Record Number: 28549

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Charlotte Bronte to George Henry Lewes, 12 January 1848:

'Why do you like Miss Austen so very much? I am puzzled on that point. What induced you to say that you would have rather written "Pride and Prejudice" or "Tom Jones," than any of the Waverley Novels?
'I had not seen "Pride and Prejudice" till I read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book. And what did I find? An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a commonplace face; a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses. These observations will probably irritate you, but I shall run the risk.
'Now I can understand admiration of George Sand; for though I never saw any of her works which I admired throughout (even "Consuelo," which is the best, or the best that I have read, appears to me to couple strange extravagance with wondrous excellence), yet she has a grasp of mind which, if I cannot fully comprehend, I can very deeply respect: she is sagacious and profound; Miss Austen is only shrewd and observant.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Oct 1847 and 12 Jan 1848

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

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

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Charlotte Brontë

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

21 Mar 1816

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

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

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Jane Austen

Title:

Pride and Prejudice

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

28549

Source:

Print

Author:

n/a

Editor:

James Wise and John Alexander Symington

Title:

The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1980

Vol:

2

Page:

179-180

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

James Wise and John Alexander Symington (ed.), The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence, (Oxford, 1980), 2, p. 179-180, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28549, accessed: 20 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

None