Record Number: 28468

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

[From Charlotte Bronte's introduction to the 1850 edition of her sisters' novels:] 'One day in the autumn of 1845 I accidentally lighted on a MS. volume in verse in my sister Emily's handwriting. Of course I was not surprised, knowing that she could and did write verse. I looked it over, and something more than surprise seized me -- a deep conviction that these were not common effusions, nor at all like the poetry women generally write. I thought them condensed and terse, vigorous and genuine. To my ear they had also a peculiar music, wild, melancholy, and elevating. My sister Emily was not a person of demonstrative character, nor one on the recesses of whose mind and feelings even those nearest and dearest to her could, with impunity, intrude unlicenced: it took hours to reconcile her to the discovery I had made, and days to persuade her that such poems merited publication.... Meantime my younger sister quietly produced some of her own compositions, intimating that since Emily's had given me pleasure I might like to look at hers. I could not but be a partial judge, yet I thought that these verses too had a sweet, sincere pathos of their own.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Sep 1845 and 31 Dec 1845

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Haworth
county: Yorkshire

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Charlotte Bronte

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

21 Apr 1816

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Emily Bronte

Title:

poems

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

28468

Source:

Print

Author:

n/a

Editor:

Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington

Title:

The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1980

Vol:

I-II

Page:

II:79

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington (ed.), The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence, (Oxford, 1980), I-II, p. II:79, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28468, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

None