Charlotte Bronte to Mrs Smith, 9 January 1850:

'You ask me what I think of [Thackeray's] Christmas Book. I think it is like himself, and all he says and writes; harsh and kindly, wayward and wise, benignant and bitter; its pages are overshadowed with cynicism, and yet they sparkle with feeling. As to his abuse of Rowena and women in general ‐ I will tell you my dear Madam what he deserves ‐ first to be arrested, to be kept in prison for a month, then to be tried by a jury of twelve matrons, and subsequently to undergo any punishment they might think proper to inflict; and I trust they would not spare him [comments further]'.