Charlotte Bronte to James Taylor, 1 February 1851: 'Have you yet read Miss Martineau's and Mr Atkinson's new work "Letters on the Nature and Development of Man?" ... It is the first exposition of avowed Atheism and Materialism I have ever read ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book
Deborah Epstein Nord, The Apprenticeship of Beatrice Webb (1985) noted as "especially interesting ... in its discussion of Webb's ... reading of autobiographies (such as John Stuart Mill's Autobiography, Harriet Martineau's Autobiography, George Sand's Histoire de ma vie, and Wordsworth's Prelude ..."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Beatrice Webb Print: Book
'I am reading Martineau ["Types of Ethical Theory"] and like it, indeed I think I shall leave of writing this and go on.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Walter Raleigh Print: Book
'Lovely books she read to us...:"The Wide Wide World", with all the religion and deaths from consumption left out, and all the farm life and good country food left in; "Masterman Ready", with that ass Mr Seagrave mitigated, and dear old Ready not killed by the savages; "Settlers at Home", with the baby not allowed to die; "The Little Duke" with horrid little Carloman spared to grow more virtuous still; "The Children of the New Forest"; "The Runaway"; "The Princess and the Goblin", and many more'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henrietta Litchfield Print: Book
'I have continued reading Milne-Edwards aloud, and have also read Harriet Martineau's article on Missions in the "Westminster", and one or two articles in the "National". Reading to myself Harvey's "Sea-side Book", and "The Lover's Seat".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Serial / periodical
'Began the Ajax of Sophocles. Also Miss Martineau's History of the Peace'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book
'In the evenings of late, we have been reading Harriet Martineau's sketch of "The British Empire in India", and are now following it up with Macaulay's articles of Clive and Hastings. We have lately read H.M.'s Introduction to the "History of the Peace" and have begun the "History of the Thirty Years Peace".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book
'In the evenings of late, we have been reading Harriet Martineau's sketch of "The British Empire in India", and are now following it up with Macaulay's articles of Clive and Hastings. We have lately read H.M.'s Introduction to the "History of the Peace" and have begun the "History of the Thirty Years Peace".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book
'Gave up Miss Martineau's "History" last night after reading some hundred pages in the second volume. She has a sentimental, rhetorical style in this history which is fatiguing and not instructive. But her history of the Reform Movement is very interesting'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Book
'From that time [summer 1840] to the present [1845] I have not read much. I have, however, looked through Lord Byron's works, the "Memoirs of Mr William Hutton", and Dr Stilling's Autobiography; with some of the works of Sir Walter Scott, Dr Southey, and Miss Martineau.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carter Print: Book
'I was reading to-day and I have since finished Miss Martineau's "Deerbrook", a capital novel though it is too full of preaching. It is inferior in execution to Miss Austen's novels in the development of common characters, but is suprior in the higher parts.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry Crabb Robinson Print: Book
'Ps. Have you read Miss Martineau on Mesmerism in the Athenaeum (two of them). I have got them and if you like I will send them to you. They are very wonderful [underlined]'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Serial / periodical
'[Annabella] had been reading Harriet Martineau's "Five Years of Youth", and wrote to a friend: "it is very good - chiefly directed against Romance, and therefore not necessary for Ada".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella), Baroness Byron Print: Book
Harriet Martineau hears her first (pseudonymously) published work read by her unsuspecting eldest brother: 'After tea he said "[...] I will read you something"; and he held out his hand for the new "[Monthly] Repository." After glancing at it, he exclaimed, "They have got a new hand here. Listen." After a paragraph, he repeated, "Ah! this is a new hand; they have had nothing so good as this for a long while." [...] I was silent, of course.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Martineau Print: Serial / periodical
Harriet Martineau on her early writings: 'I immediately after [the publication of her first periodical essay] began to write my first work, -- "Devotional Exercises," [...] I remember my brother's anxious doubting looks, as he read the M.S.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Martineau Manuscript: Unknown
Harriet Martineau on one of her early publications: 'A most excellent young servant of ours [...] went out to Madeira with my brother and his family [...] Her history was a rather remarkable, and a very interesting one; and I wrote it in the form of four of Houlston's penny tracts. He threw together, and made a little book of them; and the heroine, who would never have heard of them as tracts, was speedily put in possession of her Memoirs in the form of the little book called "My Servant Rachel." An aunt of mine, calling on her one day, found her standing in the middle of the floor, and her husband reading the book over her shoulder.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Martineau family servant, and husband Print: Book
Harriet Martineau on her concerns about the acceptability of some of her writings: 'While writing "Weal and Woe in Garveloch," the perspiration many a time streamed down my face, though I knew there was not a line in it which might not be read aloud in any family. The misery arose from my seeing how the simplest statements and reasonings might and probably would be perverted [...] when the number was finished, I read it aloud to my mother and aunt [...] they were as complacent and easy as they had been interested and attentive.'
