it. Like a Fenimore Cooper Indian I was tireless and silent once I started. Scott; Charles Reade, George Eliot; the Brontes; later on Hardy; Hugo; Dumas and scores of others. Then came Shakespeare; the Bible; Milton and the line of poets generally. I was hardly sixteen when I picked up James Thomson's Seasons, in Stead's 'Penny Poets'... I wept for the shepherd who died in the snow".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Jack Lawson Print: Book
[Alice Foley] read some Morris and less Marx, but for her a liberal education for the proletariat was not merely a means of achieving socialism: it was socialism in fact. At night school she staged a personal revolution by writing a paper on Romeo and Juliet and thriling to the "new romantic world" of Jane Eyre. She joined a Socialist Sunday School where 'Hiawatha' was recited for its "prophetic idealism", and a foundry hammerman intoned Keats's 'Eve of St Agnes and 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alice Foley Print: Book
'During these early years [Daphne du Maurier] filled her head with tales of adventure, romances, histories and popular novels, including such books as Treasure Island, The Snow Queen, The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Old St Paul's, The Tower of London, Nicholas Nickleby, Mr Midshipman Easy, Bleak House, Robinson Crusoe, The Mill on the Floss, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Grey(sic), Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. The seeds of her own novels were planted during these intensive, sometimes acted-out, reading sessions. The fascination with the sea, the importance of an historical sense of place, the theme of the dual personality, are all reflected in her reading during these formative years'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Daphne du Maurier Print: Book
"Robert Blatchford, growing up in Halifax in the 1860s, read from the penny library there Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Southey's Life of Nelson, Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, and novels by Captain Marryat, the Brontes, and Miss M. E. Braddon."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Blatchford Print: Book
'Both ... [Elizabeth and Alice Thompson] were reading voraciously at that time [1854-57]. Their father, by reading "Jane Eyre" aloud to them (with omissions), had given them a fervent love for Charlotte Bronte ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Thompson Print: Book
"It is very like Shirley except that there is no heather & the people are all of them of the Yorkshire kind as described by the Brontes."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
"I think, for example, that Shirley is very superior to Dorothea Brooke. She has far more character & power, though she does not have such a young lady like admiration for Greek & Hebrew scholarship."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
'The hero seems to me superior to the Rochester or the Louis Moore type, who are all rather lay-figures. Nor do I admire the sister?s work [Wuthering Heights] so much as you do. I see in it more violence than real strength & more rant than genuine passion. However all this is a matter of taste. I will remark, by the way, that I think there is some excuse for the charge of coarseness, as, e.g., the scene where Jane Eyre is half inclined to go to Rochester?s bedroom. I don?t mean coarseness in the sense of prurience; for I fully agree that Miss Bronte writes as a thoroughly pureminded woman; but she is more close to the physical side of passion than young ladies are expected to be?There is also some coarseness in the artistic sense in Jane Eyre. The mad wife is I fancy, unnecessarily bestial? I don?t think justice is generally done to C Bronte now & I shall be glad for that reason to insert your eloquent article.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
'I prefer Villette to Shirley, on the whole.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
'I prefer Villette to Shirley, on the whole.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Charles Cuthbert Southey, 26 August 1850, regarding possible publication of letters between herself and Robert Southey: 'I have now read them and feel that -- truly wise and kind as they are -- they ought to be published ...'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Manuscript: Letter
'[Helen Crawfurd] derived lessons in socialism and feminism from Carlyle, Shaw, Wells, Galsworthy, Arnold Bennett, Ibsen's Ghosts and A Doll's House, Dickens, Disraeli's Sybil, Mary Barton, Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Under the Greenwood Tree, Tennyson's The Princess, Longfellow, Whitman, Burns, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, George SAnd, the Brontes, Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Crawfurd Print: Book
George Smith, A Memoir (London, 1902): 'The MS. of "Jane Eyre" was read by Mr Wiliams ... he brought it to me on a Saturday, and said that he would like me to read it ... after breakfast on Sunday morning I took the MS. of "Jane Eyre" to my little study, and began to read it. The story quickly took me captive. Before twelve o'clock my horse came to the door, but I could not put the book down ... Presently the servant came to tell me that luncheon was ready; I asked him to bring me a sandwich and a glass of wine, and still went on with "Jane Eyre" ... before I went to bed that night I had finsihed reading the manuscript.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Williams Manuscript: Unknown
George Smith, A Memoir (London, 1902): 'The MS. of "Jane Eyre" was read by Mr Wiliams ... he brought it to me on a Saturday, and said that he would like me to read it ... after breakfast on Sunday morning I took the MS. of "Jane Eyre" to my little study, and began to read it. The story quickly took me captive. Before twelve o'clock my horse came to the door, but I could not put the book down ... Presently the servant came to tell me that luncheon was ready; I asked him to being me a sandwich and a glass of wine, and still went on with "Jane Eyre" ... before I went to bed that night I had finsihed reading the manuscript.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Murray Smith Manuscript: Unknown
W. M. Thackeray to William Smith Williams, 23 October 1847: 'I wish you had not sent me "Jane Eyre." It interested me so much that I have lost (or won if you like) a whole day in reading it ... Some of the love passages made me cry, to the astonishment of John who came in with the coals ... Give my respect and thanks to the author, whose novel is the first English one (and the French are only romances now) that I've been able to read for many a day.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Makepeace Thackeray Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 14 December 1847: 'A few days since I looked over "The Professor." I found the beginning very feeble, the whole narrative deficient in incident and in general attractiveness; yet the middle and latter portion of the work ... is as good as I can write ...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Manuscript: Unknown
Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 18 December 1847: '"The Observer" has just reached me ... I always compel myself to read the Analysis [of her work] in every newspaper-notice.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Newspaper
J. G. Lockhart to a friend, 29 December 1847: 'I have finished the adventures of Miss Jane Eyre, and think her far the cleverest that was written since Austen and Edgeworth were in their prime.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Gibson Lockhart Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 4 January 1848: '"Jane Eyre" has got down into Yorkshire; a copy has even penetrated into this neighbourhood: I saw an elderly clergyman reading it the other day, and had the satisfaction of hearing him exclaim "Why -- they have got ---- school, and Mr ---- here, I declare! and Miss ----" (naming the original of Lowood, Mr Brocklehurst and Miss Temple) ...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
Mary Taylor to Charlotte Bronte, 24 July 1848: 'About a month since I received and read "Jane Eyre".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Taylor Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Ellen Nussey, 19 January 1850: 'Mr Nicholls having finished "Jane Eyre" is now crying out for the 'other book' [Shirley] ...'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Bell Nicholls Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Ellen Nussey, 28 January 1850: 'Mr Nicholls has finished reading "Shirley" he is delighted with it -- John Brown's wife seriously thought he had gone wrong in the head as she heard him giving vent to roars of laughter as he sat alone -- clapping his hands and stamping on the floor.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Bell Nicholls Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Ellen Nussey, 28 January 1850: 'Mr Nicholls has finished reading "Shirley" he is delighted with it -- John Brown's wife seriously thought he had gone wrong in the head as she heard him giving vent to roars of laughter as he sat alone -- clapping his hands and stamping on the floor. He would read all the scenes about the curates aloud to papa ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Bell Nicholls Print: Book
Mary Taylor to Charlotte Bronte, c.29 April 1850: 'I have seen some extracts from "Shirley" in which you talk of women working.'
Unknown
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Taylor
Mary Taylor to Charlotte Bronte, 13 August 1850: 'On Wednesday I began "Shirley" and continued in a curious confusion of mind till now ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Taylor Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte Nicholls to Ellen Nussey, 20 October 1854: "Arthur has just been glancing over this note -- He thinks I have written too freely ..."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Bell Nicholls Manuscript: Letter
[Communist activists often displayed hostility to literature, including Willie Gallacher. However his 'hostility to literature abated' in later years and in his later memoirs] 'he confessed a liking for Burns, Scott, the Brontes, Mrs Gaskell, children's comics and Olivier's film of Hamlet... Of course he admired Dickens, and not only the obvious Oliver Twist: the communist MP was prepared to admit that he appreciated the satire of the Circumlocution Office in Little Dorrit'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Gallacher Print: Book
" ... in the early 1870s, the ten-year-old Annabel Huth Jackson 'was terribly frightened by the episode of the mad woman tearing the wedding veil' in Jane Eyre, although the incidence of this incident alone was doubtless insufficient to explain Jackson's mother's horror when she learnt her daughter had read the book."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Annabel Huth Jackson Print: Book
'[Alice] Foley continued her education by attending night school after going to work full-time in the mill when she was thirteen. She remembers choosing "Jane Eyre" as a prize, attracted by its strange name: "I read the book avidly for it was an enchanting experience in a new romantic world ..."'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alice Foley Print: Book
'Growing up in Clapton during the Depression, Michael Stapleton needed a signature from his father (an Irish navvy) for a public library card, "but I asked him on the wrong evening and he merely shouted at me... So I... started examining every book in the house, ransacking forgotten cupboards and the hole under the stairs. I read everything I could understand, and begged twopenny bloods quite shamelessly from the boys at school who were fortunate enough to enjoy such things. I absorbed an immense amount of useless information, but occasionally a treasure came my way and I would strain my eyes under the twenty-watt bulb which lighted our kitchen. A month-old copy of the 'Wizard' would be succeeded by a handbook for vegetarians, and this in turn would be followed by 'Jane Eyre'. 'Tarzan and the Jewels of Ophir' was no sooner finished than I was deep in volumes three and four of a history of 'The Conquest of Peru' (the rest of the set was missing). I would go from that to 'Rip van Winkle' and straight on to a tattered copy of the Hotspur".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Michael Stapleton Print: Book
'James Williams admitted that, growing up in rural Wales, "I'd read anything rather than not read at all. I read a great deal of rubbish, and books that were too 'old', or too 'young' for me". He consumed the Gem, Magnet and Sexton Blake as well as the standard boys' authors (Henty, Ballantyne, Marryat, Fenimore Cooper, Twain) but also Dickens, Scott, Trollope, the Brontes, George Eliot, even Prescott's "The Conquest of Peru" and "The Conquest of Mexico". He picked "The Canterbury Tales" out of an odd pile of used books for sale, gradually puzzled out the Middle English, and eventually adopted Chaucer as his favourite poet'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Williams Print: Book
[imaginative role play] 'One chauffeur's daughter alternated effortlessly between heroes and heroines: "I have plotted against pirates along with Jim Hawkins and I have trembled with Jane Eyre as the first Mrs Rochester rent her bridal veil in maddened jealousy. I have been shipwrecked with Masterman Ready and on Pitcairn Island with Fletcher Christian. I have been a medieval page in Sir Nigel and Lorna Doone madly in love with 'girt Jan Ridd'".
