'very powerful & interesting, in parts very fine, not altogether pleasing — some striking delineation of character; it is said to be by a woman, but it is not feminine — I should certainly say by a Socinian — not by Miss Martineau'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Book
'a greater mixture of very good & very bad that I remember to have read — great occasional beauty of thought & language, greater still in the delineation of character, occasional interest of plot, but infinite mysticism & obscurity, stiffness & vulgarity of dialogue'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle Print: Book
From Andrew Lang, The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart (Vol II, pp.307-309):
'"Kingsley, in a letter to Mrs Gaskell, rejoices that he had never expressed in print his opinion
[of Charlotte Bronte's writing].
'""Shirley disgusted me at the opening, and I gave up the writer and her books, with a notion
that she was a person who liked coarseness.""'
[source ed. adds in note: 'Kingsley repented on reading Miss Bronte's Life.']
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kingsley Print: Book
Mary Taylor to her friend and former schoolfellow Charlotte Bronte, in letter postmarked 24 July 1848:
'About a month since I received and read "Jane Eyre." It seemed to me incredible that you had actually written a book [...] Your novel surprised me by being so perfect as a work of art. I expected something more changeable and unfinished. You have polished to some purpose [...]
You are very different from me in having no moral to preach. It is impossible to squeeze a moral out of your production. Has the world gone so well with you that you have no protest to make against its absurdities? [...] I do not believe in Mr Rivers [...] A missionary either goes into his office for a piece of bread, or he goes from enthusiasm, and that is both too good and too bad a quality for St John. It's a bit of your absurd charity to believe in such a man [...] You never stop to explain or defend anything [...] how have you written through three volumes without declaring war to the knife against a few dozen absurd doctrines, each of which is supported by "a large and respectable class of readers"?'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Taylor Print: Book
Algernon Charles Swinburne to Sir T. Wemyss Reid, in response to Reid's Charlotte Bronte: A Monograph, 24 September 1877:
'I need not say how grateful I should be for any further information about the glorious and immortal lady whom you have already so nobly and justly vindicated and explained to us. From the first hour when as a schoolboy I read "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" I have always retained the first intense desire I felt then to know all that I might or ought to know about the two women who wrote them.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Algernon Charles Swinburne Print: Book
James Chesterton Bradley to Robert Keating Smith, 3 May 1902:
'A short paper of yours in "The Tatler" of April 2nd brought before me my old friend James W[illiam]. Smith. He and I were fellow curates in Yorkshire, he curate of Haworth, and I of the hill part of Keighley which joined on to Haworth [...] He and I with another of the name of Grant were the three curates in Charlotte Bronte's "Shirley." I need not say how indignant I have often been at the way in which she speaks of him in the novel. He was a thorough gentleman in every sense of the word, and there was not the slightest ground for the insinuation she makes against him [...] We used to read together, walk together, and as often as we could, about once a week, would meet either at his or my lodgings.'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Chesterton Bradley Print: Book
From Lady Ritchie (W. M. Thackeray's daughter)'s recollections of her first meeting with Charlotte Bronte:
'To say that we little girls had been given Jane Eyre to read scarcely represents the facts of the case; to say that we had taken it without leave, read bits here and read bits there, been carried away by an undreamed-of and hitherto unimagined whirlwind into things, times, places, all utterly absorbing, and at the same time absolutely unintelligible to us, would more accurately describe our state of mind on that summer's evening as we look at Jane Eyre — the great Jane Eyre — the tiny little lady.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thackeray sisters Print: Book
Catherine Winkworth to Eliza Paterson, 5 December 1849:
'So you like "Shirley" better than "Jane Eyre"; so do I, in some points. In power and in descriptions of scenery, there is nothing in "Shirley" which seems to me to come up to some parts of "Jane Eyre," but then there is nothing also in "Shirley" like the disagreeable parts of "Jane Eyre."'"
