Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 25 October 1850:
'The box of books came last night [...] Jeffrey's Essays, Dr Arnold's Life, the Roman, Alton
Locke [...] Already I have read the greatest part of the "Roman" — passages in it possess a
kindling virtue such as true poetry alone can boast — there are images of genuine grandeur —
there are lines that at once stamp themselves on the memory [...] this Sydney or Dobell
speaks with a voice of his own, unborrowed — unwicked. You hear Tennyson indeed
sometimes — and Byron sometimes in some passages of the "Roman" — but then again you
hear a new note — nowhere clearer than in a certain brief lyric [...] a sort of dirge over a
dead brother — that not only charmed the ear and brain — it smote the
heart.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
[Charlotte Bronte to Sydney Dobell, 3 February 1854:]
'"Balder" arrived safely. I looked at him, before cutting his leaves, with singular pleasure [...]
I have read him. He impresses me thus: He teems with power; I found in him a wild wealth of
life [...]
'There is power in that character of "Balder," and to me a certain horror. Did you mean it to
embody, along with force, any of the special defects of the artistic character? It seems to me
that those defects were never thrown out in stronger lines. I did not and could not think you
meant to offer him as your cherished ideal of the true great poet; I regard him as a vividly
coloured picture of inflated self-esteem, almost frantic aspiration; of a nature that has made a
Moloch of intellect — offered up, in pagan fires, the natural affections — sacrificed the heart to
the brain. Do we not all know that true greatness is simple, self-oblivious, prone to
unambitious, unselfish attachments? I am certain you feel this truth in your
heart of hearts.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book