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Wharton Print: Book
'Marjory Todd read [the books of Hesba Stretton, Mrs O.F. Walton and Amy le Feuvre but felt later that] "I would not now willingly expose a child of mine to the morbid resignation of any of these books... yet I think that children, when their home life is secure and happy, can take a lot of that debilitating sentiment... We sharpened our teeth on this stuff and then went on to greater satisfaction elsewhere", including "Pride and Prejudice", "Jane Eyre", "Alice in Wonderland", Captain Marryat, Kenneth Grahame, and E. Nesbit'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Marjory Todd Print: Book
[L.M. Montgomery] 'read a great deal; she mentions fifty different authors in her journal which covers the years 1910 to 1921. Titles range from Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" to Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit" and Thackeray's "Vanity Fair". She also read many female writers, such as George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Edith Wharton and Olive Schreiner'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Lucy Maud Montgomery Print: Book
'Am reading "Jane Eyre" and adore it.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book
'Today I finished "Wuthering Heights" and began "Villette". I must try and get a set of the Bronte books as soon as I can - they are most refreshing and not a bit old fashioned as they ought to be.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book
'Finished "Villette", and went fast asleep on couch.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book
[List of books read in 1945]:
'For Whom the Bell Tolls; Henry Brocken; Doctor Faustus; Life of the Bee; The Screwtape Letters; Modern Short Stories; Letters of People in Love; Men and Women; The Headmistress; The People's Government; The Art of Writing; Speech and Sound; Background to the Life of Christ; The House of Prayer; Eleanor in the Fifth; Adventures of Jig and Co; Rendezvous with Fear; Antony and Cleopatra; Hamlet; The Poetry of James Elroy Flecker; Escape; Hangman's Holiday; The Body Behind the Bar; Strong Poison; The Critic; Magic Lantern; Listening Valley; Emma; Dragon Seed; Crowthers of Bankdam; The Rat Trap; The Vortex; Fallen Angels; The Spanish House; O the Brave Music; The Light that Failed; Ghosts; The Antiquary; The Knightes Tale; Luria; The Best of Hazlitt; Pericles; The Rivals; Hamlet [again]; Antony and Cleopatra [again]; Knightes Tale [again]; Julius Caesar; Merchant of Venice; The Critic; The Rivals; Cymbeline; Adventures of a Young Soldier in Search of a Better World; The Nine Tailors; The Conquered; The Professor; Peter Abelard; Then They Pulled Down the Blind; The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club; Portrait of a Man with Red Hair; Winnie-the-Pooh; The House at Pooh Corner; Mrs Parkinson; Adele and Co; Frossia; Cluny Brown; Four Gardens; The World is Square; Being Met Together; Best Sporting Stories; Selected stories by Q; And Five were Foolish; Campaspe; Endimion [by Lyly]; Midas; Dr Faustus [again]; Twelfth Night; Mrs Warrent's Proffession [sic]; The Spanish Tragedy; The Jew of Malta; Galathea; Tambourlaine; Sun is my Undoing; By Greta Bridge; Utopia; England, their England; The Art of Poetry; Old Wives Tale; The Reader is Warned; Long, Long Ago; Friar Bacon & Friar Bungay; James IV of Scotland; The Handsome Langleys; The Dog Beneath the Skin; Death Comes for the Archbishop; The Island of Youth; I'll Say She Does; The Forsyte Saga; In Youth is Pleasure; On Forsyte Change; Genesis to Nehemiah.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book
'Can you tell me about "Jane Eyre", - who wrote it? I am told I wrote the 1st vol: and I don't know how to disbelieve it myself, - though I am wholly ignorant of the authorship. I cannot help feeling that the author must know not only my books but myself very well. My own family suppose me in the secret, till I deny it. With much improbability of incident, it is surely a very able book (outside of what I could have done of it) and the way in which the heroine comes out without conceit or egotism is, to me, perfectly wonderful'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
'O! "Esmond"! That book marks its own year in one's life. I never did any justice to Thackeray before; and I cannot now read "Vanity Fair". But the publisher sent me "Esmond"; and I expect to read it as long as I live. "Villette". I suppose you feel with the rest of us ; - that it is marvellously powerful, but grievously morbid and not a little coarse.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
'When I [Harriet Martineau] read ["Jane Eyre"], I was convinced that it was by some friend of my own, who had portions of my childish experience in his or her mind.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
'In various letters to Osborne he mentions having received "Tom Jones" which he did not care for; "Jane Eyre" he thought a "wonderful book"; in a volume titled "British Dramatists" he thought Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" "the best by head and shoulders"; Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship" he admired "exceedingly" (he proceeded to write an essay of twenty-six notepaper pages on Carlyle); of Thackeray's "Henry Esmond" he told Osborne that he thought it a "great book", though he disliked its "overelaboration": "perhaps you may say it is merely an additional grace - but I think it stands rather in the way of true eloquence and geninely forceful tragedy, not that I deny there is both eloquence and tragedy in 'Esmond', but I think there might have been more and grander but for that elaborateness".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Symons Print: Book
'As I began to mend, the Governor, to keep me from brooding too much, gave orders that I was to have all the reading matter I wanted within the limits of the prison library, and my book changed just as often as I liked and at any hour of the day. To a man eager to improve his acquaintance with standard literature such a privilege was immeasurably great, and for the next six weeks or so I browsed among the Victorian novelists - Austin [sic?], the Brontes, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Meredith, Lytton, Kingsley, Reade, Hughes, Trollope and others.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Stuart Wood [pseud?] Print: Book
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 'Tuesday Evening, 9th June [1857]':