Unknown
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau, on a response to her series of "Tales", denounced as 'improper' in the Quarterly Review, by a woman lent the 'Garveloch' stories by one of Martineau's friends: 'A few days after, [she] brought back the book, saying [...] it was so harmless that her husband had read it aloud to the young people in the evening [having been offered another] [...] The lady and her husband read the whole series through in this way, and never could find out the "improper book."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
Harriet Martineau, on a response to her series of "Tales", denounced as 'improper' in the Quarterly Review, by a woman lent the 'Garveloch' stories by one of Martineau's friends: 'A few days after, [she] brought back the book, saying [...] it was so harmless that her husband had read it aloud to the young people in the evening [having been offered another] [...] The lady and her husband read the whole series through in this way, and never could find out the "improper book."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon woman and husband Print: Book
'[Elizabeth Fry] told me [Harriet Martineau] that her brother, J. J. Gurney, and other members of her family had become convinced by reading "Cousin Marshall" and others of my tales that they had been for a long course of years doing mischief where they meant to do good; that they were now convinced that the true way of benefiting the poor was to reform the Poor-law system'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: J. J. Gurney Print: Unknown
'[Elizabeth Fry] told me [Harriet Martineau] that her brother, J. J. Gurney, and other members of her family had become convinced by reading "Cousin Marshall" and others of my tales that they had been for a long course of years doing mischief where they meant to do good; that they were now convinced that the true way of benefiting the poor was to reform the Poor-law system'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Family of Elizabeth Fry Print: Unknown
'Since reading "Cousin Marshall" and others of my Numbers, [Lord Henley] had dropped his subscriptions to some hurtful charities, and had devoted his funds to Education, Benefit Societies and Emigration.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Henley Print: Unknown
'[S. T. Coleridge] told me [Harriet Martineau] that he (the last person whom I should have suspected) read my tales as they came out on the first of the month'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Print: Serial / periodical
Harriet Martineau, on plans for, and execution of, her work on Toussaint L'Ouverture: 'I went to my confidante, with a sheetful of notes, and a heartful of longings to draw that glorious character [...] But my friend could not see the subject as I did [...] I gave it up; but a few years after, when ill at Tynemouth, I reverted to my scheme and fulfilled it; and my kind adviser, while never liking the subject in an artistic sense, graciously told me that the book had kept her up, over her dressing-room fire, till three in the morning.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
'At a concert at the Hanover Square Rooms, some time before [Queen Victoria's accession] (I forget what year it was) the Duchess of Kent sent Sir John Conroy to me [Harriet Martineau] with a message of acknowledgement of the usefulness of my books to the Princess [Victoria]: and I afterwards heard more particulars of the eagerness with which the little lady read the stories on the first day of the month [...] Her "favourite" of my stories is "Ella of Garveloch."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Princess Victoria Print: Serial / periodical
'[A friend] one day desired to be allowed to see and criticise the first chapter of my [Harriet Martineau's] "Retrospect of Western Travel." I gave him the MS. at night; and in the morning he produced it, covered with pencil marks.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Manuscript: Unknown
Harriet Martineau to 'Mr Atkinson', 21 November 1847: 'I saw a sort of scared smile on Mrs. ----'s face the other day, when in talking about education, I said we had yet to see what could be done by a direct appeal to human nature. She, liberal as she is, thinks we have such active bad tendencies [...] that we can do nothing without [...] Help. Yet she, and Mrs. ---- too, devours my Household education papers, as if she had never met with anything true before on that subject.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Unknown
