Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle Part 43

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_November_ 1_st_, 1849

'MY DEAR SIR,--I reached home yesterday, and found your letter and one from Mr. Lewes, and one from the Peace Congress Committee, awaiting my arrival. The last doc.u.ment it is now too late to answer, for it was an invitation to Currer Bell to appear on the platform at their meeting at Exeter Hall last Tuesday! A wonderful figure Mr.

Currer Bell would have cut under such circ.u.mstances! Should the "Peace Congress" chance to read _Shirley_ they will wash their hands of its author.

'I am glad to hear that Mr. Thackeray is better, but I did not know he had been seriously ill, I thought it was only a literary indisposition. You must tell me what he thinks of _Shirley_ if he gives you any opinion on the subject.

'I am also glad to hear that Mr. Smith is pleased with the commercial prospects of the work. I try not to be anxious about its literary fate; and if I cannot be quite stoical, I think I am still tolerably resigned.

'Mr. Lewes does not like the opening chapter, wherein he resembles you.

'I have permitted myself the treat of spending the last week with my friend Ellen. Her residence is in a far more populous and stirring neighbourhood than this. Whenever I go there I am unavoidably forced into society--clerical society chiefly.

'During my late visit I have too often had reason, sometimes in a pleasant, sometimes in a painful form, to fear that I no longer walk invisible. _Jane Eyre_, it appears, has been read all over the district--a fact of which I never dreamt--a circ.u.mstance of which the possibility never occurred to me. I met sometimes with new deference, with augmented kindness: old schoolfellows and old teachers, too, greeted me with generous warmth. And again, ecclesiastical brows lowered thunder at me. When I confronted one or two large-made priests, I longed for the battle to come on. I wish they would speak out plainly. You must not understand that my schoolfellows and teachers were of the Clergy Daughters School--in fact, I was never there but for one little year as a very little girl. I am certain I have long been forgotten; though for myself, I remember all and everything clearly: early impressions are ineffaceable.

'I have just received the _Daily News_. Let me speak the truth--when I read it my heart sickened over it. It is not a good review, it is unutterably false. If _Shirley_ strikes all readers as it has struck that one, but--I shall not say what follows.

'On the whole I am glad a decidedly bad notice has come first--a notice whose inexpressible ignorance first stuns and then stirs me.

Are there no such men as the Helstones and Yorkes?

'Yes, there are.

'Is the first chapter disgusting or vulgar?

'_It is not_, _it is real_.

'As for the praise of such a critic, I find it silly and nauseous, and I scorn it.

'Were my sisters now alive they and I would laugh over this notice; but they sleep, they will wake no more for me, and I am a fool to be so moved by what is not worth a sigh.--Believe me, yours sincerely,

'C. B.

'You must spare me if I seem hasty, I fear I really am not so firm as I used to be, nor so patient. Whenever any shock comes, I feel that almost all supports have been withdrawn.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_November_ 5_th_, 1849.

'MY DEAR SIR,--I did not receive the parcel of copies till Sat.u.r.day evening. Everything sent by Bradford is long in reaching me. It is, I think, better to direct: Keighley. I was very much pleased with the appearance and getting up of the book; it looks well.

'I have got the _Examiner_ and your letter. You are very good not to be angry with me, for I wrote in indignation and grief. The critic of the _Daily News_ struck me as to the last degree incompetent, ignorant, and flippant. A thrill of mutiny went all through me when I read his small effusion. To be judged by such a one revolted me.

I ought, however, to have controlled myself, and I did not. I am willing to be judged by the _Examiner_--I like the _Examiner_.

Fonblanque has power, he has discernment--I bend to his censorship, I am grateful for his praise; his blame deserves consideration; when he approves, I permit myself a moderate emotion of pride. Am I wrong in supposing that critique to be written by Mr. Fonblanque? But whether it is by him or Forster, I am thankful.

'In reading the critiques of the other papers--when I get them--I will try to follow your advice and preserve my equanimity. But I cannot be sure of doing this, for I had good resolutions and intentions before, and, you see, I failed.

'You ask me if I am related to Nelson. No, I never heard that I was.

The rumour must have originated in our name resembling his t.i.tle. I wonder who that former schoolfellow of mine was that told Mr. Lewes, or how she had been enabled to identify Currer Bell with C. Bronte.

She could not have been a Cowan Bridge girl, none of them can possibly remember me. They might remember my eldest sister, Maria; her prematurely-developed and remarkable intellect, as well as the mildness, wisdom, and fort.i.tude of her character might have left an indelible impression on some observant mind amongst her companions.

My second sister, Elizabeth, too, may perhaps be remembered, but I cannot conceive that I left a trace behind me. My career was a very quiet one. I was plodding and industrious, perhaps I was very grave, for I suffered to see my sisters perishing, but I think I was remarkable for nothing.--Believe me, my dear sir, yours sincerely,

'C. BRONTE.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_November_ 15_th_, 1849.

'MY DEAR SIR,--I have received since I wrote last the Globe, Standard of Freedom, Britannia, Economist, and Weekly Chronicle.

'How is _Shirley_ getting on, and what is now the general feeling respecting the work?

'As far as I can judge from the tone of the newspapers, it seems that those who were most charmed with _Jane Eyre_ are the least pleased with _Shirley_; they are disappointed at not finding the same excitement, interest, stimulus; while those who spoke disparagingly of _Jane Eyre_ like _Shirley_ a little better than her predecessor.