'I have just finished Mrs. Gaskell's [italics]Life of Miss Bronte[end italics]. Years ago, when [italics]Jane Eyre[end italics] came out I read it. People said it was coarse, and I felt it was, but I felt also that the person who wrote it was not necessarily coarse-minded, that the moral of the story was intended to be good; but that it failed in detail. The life is intensely, painfully interesting. A purer, more high-minded person it seems there could scarcely be, wonderfully gifted, and with a man's energy and power of will and passionate impulse; and yet gentle and womanly in all her ways [goes on to reflect upon Bronte's depressive temperament, and to characterise her religious feeling as 'abstract belief not personal love']'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
'Read 'Jane Eyre', it is an uncommon book. I don't know if I like or dislike it. I take the opposite side to the person I'm talking with always in order to hear some convincing arguments to clear up my opinions. Tell me what Crix thinks - everybody's opinions'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'Do you know Dr Epps - I think you do - ask him to tell you who wrote Jane Eyre and Shirley,- <...> Do tell me who wrote Jane Eyre'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'she said to H M, 'What did you really think of "Jane Eyre"?' H M. I thought it a first rate book, whereupon the little spirite went red all over with pleasure.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
'I think I told you that I disliked a good deal in the plot of Shirley, but the expression of her own thoughts in it is so true and brave, that I greatly admire her.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
[Gaskell relates how Charlotte Bronte presented her father with 'Jane Eyre'] ''May I read you some reviews.' So she read them; and then she asked him if he would read the book. He said she might leave it, and he would see. But he sent them an invitation to tea that night, and towards the end of tea he said, 'Children, Charlotte has been writing a book - and I think it is a better one than I expected.''
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Patrick Bronte Print: Book
'The difference between Miss Bronte and me is that she puts all her naughtiness into her books, and I put all my goodness. I am sure that she works off a great deal that is morbid [italics] into [end italics] her writing, and [italics] out [end italics] of her life; and my books are so far better than I am that I often feel ashamed of having written them and as if I were a hypocrite. However I was not going to write of myself but of Villette. I don't agree with you that {it is} one cannot forget that it is a 'written book'. My interpretation of it is this. I believe it to be a very correct account of one part of her life; which is very vivid & distinct in her remembrance, with all the feelings that were called out at that period, forcibly present in her mind whenever she recurs to the recollection of it. I imagine she [italics] could [end italics] not describe it {with} in the manner in which she would pass through it [italics] now [end italics], as her present self; but in looking back upon it all the passions & suffering, & deep despondency of that old time come back upon her. Some of this notion of mine is founded entirely on imagination; but some of it rests on the fact that many times over I recognized incidents of which she had told me as connected with that visit to Brussels. Whatever truth there may be in this conjecture of mine there can be no doubt that the book is wonderfully clever; that it reveals depths in her mind, aye and in her [italics] heart [end italics] too which I doubt if ever any one has fathomed.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'The difference between Miss Bronte and me is that she puts all her naughtiness into her books, and I put all my goodness. I am sure that she works off a great deal that is morbid [italics] into [end italics] her writing, and [italics] out [end italics] of her life; and my books are so far better than I am that I often feel ashamed of having written them and as if I were a hypocrite. However I was not going to write of myself but of Villette. I don't agree with you that {it is} one cannot forget that it is a 'written book'. My interpretation of it is this. I believe it to be a very correct account of one part of her life; which is very vivid & distinct in her remembrance, with all the feelings that were called out at that period, forcibly present in her mind whenever she recurs to the recollection of it. I imagine she [italics] could [end italics] not describe it {with} in the manner in which she would pass through it [italics] now [end italics], as her present self; but in looking back upon it all the passions & suffering, & deep despondency of that old time come back upon her. Some of this notion of mine is founded entirely on imagination; but some of it rests on the fact that many times over I recognized incidents of which she had told me as connected with that visit to Brussels. Whatever truth there may be in this conjecture of mine there can be no doubt that the book is wonderfully clever; that it reveals depths in her mind, aye and in her [italics] heart [end italics] too which I doubt if ever any one has fathomed.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Kay-Shuttleworth Print: Book
'She [Charlotte Bronte] has had an uncomfortable kind of coolness with Miss Martineau, on account of some [italics] very [end italics] disagreeable remarks Miss M. made on Villette, and this has been preying on Miss Bronte's mind as she says everything does prey on it, in the solitude in which she lives'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
'Mr N. never knew, till long after Shirley was published, that she wrote books; and came in, cold & disapproving one day, to ask her if the report he had heard at Keighley was true &c. Fancy him, an Irish curate, loving her even then, reading that beginning of Shirley!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Arthur Bell Nicholls Print: Book
'I have looked for Mr Macarthey's character in Shirley, and I find it exactly corresponds with what you have told me of Mr Nicholls, & also with what she herself has said to me before now. Yet it shows something fine in him to have been able to appreciate her.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'I have read [italics] once [end italics] over all the letters you so kindly entrusted me with, and I don't think even you, her most cherished friend, could wish the impression on me to be different from what it is, that she was one to study the path of duty well, and, having ascertained what it was right to do, to follow out her idea strictly. They gave me a very beautiful idea of her character'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