Charlotte Bronte (writing as Currer Bell) to Harriet Martineau, 7 November 1849: 'When C.B. first read "Deerbrook" he tasted a new and keen pleasure [...] "Deerbrook" ranks with the writings that have really done him good, added to his stock of ideas, and rectified his views of life.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book
'"Currer Bell" [Charlotte Bronte] told me [Harriet Martineau] that she had read with astonishment those parts of "Household Education" which relate my own experience. It was like meeting her own [?]fetch'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book
'I [Harriet Martineau] wrote a letter [...] to an Assistant Poor-law Commissioner, who was earnest in his endeavours to get workhouses supplied with milk and vegetables, by the labour of the inmates on the land. To my amazement, I found my letter in the "Times," one day while I was at Bolton.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Newspaper
Harriet Martineau on the death of a Town Missionary acquaintance of hers:
'A friend of his at Birmingham wrote to me that he declared himself dying [of consumption] [...] she immediately wrote to suggest to me that a letter from me would gratify him. There was scarcely anything I would rather have done [Martineau having abandoned her Christian faith]: but it was impossible to refuse. I wrote at once [...] There was not a word about the future, or God, or even Christ. It was a letter of sympathy in his benevolent and happy life, and also, of course, in his present weakness. It reached him on the last day of his life. It was read to him. When he a little revived, he asked for it, and read it himself; and then desired his wife to tell all who loved him of "ths last flush on his darkness."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Manuscript: Letter
Harriet Martineau on the death of a Town Missionary acquaintance of hers:
'A friend of his at Birmingham wrote to me that he declared himself dying [of consumption] [...] she immediately wrote to suggest to me that a letter from me would gratify him. There was scarcely anything I would rather have done [Martineau having abandoned her Christian faith]: but it was impossible to refuse. I wrote at once [...] There was not a word about the future, or God, or even Christ. It was a letter of sympathy in his benevolent and happy life, and also, of course, in his present weakness. It reached him on the last day of his life. It was read to him. When he a little revived, he asked for it, and read it himself; and then desired his wife to tell all who loved him of "ths last flush on his darkness."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Manuscript: Letter
Charlotte Bronte to Harriet Martineau, on Martineau's published correspondence with Atkinson: 'Having read your book, I cannot now think it will create any outcry. You are tender of others: -- you are serious, reverent and gentle.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book
Maria Weston Chapman on Harriet Martineau's story 'Mary and her Grandmother': 'I found it in the [italics]mansarde[end italics] of a Paris friend, and stood reading on the spot where I took it up, without the least idea of its authorship. It seemed like a Sunday-school book, but how different from its class in general!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Maria Weston Chapman Print: Book
Lord Durham to Harriet Martineau, 1 January 1834: 'I have read your excellent paper with great pleasure'.
Unknown
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Durham
Harriet Martineau, Journal, 10 September 1837: 'Read to Mrs ---- my last chapters of my first volume of "Retrospect." She says the book will do.'
Unknown
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau, Journal, 24 September 1837: '[italics]Evening[end italics] Read [...] to my mother [...] my Sedgwick article, which she likes.'
Unknown
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau, Journal, 16 December 1837: 'Morning, read one of my own stories, -- "Loom and Lugger." Was quite disappointed in it. It has capital material, but is obscure, and not simple enough.'