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Winkworth Print: Book
Catherine Winkworth to Eliza Paterson, 5 December 1849:
'So you like "Shirley" better than "Jane Eyre"; so do I, in some points. In power and in descriptions of scenery, there is nothing in "Shirley" which seems to me to come up to some parts of "Jane Eyre," but then there is nothing also in "Shirley" like the disagreeable parts of "Jane Eyre."'"
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Winkworth Print: Book
Catherine Winkworth to Eliza Paterson, 5 December 1849:
'So you like "Shirley" better than "Jane Eyre"; so do I, in some points. In power and in descriptions of scenery, there is nothing in "Shirley" which seems to me to come up to some parts of "Jane Eyre," but then there is nothing also in "Shirley" like the disagreeable parts of "Jane Eyre."'"
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Paterson Print: Book
Catherine Winkworth to Eliza Paterson, 5 December 1849:
'So you like "Shirley" better than "Jane Eyre"; so do I, in some points. In power and in descriptions of scenery, there is nothing in "Shirley" which seems to me to come up to some parts of "Jane Eyre," but then there is nothing also in "Shirley" like the disagreeable parts of "Jane Eyre."'"
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Paterson Print: Book
W. M. Heald to Ellen Nussey, 8 January 1850:
'The celebrated "Shirley" has just found its way hither. And as one always reads a book with more interest when one has a correct insight into the writer's designs, I write to ask a favour [...] the story goes that either I or my father [...] are part of "Currer Bell's" stock-in-trade, under the title of Mr Hall, in that Mr Hall is represented as black, bilious, and of dismal aspect, stooping a trifle, and indulging a little now and then in the indigenous [Yorkshire] dialect. This seems to sit very well on your humble servant -- other traits do better for my good father than myself [speculates further as to originals of various characters and settings in Shirley] [...] Now pray let us get a full light on all other names and localities that are adumbrated in this said "Shirley." [...] as I or mine are part of the stock-in-trade, I think I have an equitable claim to this intelligence'.
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Margetson Heald Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 19 March 1850:
'I enclose for your perusal a scrap of paper which came into my hands without the knowledge of the writer. He is a poor working man of this village — a thoughtful, reading, feeling being, whose mind is too keen for his frame, and wears it out. I have not spoken to him above thrice in my life, for he is a Dissenter, and has rarely come in my way. The document is a sort of record of his feelings, after the perusal of "Jane Eyre"; it is artless and earnest, genuine and generous. You must return it to me, for I value it more than testimonies from higher sources. He said: "Miss Bronte, if she knew he had written it, would scorn him"; but, indeed, Miss Bronte does not scorn him; she only grieves that a mind of which this is the emanation should be kept crushed by the leaden hand of poverty — by the trials of uncertain health and the claims of a large family.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
Mary Taylor to her schoolfriend Charlotte Bronte, 25 April 1850:
'I have seen some extracts from "Shirley" in which you talk of women working. And this first duty, this great necessity you seem to think that some women may indulge in — if they give up marriage and don't make themselves too disagreeable to the other sex. You are a coward and a traitor. A woman who works is by that alone better than one who does not and a woman who does not happen to be rich and who still earns no money and does not wish to do so, is guilty of [...] a dereliction of duty which leads rapidly and almost certainly to all manner of degradation. It is very wrong of you to plead for toleration of workers on the ground of their being in peculiar circumstandes and few in number or singular in disposition. Work or degradation is the lot of all except the very small number born to wealth.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Taylor Print: Serial / periodical
Mary Taylor to her schoolfriend Charlotte Bronte, 13 August 1850:
'After waiting about six months we have just got "Shirley." It was landed from the Constantinople on Monday afternoon [...] On Wednesday I began "Shirley" and continued in a curious confusion of mind till now, principally at the handsome foreigner who was nursed in our house when I was a little girl [...] What a little lump of perfection you've made me! There is a strange feeling in reading it of hearing us all talking. I have not seen the matted hall and painted parlour window so plain these five years. But my father is not like [...] he is not honest enough [...] "Shirley" is much more interesting than "Jane Eyre," who never interests you at all unless she has something to suffer. All through this last novel there is so much more life and stir that it leaves you far more to remember than the other.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Taylor Print: Book