'I am extremely obliged to you for the pacquet of Miss Bronte's letters which I found here on my return home, too late for Friday's post for me to acknowledge them. I have read them hastily over and I like the tone of them very much; it is curious how much the spirit in which she writes varies according to the correspondent whom she was addressing, I imagine. I like the series of letters which you have sent better than any other excepting one that I have seen. The subjects too are very interesting; how beautifully she speaks (for instance) of her wanderings on the moor after her sister's death.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
'[Having visited Haworth, Gaskell acquired MSS of 'The Professor', 'Emma'], & by far the most extraordinary of all, a packet about the size of a lady's travelling writing case, full of paper books of different sizes, from the one I enclose upwards to the full 1/2 sheet size, but all in this indescribably fine writing. - Mr Gaskell says they would make more than 50 vols of print, - but they are the wildest & most incoherent things, as far as we have examined them, [italics] all [end italics] purporting to be written, or addressed to some member of the Wellesley family. They give one the idea of creative power carried to the verge of insanity. Just lately Mr M Milnes gave me some MS. of Blake's, the painters to read, - & the two MSS (his & C.B.'s) are curiously alike. But what I want to know is if a photograph could be taken to give some idea of the finness of the writing'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: books
'I have read the Professor, - I don't see the objections to its publication that I apprehended, - or at least only such, as the omissions of three or four short ppassages not altogether amounting to a page, - would do away with. I don't agree with Sir James that 'the publication of this book would add to her literary fame' - I think it inferior to all her published works - but I think it a very curious link in her literary history, as showing the [italics] promise [end italics] of much that was afterwards realized.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
'I dreaded lest the Prof: should involve anything with M. Heger - I had heard her say it related to her Brussels life, - & I thought if he were again brought before the public, what would he think of me? [Gaskell goes on to say that her fears were not fulfilled] so on that ground there would be no objection to publishing it. I don't think it will add to her reputation, - the interest will arise from its being the work of so remarkable a mind. It is an autobiography of a man the English Professor at a Brussels school, - there are one or two remarkable portraits - the most charming woman she ever drew, and a glimpse of that woman as a mother - very lovely; otherwise little or no story; & disfigured by more coarseness - & profanity in quoting texts of Scripture disagreeably than in any of her other works.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Unknown
'The Professor is curious as indicating strong character & rare faculties on the part of the author; but not interesting as a story. And yet there are parts one would not lose - a lovely female character - & glimpses of home & family life in the latter portion of the tale. - But oh! I wish Mr Nicholls wd have altered more!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
'I am afraid I never told you that I did not mind your reading Jane Eyre'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Marianne Gaskell Print: Book
'From what I can judge from the letters Mr Nicholls has entrusted me with, her [Charlotte Bronte's] very earliest way of expressing herself must have been different to common'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: NewspaperManuscript: Letter
'The letters Mr Smith does send principally relate to the other Bronte's transactions with Newby, or else they are (very clever) criticism on Thackeray, man and writings.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
'She has also received a packet of letters from Mr Williams (another London publisher, I believe), which she says are almost more beautiful than any others of Miss Bronte's that she has seen.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Manuscript: Letter
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella Moulton-Barrett, 12 March 1850:
'Robert is reading "the Caxtons" & is much pleased with the book. [italics]I[end italics] am reading "Shirley", and am interested -- only it does not seem to me equally suggestive of power (so far) with Jane Eyre.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Anna Brownell Jameson, 2 April 1850:
'I have read Shirley lately: it is not equal to Jane Eyre in spontaneousness & earnestness: I found it heavy, I confess, though in [...] the compositional savoir faire, there is an advance. Robert has exhumed some French books, just now, from a little circulating li[brary] which we had not tried -- and we have just been making ourselves uncomfortable over Balzac's "Cousin Pons". But what a wonderful writer he is! Who could have taken such a subject, out of the lowest mud of humaity, & glorified & consecrated it?'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
'[letter from M. Jusserand to Mrs Ward] 'I spent yesternight a most charming evening reading your essay [on the Brontes]. Shall I confess that I feel with Kingsley, having had a similar experience. I could never go beyond the terrible beginning of "Shirley" - and yet I tried and did my best, and the book remains unread, and I the more sorry as my copy does not belong to me, but to Lady Jerseyu, who charged me to return it when I had finished reading. I really tried earnestly: I took the volume with me on several occasions; it has seen, I am sure, as many lands as wise Ulysses, having crossed the Mediterranean more than once and visited Assuan. But there it is, and I see from my writing-table its threatening green cloth and awful back, with plenty of repulsive persons within. And yet I [italics] can [end italics] read. I have read with delight and unflagging interest Vol. I in-folio of the Rolls of Parliament, without missing a line. "Shirley", I cannot'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: M. Jusserand Print: Book
