Record Number: 28553

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Charlotte Bronte (as Currer Bell) to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 3 March 1848:

'I have received the "Christian Remembrancer," and read the review. It is written with some ability — but, to do justice was evidently not the critic's main object; therefore he excuses himself from performing that duty.
'I daresay the reviewer imagines that [italics]Currer Bell[end italics] ought to be extremely afflicted, very much cut up by some smart things he says: this however is not the case. C. Bell is, on the whole, rather encouraged than dispirited by the review: the hard-wrung praise extorted reluctantly from a foe is the most precious praise of all; you are sure that this, at least, has no admixture of flattery. I fear he has too high an opinion of my abilities and of what I can do; but that is his own fault. In other respects, he aims his shafts in the dark, and the success, or rather, ill success of his hits makes me laugh rather than cry. His shafts of sarcasm are nicely polished, keenly pointed; he should not have wasted them in shooting at a mark he cannot see.
'I hope such reviews will not make much difference with me; and that if the spirit moves me in future to say anything about priests &c. I shall say it with the same freedom as heretofore.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Feb 1848 and 3 Mar 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

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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

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Title:

review of Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Genre:

Essays / Criticism

Form of Text:

Print: Serial / periodical

Publication Details

In The Christian Remembrancer

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

28553

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:

195

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

James Wise and John Alexander Symington (ed.), The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence, (Oxford, 1980), 2, p. 195, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28553, accessed: 27 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

None