Mary Taylor to her schoolfriend Charlotte Bronte, 13 August 1850:
'After waiting about six months we have just got "Shirley." It was landed from the Constantinople on Monday afternoon [...] On Wednesday I began "Shirley" and continued in a curious confusion of mind till now, principally at the handsome foreigner who was nursed in our house when I was a little girl [...] What a little lump of perfection you've made me! There is a strange feeling in reading it of hearing us all talking. I have not seen the matted hall and painted parlour window so plain these five years. But my father is not like [...] he is not honest enough [...] "Shirley" is much more interesting than "Jane Eyre," who never interests you at all unless she has something to suffer. All through this last novel there is so much more life and stir that it leaves you far more to remember than the other.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Taylor Print: Book
'Villette was published on January 28th, 1853 [...] George Eliot wrote enthusiastically to Mrs
Bray, "I am only just returned to a sense of the real world about me, for I have been reading
Villette, a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost preternatural in
its power"'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud.) Print: Book
Catherine Winkworth to Emma Shaen, 23 March 1853:
'I made up my mind not to write to you again till I had read "Villette" and now I have finished
it [...] It is a thorough enjoyment to read it, so powerful everywhere, no rant, as there were
bits of in her other books, so deep and true in its appreciation of character [comments on
characters of John Bretton and Paul Emanuel] [...]
'"Villette" makes one feel an extreme reverence for any one capable of so much deep feeling
and brave endurance and truth, but it makes one feel "eerie," too, to be brought face to face
with a life so wanting in Versohnung, as Germans would say. I wonder whether Miss B[ronte].
is so, and I wonder, too, whether she ever was in love; surely she could never herself have
made love to any one, as all her heroines, even Lucy Snowe, do. [comments further]
[...]
there are bits that go very deep into one's heart; more especially with me all she says about
facing and accepting some evil fate. And yet, yet, it never goes quite deep
enough; it comes to an heroic Stoicism which is grand, but not the best.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Catherine Winkworth Print: Book
Charles Kingsley to Elizabeth Gaskell, 14 May 1857:
'Let me renew our long interrupted acquaintance by complimenting you on poor Miss Bronte's
"Life." You have had a delicate and a great work to do, and you have done it admirably [...] I
confess that the book has made me ashamed of myself. "Jane Eyre" I hardly looked into, very
seldom reading a work of fiction — yours, indeed, and Thackeray's are the only ones I care to
open. "Shirley" disgusted me at the opening, and I gave up the writer and her books with a
notion that she was a person who liked coarseness. How I misjudged her! [...] Well have you
done your work, and given us the picture of a valiant woman made perfect by sufferings I
shall now read carefully and lovingly every word she has written'.
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kingsley Print: Book
Margaret Wooler, Charlotte Bronte's former schoolteacher, to Ellen Nussey, another former
pupil (1857):
'Did I name to you that Mrs E. Gibson knows two or three young ladies in Hull who finished
their education at Madame Heger's pension? Mrs Gaskell said they read "Villette" with keen
interest — of course they would.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: 'young ladies' Print: Book
Patrick Bronte to George Smith, his daughter Charlotte's publisher before her death in 1855,
26 March 1860:
'Though writing is to me now something of a task I cannot avoid sending you a few lines to
thank you for sending me the magazines, and for your gentlemanly conduct towards my
daughter in all your transactions with her [...] All the magazines were good; the last
especially attracted my attention and excited my admiration. The "Last Sketch" took full
possession of my mind. Mr Thackeray in his remarks in it has excelled even himself [...] If
organless spirits see as we see, and feel as we feel, in this material clogging world, my
daughter Charlotte's spirit will receive additional happiness on scanning the remarks of her
Ancient Favourite.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Patrick Brontë Print: Serial / periodical
Mary Robinson, author of an early study of Emily Bronte, to Charlotte Bronte's friend Ellen
Nussey, 5 April 1882:
'I am an architect's daughter and like the Bronte's [sic] finished my schooling in Brussels. But
long before then I had read and re-read their books.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Agnes Mary Frances Robinson Print: Book