Transcript of interview: 'And another one that I loved was when I had mumps and was in the san which had a very small library and I read Still She Wished for Company which was a ghost story. And I had a soft spot for Harrison Ainsworth, who wrote historical novels about the plague, and the fire of London and so forth. I had a strong sense of the macabre. I loved Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights which I read when I was 15/16 and I was very interested in books on medical discoveries, medical research and so on.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book
[W. M. Thackeray to W. S. Williams, 23 October 1847:]
'I wish you had not sent me Jane Eyre. It interested me so much that I have lost (or won if you like) a whole day in reading it at the busiest period with the printers I know wailing for copy. Who the author can be I can't guess, if a woman she knows her language better than most ladies do, or has had a "classical" education. It is a fine book though, the man and woman capital, the style very generous and upright so to speak. I thought it was Kinglake for some time. The plot of the story is one with wh. I am familiar. Some of the love passages made me cry, to the astonishment of John, who came in with the coals. St John the missionary is a failure I think but a good failure, there are parts excellent [...] I have been exceedingly moved and pleased by Jane Eyre. It is a woman's writing, but whose? Give my respects and thanks to the author, whose novel is the first English one (and the French are
only romances now) that I've been able to read for many a day.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: William Makepeace Thackeray Print: Book
[George Henry Lewes to Elizabeth Gaskell:]
'When Jane Eyre first appeared, the publishers courteously sent me a copy. The enthusiasm with which I read it made me go down to Mr Parker, and propose to write a review of it for Fraser's Magazine [...] Meanwhile I had written to Miss Bronte to tell her the delight with which her book filled me'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Henry Lewes Print: Book
[Charlotte Bronte (as 'Currer Bell') to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 11 December 1847:]
'There are moments when I can hardly credit that anything I have done should be found worthy to give even transitory pleasure to such men as Mr Thackeray, Sir John Herschel, Mr Fonblanque, Leigh Hunt, and Mr Lewes -- that my humble efforts should have had such a result is a noble reward.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir John Herschel Print: Book
[Charlotte Bronte (as 'Currer Bell') to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 11 December 1847:]
'There are moments when I can hardly credit that anything I have done should be found worthy to give even transitory pleasure to such men as Mr Thackeray, Sir John Herschel, Mr Fonblanque, Leigh Hunt, and Mr Lewes -- that my humble efforts should have had such a result is a noble reward.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: James Henry Leigh Hunt Print: Book
John Gibson Lockhart to Mr and Mrs Hope, 29 December 1847:
'I have finished the adventures of Miss Jane Eyre, and think her far the cleverest that was
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. The two heroines exemplify the duty of taking the initiative, and
illustrate it under the opposite cases as to worldly goods of all sorts, except wit. One is a vast
heiress, and beautiful as angels are everywhere but in modern paintings. She asks a
handsome curate, who will none of her, being resolved on a missionary life in the far East.
The other is a thin, little, unpretty slip of a governess, who falls in love with a plain stoutish
Mr Burnand, sits on his knee, lights his cigar for him, asks him flat one fine evening, and after
a concealed mad wife is dead, at last fills that awful lady's place.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Gibson Lockhart Print: Book
Mary Taylor to her schoolfriend Ellen Nussey, 11 March 1851:
'Mama has written to Waring abusing Miss Bronte for writing "Shirley," and Waring thereupon
asked to read it. He says the characters are all unfaithful, and stoutly denies that ever my
father talked broad Yorkshire. He seems to have forgotten home altogether.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Waring Taylor Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Ellen Nussey, 5 May 1851:
'I enclose a letter of Mr Morgan's to Papa — written just after he had read "Shirley." It is
curious to see the latent feeling roused in the old gentleman — I was especially struck with his
remark about the chap. entitled "The Valley of the Shadow, &c." he must have had a true
sense of what he read or he could not have made it.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Morgan Print: Book
[Sidney Biddell to Ellen Nussey, 15 February 1885:]
'I am having a great treat in Cross's "Life of George Eliot." Most wonderful woman! [...]
Writing to a correspondent in June 1848, she says, "I have read 'Jane Eyre' [...] All self-
sacrifice is good, but one would like it to be in a somewhat nobler cause than that of a
diabolical law which chains a man soul and body to a putrefying carcase. However the book
is interesting; only I wish the characters would talk a little less like the
heroes and heroines of police reports."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot Print: Book
[A former pupil of Cowan Bridge School, Yorkshire (the model for 'Lowood' in Jane Eyre), to
Charlotte Bronte's widower, Arthur Bell Nicholls:]
'On first reading Jane Eyre several years ago I recognised immediately the picture there
drawn [of the school], and was far from considering it in any way exaggerated. In fact, I
thought at the time, and still think the matter rather understated than otherwise [comments
further on points of comparison between the real and fictional schools] [...] I had no
knowledge of Mrs Nicholls [Bronte] personally, therefore my statement may fairly be
considered an impartial one.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Anon Print: Book
'Meeting held at 22 Cintra Avenue, Northcourt Avenue, 25th April 1945
F. E. Pollard in the chair.
[...]
2. The minutes of the last meeting were read & signed.
5. Alice Joselin introduced the subject of the evening with a biographical study of
the Brontė family. Contrary to her expressed idea that she could do little more
than recite a list of dates, Alice Joselin drew for us a vivid picture of the life at
Haworth Rectory and the way in which the three sisters took the literary world by
storm.
