[According to Flora Thompson], "Modern writers who speak of the booklessness of the poor at that time must mean books as possessions...there were always books to borrow"... One could borrow Pamela and the Waverley novels from a neighbour, Christies Old Organ from the Sunday School library. Her uncle, a shoemaker, had once carted home from a country-house auction a large collection of books that no-one would buy: novels, poetry, sermons, histories, dictionaries. She read him Cranford while he worked in his shop... Later she could borrow from her employer (the village postmistress) Shakespeare and Byron's Don Juan, as well as Jane Austen, Dickens and Trollope from the Mechanics' Institute library.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson Print: Book
'Your biography will always be a model work, & one of wh. the Interest is perpetual'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Caroline Clive Print: Book
'I was reading of Charlotte Bronte the other day, and could not help comparing myself with the picture more or less as I read. I don't suppose my powers are equal to hers - my work to myself looks perfectly pale and colourless beside hers - but yet I have had far more experience and, I think, a fuller conception of life'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Oliphant Print: Book
'[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
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 12 January 1853, regarding timings of publications of her and Gaskell's new works: ' ... I had felt and expressed to Mr Smith -- reluctance to come in the way of "Ruth". Not that I think she -- (bless her very sweet face! I have already devoured vol.1st) would suffer from contact with "Villette" ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book
Patrick Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, June 1853, regarding Gaskell's planned visit to Haworth: 'From what I have heard my Daughter say of you, and from the perusal of your literary works, I shall give you a most hearty welcome, whenever you may come --'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Patrick Bronte Print: Book
[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
'Reading aloud from "Cranford" one evening ... [Mary Crawford Fraser's] aunt [Elizabeth Sewell] came to a sudden full stop [on coming to episode unfit for children] ... skipped a little, and took up the story later on.'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
'Mary Crawford Fraser recalled how a contemporary at the boarding-school run by her aunt, with a background in trade, was expelled for reading from unsuitable passages of "Cranford" in copy left in drawing-room used for music practice.'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosie Print: Book
H. J. Jackson notes pencilled marginalia by Harriet Martineau in her copy of Elizabeth Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857), which include "corrections and contradictions" to Gaskell's text.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
'we spent the evening pleasantly, in spite of ailing bodies, reading Mrs Gaskell's pretty "Cranford".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book
'Reading, in the evening, "Poor Peter".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book
'In the evening I began the "Life of Charlotte Bronte" aloud. Deeply interesting.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Book
'We are reading aloud Huber's "History of Bees", and the "Life of Charlotte Bronte" for the second time.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) and G.H. Lewes Print: Book
'I think my introduction to the authoress of that fine book Mary Barton must be postponed.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book
'I hope some woman will arise who, with power like, or equal to, C.B.'s [Charlotte Bronte's], will bring us up to high art again, and not help to sink us in the subjective slough as she is doing. - "Ruth" won't help us. All strewn with beauties as it is, it is sadly feeble and wrong, I think. Amidst much wrong, I think making Mr Benson such a nicompoop is fatal. What a beautiful "Cranford" Mrs Gaskell has given us again!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
'I hope some woman will arise who, with power like, or equal to, C.B.'s [Charlotte Bronte's], will bring us up to high art again, and not help to sink us in the subjective slough as she is doing. - "Ruth" won't help us. All strewn with beauties as it is, it is sadly feeble and wrong, I think. Amidst much wrong, I think making Mr Benson such a nicompoop is fatal. What a beautiful "Cranford" Mrs Gaskell has given us again!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Serial / periodical
'In another house I found a tattered copy of Scott's "Kenilworth" and a quite new copy of "Cranford". Among some old books in my grandmother's cottage I found a curious one entitled "Adam's First Wife". This was a sort of history of the Garden of Eden which rather discounted the "rib theory" and raised some doubt in my mind as to Adam's innocence in the pre-apple days.' [continuation of discussion of Adam etc]
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hannah Mitchell Print: Book
''A grand old book, "The Pilgrim's Progress"! But I've something here you'll like better. "Cranford". Ever heard of it Laura? No, I thought not. Well you've got a treat in store.'