I suppose its dryer matter suits their dryer minds. But I feel that the fiat for which I wait does not depend on newspapers, except, indeed, such newspapers as the _Examiner_. The monthlies and quarterlies will p.r.o.nounce it, I suppose. Mere novel-readers, it is evident, think _Shirley_ something of a failure. Still, the majority of the notices have on the whole been favourable. That in the _Standard of Freedom_ was very kindly expressed; and coming from a dissenter, William Howitt, I wonder thereat.

'Are you satisfied at Cornhill, or the contrary? I have read part of _The Caxtons_, and, when I have finished, will tell you what I think of it; meantime, I should very much like to hear your opinion.

Perhaps I shall keep mine till I see you, whenever that may be.

'I am trying by degrees to inure myself to the thought of some day stepping over to Keighley, taking the train to Leeds, thence to London, and once more venturing to set foot in the strange, busy whirl of the Strand and Cornhill. I want to talk to you a little and to hear by word of mouth how matters are progressing. Whenever I come, I must come quietly and but for a short time--I should be unhappy to leave papa longer than a fortnight.--Believe me, yours sincerely,

'C. BRONTE.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_November_ 22_nd_, 1849.

'MY DEAR SIR,--If it is discouraging to an author to see his work mouthed over by the entirely ignorant and incompetent, it is equally reviving to hear what you have written discussed and a.n.a.lysed by a critic who is master of his subject--by one whose heart feels, whose powers grasp the matter he undertakes to handle. Such refreshment Eugene Forcade has given me. Were I to see that man, my impulse would be to say, "Monsieur, you know me, I shall deem it an honour to know you."

'I do not find that Forcade detects any coa.r.s.eness in the work--it is for the smaller critics to find that out. The master in the art--the subtle-thoughted, keen-eyed, quick-feeling Frenchman, knows the true nature of the ingredients which went to the composition of the creation he a.n.a.lyses--he knows the true nature of things, and he gives them their right name.

'Yours of yesterday has just reached me. Let me, in the first place, express my sincere sympathy with your anxiety on Mrs. Williams's account. I know how sad it is when pain and suffering attack those we love, when that mournful guest sickness comes and takes a place in the household circle. That the shadow may soon leave your home is my earnest hope.

'Thank you for Sir J. Herschel's note. I am happy to hear Mr. Taylor is convalescent. It may, perhaps, be some weeks yet before his hand is well, but that his general health is in the way of re-establishment is a matter of thankfulness.

'One of the letters you sent to-day addressed "Currer Bell" has almost startled me. The writer first describes his family, and then proceeds to give a particular account of himself in colours the most candid, if not, to my ideas, the most attractive. He runs on in a strain of wild enthusiasm about _Shirley_, and concludes by announcing a fixed, deliberate resolution to inst.i.tute a search after Currer Bell, and sooner or later to find him out. There is power in the letter--talent; it is at times eloquently expressed. The writer somewhat boastfully intimates that he is acknowledged the possessor of high intellectual attainments, but, if I mistake not, he betrays a temper to be shunned, habits to be mistrusted. While laying claim to the character of being affectionate, warm-hearted, and adhesive, there is but a single member of his own family of whom he speaks with kindness. He confesses himself indolent and wilful, but a.s.serts that he is studious and, to some influences, docile. This letter would have struck me no more than the others rather like it have done, but for its rash power, and the disagreeable resolve it announces to seek and find Currer Bell. It almost makes me feel like a wizard who has raised a spirit he may find it difficult to lay. But I shall not think about it. This sort of fervour often foams itself away in words.

'Trusting that the serenity of your home is by this time restored with your wife's health,--I am, yours sincerely,

'C. BRONTE.'

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

'_February_ 16_th_, 1850.

'DEAR NELL,--Yesterday, just after dinner, I heard a loud bustling voice in the kitchen demanding to see Mr. Bronte. Somebody was shown into the parlour. Shortly after, wine was rung for. "Who is it, Martha?" I asked. "Some mak of a tradesman," said she. "He's not a gentleman, I'm sure." The personage stayed about an hour, talking in a loud vulgar key all the time. At tea-time I asked papa who it was.

"Why," said he, "no other than the vicar of B---!" {361} Papa had invited him to take some refreshment, but the creature had ordered his dinner at the Black Bull, and was quite urgent with papa to go down there and join him, offering by way of inducement a bottle, or, if papa liked, "two or three bottles of the best wine Haworth could afford!" He said he was come from Bradford just to look at the place, and reckoned to be in raptures with the wild scenery! He warmly pressed papa to come and see him, and to bring his daughter with him!!! Does he know anything about the books, do you think; he made no allusion to them. I did not see him, not so much as the tail of his coat. Martha said he looked no more like a parson than she did. Papa described him as rather shabby-looking, but said he was wondrous cordial and friendly. Papa, in his usual fashion, put him through a regular catechism of questions: what his living was worth, etc., etc. In answer to inquiries respecting his age he affirmed himself to be thirty-seven--is not this a lie? He must be more.

Papa asked him if he were married. He said no, he had no thoughts of being married, he did not like the trouble of a wife. He described himself as "living in style, and keeping a very hospitable house."

'Dear Nell, I have written you a long letter; write me a long one in answer.