Record Number: 28636

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Charlotte Bronte to W. S. Williams, 5 April 1849:

'The Cornhill books are still our welcome and congenial resource while Anne [sister, in terminal decline] is well enough to enjoy reading. Carlyle's "Miscellanies" interest me greatly. We have read "The Emigrant Family." The characters in the work are good, full of quiet truth and nature, and the local colouring is excellent; yet I can hardly call it a good novel. Reflective, truth-loving, and even elevated as is Alexander Harris's mind, I should say he scarcely possesses the creative faculty in sufficient vigour to excel as a writer of fiction. He creates nothing — he only copies. "The Testimony to the Truth [of Christianity]" is a better book than any tale he can write will ever be.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1849 and 5 Apr 1849

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:

Reading Group:

Charlotte Bronte and family

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

n/a

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:

Alexander Harris

Title:

The Emigrant Family

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

28636

Source:

Print

Author:

n/a

Editor:

Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington

Title:

The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1980

Vol:

1:2

Page:

322

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington (ed.), The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence, (Oxford, 1980), 1:2, p. 322, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28636, accessed: 04 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

The other work of Harris's referred to by Brontë is 'A Converted Atheist's Testimony to the Truth of Christianity'; see p.306 in source for her more detailed response to it.