They sampled "Cranford" that afternoon.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson 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
Mrs Hugh Fraser, describing life at the select girls' boarding school she attended, run by
Elizabeth Missing Sewell and her sisters at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight:
'the only unpleasant incident of my whole stay in Bonchurch was connected with the evening
readings. The book in question was "Cranford," and we were all electrified when Aunt
Elizabeth [the pupils' name for Sewell] came to a full stop in the beginning of the part where
the nephew plays a practical joke -- something connected with a baby -- on the old ladies. "I
will leave this out," said Miss Sewell, looking quite stern. The she turned the page and took
up the story further on. [goes on to relate how a new girl who was caught looking for the
offending passage in the book was subsequently expelled]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Mrs Hugh Fraser, describing an incident at the select girls' boarding school she attended, run
by Elizabeth Missing Sewell and her sisters at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, after Elizabeth Sewell
had omitted a passage of Gaskell's Cranford as unsuitable to be read aloud to her pupils:
'"Cranford" was left on the table in the drawing room [...] Alas, poor Rosie [a new girl from
what Fraser describes as a 'a family in business'] could not resist the temptation. When I
came into the room the next morning I found her devouring the forbidden page [goes on to
report how the girl had to leave the school, and how Sewell and her sisters acknowledged
themselves as having been to blame for admitting a child who, 'with her bar sinister of trade,
had had no opportunity of knowing what honour meant.']'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: 'Rosie' Print: Book
Thursday 30 Auguust: 'My goodness, the wind! Last night we looked at the meadow trees, flinging about [...] I read such a white dimity rice puddingy chapter of Mrs Gaskell in the gale "Wives and Daughters"'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
'In looking over the book I see numerous errors regarding the part written in the Lancashire dialect; 'gotten' should always be 'getten'; &c. - In the midst of all my deep & great annoyance, Mr Carlyle's letter has been most valuable; and has given me almost the only unmixed pleasure I have yet received from MB.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
''Libbie Marsh' I send too; one of my cousins liked it so much that I gave it to her, and she published it on her own behalf'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Fanny Print: Book
'I am so glad you liked 'Ruth'. I was so anxious about her, and took so much pains over writing it, that I lost my own power of judging, and could not tell whether I had done it well or ill. I only knew how very close to my heart it had come from'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: R. Monckton Milnes Print: Book
'you are not coming up to a certain Mr Hibbert who is now reading Mary Barton for the [italics] fourteenth [end italics] time.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Hibbert Print: Book
'I'm glad she [Charlotte Bronte] likes 'North and South'. I did not think Margaret was so over good. What would Miss B. say to Florence Nightingale? I can't imagine!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Serial / periodical
'about "Cranford" I am so much pleased you like it. It is the only one of my own books that I can read again; - but when I am ailing or ill, I take "Cranford" and - I was going to say, [italics] enjoy [end italics] it! (but that would not be pretty!) laugh over it afresh! [...] I am so glad your mother likes it too! [Gaskell then relates an anecdote that she 'dared not' put in the book]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'about "Cranford" I am so much pleased you like it. It is the only one of my own books that I can read again; - but when I am ailing or ill, I take "Cranford" and - I was going to say, [italics] enjoy [end italics] it! (but that would not be pretty!) laugh over it afresh! [...] I am so glad your mother likes it too! [Gaskell then relates an anecdote that she 'dared not' put in the book]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book
'about "Cranford" I am so much pleased you like it. It is the only one of my own books that I can read again; - but when I am ailing or ill, I take "Cranford" and - I was going to say, [italics] enjoy [end italics] it! (but that would not be pretty!) laugh over it afresh! [...] I am so glad your mother likes it too! [Gaskell then relates an anecdote that she 'dared not' put in the book]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Ruskin Print: Book
'The children who like Bessy's Troubles are great geese, & no judges at all, which children generally are, for it is complete rubbish I am sorry to say'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: 'children', presumably known to Marianne Gaskell Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 December 1850:
'For Mary Barton, I am a little, little disappointed, do you know. I have just done reading it. There is power & truth -- she can shape & she can pierce -- but I wish half the book away, it is so tedious every now & then, -- and besides I want more beauty, more air from the universal world -- these class-books must always be defective as works of art [...] Then the style of the book is slovenly, and given to a kind of phraseology which would be vulgar even in colloquial English. Oh -- it is a powerful book in many ways -- You are not to set me down as hypercritical. Probably the author will write herself clear of many of her faults: she has strength enough.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Unknown
'Sylvia's Lovers 1863, though I have not finished it, has been an eye-opener after the twitterings of Cranford. The sensuousness of the sailor, the characterisation, without fuss, of S's parents, the amusing deterioration of S's friends after marriage. And the wisdom in this account of old-fashioned country mentality: [quotes passage from chapter 7 of text, opening 'Taken as a general rule, it may be said that few knew what manner of men they were,' before commenting further on text]'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
'So I turned, as often, for help and advice to Mrs.Gaskell's "Life of Charlotte Bronte", which Winifred and I had read and admired together.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Celia Burrow Print: Book
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Katherine Evans Print: Book
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith Print: Book
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Print: Book
[From letter to Clement Shorter from the niece of John Nunn:]
'In 1857 I was staying with Mr Nunn at Thorndon, in Suffolk, of which place he was rector. The good man had never read a novel in his life, and of course had never heard of the famous Bronte books. I was reading Mrs Gaskell's Life [of Charlotte Bronte] with absorbed interest, and one day my uncle said, "I have heard lately a name mentioned with which I was well familiar. What is it all about?" He was told, when he added, "Patrick Bronte [father of Charlotte] was once my greatest friend. Next morning my uncle brought out a thick bundle of letters and said, "These were written by Patrick Bronte. They refer to his spiritual state. I have read them once more, and now I destroy them."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
'admirable in design, execution, story & delineation of character. I only allow myself these pleasant readings when in bed'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle Print: Unknown
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: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kingsley Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 1 February 1849:
'I will tell you what I want to do; it is to show you the first volume of my MS. [Shirley] [...] In reading "Mary Barton" (a clever though painful tale) I was a little dismayed to find myself in some measure anticipated both in subject and incident. I should like to have your opinion on this point'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Unknown
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 26 September 1850:
'Rumour says we are to expect from you a Christmas Book [...] If the report about the
Christmas Book is not true — make it true. I am hungry for a genuine bit of refreshment — but
you must mind not to pierce one with too keen-edged emotion. There are parts of "Mary
Barton" I shall never dare to read a second time.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 4 January 1851:
'I found your note and "The Moorland Cottage," of which last I have only as yet read the
commencement, which I find to be as sweet, as pure, as fresh as an unopened morning daisy'.