6. After adjourning for refreshment we turned our attentions to a study of the
works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontė. First Margaret Dilks read from
Vil[l]ette the description of Mme. Rachel, the famous actress. Since this passage
is the only contribution Charlotte Brontė is allowed to make to the Oxford Book of
English Prose, it is presumably considered great by someone who should be
qualified to judge. But when the reader had finished, the only audible comment
from this learned gathering was Can someone tell me what all that means?
7. F. E. Pollard then gave us the benefit of his discerning criticism of the works of
these writers. Describing himself as of a naturally romantic & sentimental turn of
mind (cheers and prolonged applause) he championed Jane Eyre and Shirley.
There followed a lively discussion in which nearly all members took part. The
excessive wordiness of which both Emily & Charlotte are sometimes guilty, was
attributed to the bad influence of the continent on the Englishmans [sic!] natural
restraint. Several members of the fair sex expressed a distaste for the horrors of
Wuthering Heights, one even going so far as to suggest that the author was
probably mad. Cyril Langford, reading from a newspaper article, put forward an
interesting theory that the book was the natural psychological reaction of one
whose life was mainly occupied in household duties; and Thomas Hopkins crowned
all by telling us that he had once been presented with Wuthering Heights as a
Sunday School prize. Cyril Langford also drew our attention to Jane Eyres
description of her own paintings, which were clearly the forerunners of surrealism.
Other readings given were:-
Howard Smith from Wuthering Heights[,]
Rosamund Wallis from Shirley[,]
& Howard Smith from The Gondal Poems[.]'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Dilks Print: Book
'Meeting held at 22 Cintra Avenue, Northcourt Avenue, 25th April 1945
F. E. Pollard in the chair.
[...]
2. The minutes of the last meeting were read & signed.
5. Alice Joselin introduced the subject of the evening with a biographical study of
the Brontė family. Contrary to her expressed idea that she could do little more
than recite a list of dates, Alice Joselin drew for us a vivid picture of the life at
Haworth Rectory and the way in which the three sisters took the literary world by
storm.
6. After adjourning for refreshment we turned our attentions to a study of the
works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontė. First Margaret Dilks read from
Vil[l]ette the description of Mme. Rachel, the famous actress. Since this passage
is the only contribution Charlotte Brontė is allowed to make to the Oxford Book of
English Prose, it is presumably considered great by someone who should be
qualified to judge. But when the reader had finished, the only audible comment
from this learned gathering was Can someone tell me what all that means?
7. F. E. Pollard then gave us the benefit of his discerning criticism of the works of
these writers. Describing himself as of a naturally romantic & sentimental turn of
mind (cheers and prolonged applause) he championed Jane Eyre and Shirley.
There followed a lively discussion in which nearly all members took part. The
excessive wordiness of which both Emily & Charlotte are sometimes guilty, was
attributed to the bad influence of the continent on the Englishmans [sic!] natural
restraint. Several members of the fair sex expressed a distaste for the horrors of
Wuthering Heights, one even going so far as to suggest that the author was
probably mad. Cyril Langford, reading from a newspaper article, put forward an
interesting theory that the book was the natural psychological reaction of one
whose life was mainly occupied in household duties; and Thomas Hopkins crowned
all by telling us that he had once been presented with Wuthering Heights as a
Sunday School prize. Cyril Langford also drew our attention to Jane Eyres
description of her own paintings, which were clearly the forerunners of surrealism.
Other readings given were:-
Howard Smith from Wuthering Heights[,]
Rosamund Wallis from Shirley[,]
& Howard Smith from The Gondal Poems[.]'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book
'Meeting held at 22 Cintra Avenue, Northcourt Avenue, 25th April 1945
F. E. Pollard in the chair.
[...]
2. The minutes of the last meeting were read & signed.
5. Alice Joselin introduced the subject of the evening with a biographical study of
the Brontė family. Contrary to her expressed idea that she could do little more
than recite a list of dates, Alice Joselin drew for us a vivid picture of the life at
Haworth Rectory and the way in which the three sisters took the literary world by
storm.
6. After adjourning for refreshment we turned our attentions to a study of the
works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontė. First Margaret Dilks read from
Vil[l]ette the description of Mme. Rachel, the famous actress. Since this passage
is the only contribution Charlotte Brontė is allowed to make to the Oxford Book of
English Prose, it is presumably considered great by someone who should be
qualified to judge. But when the reader had finished, the only audible comment
from this learned gathering was Can someone tell me what all that means?
7. F. E. Pollard then gave us the benefit of his discerning criticism of the works of
these writers. Describing himself as of a naturally romantic & sentimental turn of
mind (cheers and prolonged applause) he championed Jane Eyre and Shirley.
There followed a lively discussion in which nearly all members took part. The
excessive wordiness of which both Emily & Charlotte are sometimes guilty, was
attributed to the bad influence of the continent on the Englishmans [sic!] natural
restraint. Several members of the fair sex expressed a distaste for the horrors of
Wuthering Heights, one even going so far as to suggest that the author was
probably mad. Cyril Langford, reading from a newspaper article, put forward an
interesting theory that the book was the natural psychological reaction of one
whose life was mainly occupied in household duties; and Thomas Hopkins crowned
all by telling us that he had once been presented with Wuthering Heights as a
Sunday School prize. Cyril Langford also drew our attention to Jane Eyres
description of her own paintings, which were clearly the forerunners of surrealism.