Unknown
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 22 January 1851:
'You are thrice thanked — first, for the real treat afforded by "The Moorland Cottage." I told
you that book opened like a daisy. I now tell you it finished like a herb — a balsamic herb with
healing in its leaves [...] no thought can be truer than Mrs Brown's persistent, irrational, but
most touching partiality for her son. The little story is fresh, natural, religious.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 26 April 1852:
'I have lately got hold of a bound copy of Dickens's "Household Words" for 1851. Therein, I
have, as yet, only read three articles — to wit, "Society at Cranford," "Love at Cranford,"
"Memory at Cranford." Before reading them I had received a hint as to the authorship, which
hint gave them special zest. The best is the last — Memory. How good I thought it — I must
not tell you.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 26 April 1852:
'I have lately got hold of a bound copy of Dickens's "Household Words" for 1851. Therein, I
have, as yet, only read three articles — to wit, "Society at Cranford," "Love at Cranford,"
"Memory at Cranford." Before reading them I had received a hint as to the authorship, which
hint gave them special zest. The best is the last — Memory. How good I thought it — I must
not tell you.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 26 April 1852:
'I have lately got hold of a bound copy of Dickens's "Household Words" for 1851. Therein, I
have, as yet, only read three articles — to wit, "Society at Cranford," "Love at Cranford,"
"Memory at Cranford." Before reading them I had received a hint as to the authorship, which
hint gave them special zest. The best is the last — Memory. How good I thought it — I must
not tell you.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 22 May 1852:
'I read "Visiting at Cranford" with that sort of pleasure which seems always too brief in its
duration — I wished the paper had been twice as long.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, regarding preparations for publication of Villette, 12
January 1853:
'I had felt, and expressed, to Mr Smith [publisher], reluctance to come in the way of "Ruth";
not that I think she (bless her very sweet face. I have already devoured
Vol. I) would suffer from contact with "Villette" — we know not but that the damage might be
the other way — but I have ever held comparisons to be odious, and would fain that neither I
nor my friends should be made subjects for the same. Mr Smith proposes, accordingly, to
defer the publication of my book [...]
'"Villette" has no right to push itself before "Ruth." There is a goodness, a philanthropic
purpose, a social use in the latter, to which the former cannot for an instant pretend; nor can
it claim precedence on the ground of surpassing power [...] As far as I have got in "Ruth" I
think it excels "Mary Barton" for beauty [...] As to the style I found it such as my soul
welcomes. Of the delineation of character I shall be better able to judge when I get to the end,
but may say in passing — that Sally, the old servant, seems to be an "apple of gold,"
deserving to be "set in a picture of silver."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 9 July 1853:
'Thank you for your letter — it was as pleasant as a quiet chat [...] as reviving as a friend's
visit; in short, it was very like a page of "Cranford."
'That book duly reached me [...] I have read it over twice; once to myself, and once aloud to
my father. I find it pleasurable reading -- graphic, pithy, penetrating, shrewd, yet kind and
indulgent.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 9 July 1853:
'Thank you for your letter — it was as pleasant as a quiet chat [...] as reviving as a friend's
visit; in short, it was very like a page of "Cranford."
'That book duly reached me [...] I have read it over twice; once to myself, and once aloud to
my father. I find it pleasurable reading -- graphic, pithy, penetrating, shrewd, yet kind and
indulgent.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 30 September 1854:
'We all know that it is not precisely advantageous to a really good book to be published
piecemeal in a periodical — but still — such a plan has its good side. "North and South" will
thus be seen by many into whose hands it would not otherwise fall.