Other readings given were:-
Howard Smith from Wuthering Heights[,]
Rosamund Wallis from Shirley[,]
& Howard Smith from The Gondal Poems[.]'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard Print: Book
'Meeting held at 22 Cintra Avenue, Northcourt Avenue, 25th April 1945
F. E. Pollard in the chair.
[...]
2. The minutes of the last meeting were read & signed.
5. Alice Joselin introduced the subject of the evening with a biographical study of
the Brontė family. Contrary to her expressed idea that she could do little more
than recite a list of dates, Alice Joselin drew for us a vivid picture of the life at
Haworth Rectory and the way in which the three sisters took the literary world by
storm.
6. After adjourning for refreshment we turned our attentions to a study of the
works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontė. First Margaret Dilks read from
Vil[l]ette the description of Mme. Rachel, the famous actress. Since this passage
is the only contribution Charlotte Brontė is allowed to make to the Oxford Book of
English Prose, it is presumably considered great by someone who should be
qualified to judge. But when the reader had finished, the only audible comment
from this learned gathering was Can someone tell me what all that means?
7. F. E. Pollard then gave us the benefit of his discerning criticism of the works of
these writers. Describing himself as of a naturally romantic & sentimental turn of
mind (cheers and prolonged applause) he championed Jane Eyre and Shirley.
There followed a lively discussion in which nearly all members took part. The
excessive wordiness of which both Emily & Charlotte are sometimes guilty, was
attributed to the bad influence of the continent on the Englishmans [sic!] natural
restraint. Several members of the fair sex expressed a distaste for the horrors of
Wuthering Heights, one even going so far as to suggest that the author was
probably mad. Cyril Langford, reading from a newspaper article, put forward an
interesting theory that the book was the natural psychological reaction of one
whose life was mainly occupied in household duties; and Thomas Hopkins crowned
all by telling us that he had once been presented with Wuthering Heights as a
Sunday School prize. Cyril Langford also drew our attention to Jane Eyres
description of her own paintings, which were clearly the forerunners of surrealism.
Other readings given were:-
Howard Smith from Wuthering Heights[,]
Rosamund Wallis from Shirley[,]
& Howard Smith from The Gondal Poems[.]'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamund Wallis Print: Book
'Meeting held at 22 Cintra Avenue, Northcourt Avenue, 25th April 1945
F. E. Pollard in the chair.
[...]
2. The minutes of the last meeting were read & signed.
5. Alice Joselin introduced the subject of the evening with a biographical study of
the Brontė family. Contrary to her expressed idea that she could do little more
than recite a list of dates, Alice Joselin drew for us a vivid picture of the life at
Haworth Rectory and the way in which the three sisters took the literary world by
storm.
6. After adjourning for refreshment we turned our attentions to a study of the
works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontė. First Margaret Dilks read from
Vil[l]ette the description of Mme. Rachel, the famous actress. Since this passage
is the only contribution Charlotte Brontė is allowed to make to the Oxford Book of
English Prose, it is presumably considered great by someone who should be
qualified to judge. But when the reader had finished, the only audible comment
from this learned gathering was Can someone tell me what all that means?
7. F. E. Pollard then gave us the benefit of his discerning criticism of the works of
these writers. Describing himself as of a naturally romantic & sentimental turn of
mind (cheers and prolonged applause) he championed Jane Eyre and Shirley.
There followed a lively discussion in which nearly all members took part. The
excessive wordiness of which both Emily & Charlotte are sometimes guilty, was
attributed to the bad influence of the continent on the Englishmans [sic!] natural
restraint. Several members of the fair sex expressed a distaste for the horrors of
Wuthering Heights, one even going so far as to suggest that the author was
probably mad. Cyril Langford, reading from a newspaper article, put forward an
interesting theory that the book was the natural psychological reaction of one
whose life was mainly occupied in household duties; and Thomas Hopkins crowned
all by telling us that he had once been presented with Wuthering Heights as a
Sunday School prize. Cyril Langford also drew our attention to Jane Eyres
description of her own paintings, which were clearly the forerunners of surrealism.
Other readings given were:-
Howard Smith from Wuthering Heights[,]
Rosamund Wallis from Shirley[,]
& Howard Smith from The Gondal Poems[.]'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Cyril Langford Print: Book
'By this time you will probably have finished reading "Villette". What do you think of the ending?
I can just hear you saying "Cracked absolutely!" It certainly is most unsatisfactory, but yet a
touch of genius. I fancy it is the only novel in existence that leaves you in a like
uncertainty....They (the Bronte sisters' novels) should be sipped with luxurious slowness in the
winter evening.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'I have just finished "Shirley"; which I think better than either "Jane Eyre" or "Villette". You must
read it.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'P.S. Have begun the "Professor" and have read as far as the hero's arrival at Brussels. It is
shaping very well. I believe you have read it have you not - J'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'I ... have also re-read Jane Eyre from beginning to end it is a magnificent novel. Some of
those long, long dialogues between her and Rochester are really like duets from a splendid
opera, aren't they? And do you remember the description of the night she slept on the moor and
of the dawn? You really lose a lot by never reading books again.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'Aug. (Grand)'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Good Print: Book
'Villette'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Good Print: Book
'The Professor'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Good Print: Book