What has appeared I like well, and better and better each fresh number; best of all the last
(to-day's). The subject seems to me difficult; at first, I groaned over it [...] but I think I see
the ground you are about to take as far as the Church is concerned; not that of attack on her,
but of defence of those who conscientiously differ from her, and feel it a duty to leave her
fold.
'Well — it is good ground, but still rugged for the step of Fiction [...] It seems to me you
understand well the Genius of the North. Where the Southern Lady and the Northern Mechanic
are brought into contrast and contact, I think Nature is well respected. Simple, true, and good
did I think the last number — clear of artifical trammels of style and thought.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 30 September 1854:
'We all know that it is not precisely advantageous to a really good book to be published
piecemeal in a periodical — but still — such a plan has its good side. "North and South" will
thus be seen by many into whose hands it would not otherwise fall.
'What has appeared I like well, and better and better each fresh number; best of all the last
(to-day's). The subject seems to me difficult; at first, I groaned over it [...] but I think I see
the ground you are about to take as far as the Church is concerned; not that of attack on her,
but of defence of those who conscientiously differ from her, and feel it a duty to leave her
fold.
'Well — it is good ground, but still rugged for the step of Fiction [...] It seems to me you
understand well the Genius of the North. Where the Southern Lady and the Northern Mechanic
are brought into contrast and contact, I think Nature is well respected. Simple, true, and good
did I think the last number — clear of artifical trammels of style and thought.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte's schoolfriend, Mary Taylor, to Elizabeth Gaskell, 30 July 1857:
'I am unaccountably in receipt by post of two vols containing the "Life of C. Bronte." I have
pleasure in attributing this compliment to you [...] The book is a perfect success, in giving a
true picture of a melancholy life [...] Though not so gloomy as the truth, it is perhaps as much
so as people will accept without calling it exaggerated [...] I have seen two reviews of it. One
of them sums it up as "a life of poverty and self-suppression.' the other has nothing to the
purpose at all. Neither of them seems to think it a strange or wrong state of things that a
woman of first-rate talents, industry, and integrity should live all her life in a walking
nightmare of "poverty and self-suppression." I doubt whether any of them will [comments
further] [...]
'Once more I thank you for the book — the first copy, I believe, that arrived in New Zealand.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Taylor Print: Book
Margaret Wooler, Charlotte Bronte's former schoolteacher, to Ellen Nussey, another former
pupil (1857):
'Mrs Palmer says she was more interested in [Charlotte Bronte's] biography than in any she ever
perused.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mrs Palmer Print: Book
The Bronte enthusiast Sidney Biddell to Charlotte Bronte's former schoolfriend, Ellen Nussey,
15 May 1883:
'Miss Robinson's "Emily Bronte" is prettily enough written [...]
But I confess to being a little disappointed, as my knowledge of that great woman is not one
jot increased by anything Miss R. has written. I prefer Mrs Gaskell's work as being more
versatile; Mr Reid's as being more vivacious, and Mr Bayne as being more stern and real
[goes on to criticise 'the constant mention of Branwell Bronte' as 'the great blot in the book']
[...]
'It's a pity she did not make her [Emily Bronte] more of a psychological study, and gone a
little deeper into the recesses of her mind [...] We owe Miss Robinson a debt of gratitude if
only for the beautiful poem she has unearthed and given in at the end of her work,
commencing "No coward Soul is mine" —
'It is new to me, at least I don't remember it.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sidney Biddell 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! [...] Of Mrs
Gaskell's "Life" she writes to a friend in 1857: "But there is one new book we
have been enjoying [...] the "Life of Charlotte Bronte"'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot Print: Book
'She [Emma Darwin] was especially devoted to Jane Austen's novels and almost knew them by heart... Scott was also a perennial favourite, especially ''The Antiquary''. Mrs Gaskell's novels she read over and over again; Dickens and Thackeray she cared for less.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Book
'My reader is a great success. It is ''Cranford'', and ''D-n Dr Johnson'' comes in. She stopped dead and said ''a slang expression''. I can't perceive she is ever amused.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emma Darwin Print: Book
'I could begin to read one of the books that had been given me ... and lose myself in
another world. [Followed by a list of books read]'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Eileen Lawrence Print: Book
‘Many thanks and belated for the parcel you sent about a week ago and
your letter. The apples are always a good thing to have and these
remained fresh. I have not answered before because I have spent all my
spare moments during the last week reading with avidity "Cranford." I
bought it in how-much-would-you-give-to-know-where: the only English
book in the bookshop left standing there: an English edition published in
France, retaining the “loin” for “lion” misprint. That I had not read it before I
count as a great gain, as it enabled me to read it now. Now you can never
put it in my epitaph “He had never read Cranford, nor reading it had he
failed to enjoy it.” You can make the remark about Jane Austen, however.’
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Hamilton Sorley Print: Book
'Cranford'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Good Print: Book