Unknown
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau, Journal, 6 February 1838: '[At Captain Beaufort's] Met [...] C. Darwin, Mr. F. Edgeworth, and Mr. Hamilton, brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, who had been reading my book up to dinner-time, and took a good gaze at me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hamilton Print: Book
Sir Arthur Helps to the publisher Macmillan, 'I have lately re-read "Deerbrook" with exceeding delight.'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sir Arthur Helps Print: Book
Lord Jeffrey to 'Mr. Empson', December 1840: 'I have read Harriet [Martineau]'s first volume [of "The Hour and the Man"], and give in my adhesion to her Black Prince [Toussaint L'Ouverture] with all my heart and soul. The book is really not only beautiful and touching, but [italics]noble[end italics]; and I do not recollect when I have been more charmed, whether by very sweet and eloquent writing and glowing description, or by elevated as well as tender sentiments. I do not believe that the worthy people ever spoke or acted as she has so gracefully presented them, and must confess that in all the striking scenes I entirely forgot their complexion, and drove the notion of it from me as often as it occurred. But this does not at all diminish, but rather increases the merit of her creations.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Jeffrey Print: Book
Florence Nightingale to Jane Martineau, 29 June 1876: 'I have thought of "The Hour and the Man" as the finest historical romance in any language. You would wonder if you knew how often I have read it over and over again, even in the last two years.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Nightingale Print: Book
From letter of Elizabeth B. Ker, niece of Harriet Martineau: 'I regret infinitely that she desired all her letters to be destroyed. I had so large a boxful that it took some time to read and burn them [...] on reading that most charming of all her publications, "Life in the Sick-Room" [...] I said, "Oh, but I have read it all before! -- this is only my burnt letters!"'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth B. Ker Print: Book
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 26 November 1846:
'I read nothing scarcely [...] Miss Martineau's [italics]Tales on the Game Laws[end italics] I began, but they are so dull to me that I have scarcely patience to finish. The thing I like about them is their fairness. The rich people are not all wretches, though Miss Martineau's sympathies are evidently with the poor.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Unknown
'I have just read Miss Martineau's "Sick Room". I cannot understand it. It is so sublime, and mystical that I frequently cannot guess at her meaning; all that I can find out is that in long chronical illnesses, a patient finds sources of amusement that do not at first occurr, but which have a tendency to engage the mind, and alleviate pain; all this however I could have conjectured without the assistance of an Octavo book'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book
'Shall I confess to you that I have some dread of this wonderful lady [Harriet Martineau]...I agree with a good, simple lady of my acquaintance that "political economy is an excellent thing," but, alas! when I read Miss M's books, I slip [possibly skip?] the political economy as a friend of mine did the muscles when he studied anatomy'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Catharine Sedgwick Print: Book
'How good of you to send me these books. I am ashamed to say that I forget whether I thanked you for the last - but I [underlined] do [end underlining] thank you. I liked the 3d tale, "Maude Chapel Farm" very much.'
[letter to Edward Moxon]
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'I read nothing scarcely, all my spare time being given to German exercises. Miss Martineau's "Tales on the Game Laws" I began, but they are so dull to me that I have scarcely patience to finish. The thing I like about them is their fairness. The rich people are not all wretches,though Miss Martineau's sympathies are evidently with the poor'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
'I have just finished Miss Martineau's new romance. Toussaint the hero is a magnificent character, - and all connected with his personal private character is very interesting, & the conversations (where we may suppose she speaks herself) are just like those in Deerbrook very interesting. The [italics] story [end italics] is too like reading a history - one knows all along how it must end, - & there's a map at the beginning [italics] like [end italics] a history.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
'I have just finished Miss Martineau's new romance. Toussaint the hero is a magnificent character, - and all connected with his personal private character is very interesting, & the conversations (where we may suppose she speaks herself) are just like those in Deerbrook very interesting. The [italics] story [end italics] is too like reading a history - one knows all along how it must end, - & there's a map at the beginning [italics] like [end italics] a history.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Julia Martin, 11 January 1845: 'Mr Kenyon has read to me an extract from a private letter -- addressed by H. Martineau to Moxon the publisher, .. to the effect that ... Lord Morpeth was down on his knees in the middle of the room a few nights ago, in the presence of the somnambule J__ & conversing with her in Greek & Latin -- that .. the four Miss Liddels were also present, .. & that .. they five talked to her during one seance in five foreign languages, .. viz .. Latin, Greek, French, Italian & German.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Kenyon Manuscript: Letter
'To go back to books. H. Martineau's is, I think, the best guide book [to the Lakes].'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning, 13-14 January 1846:
'Will you have Miss Martineau's books when I can lend them to you? Just at this moment I [italics]dare not[end italics], because they are reading them here.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Moulton-Barrett family Print: Book
'At present sunk deep in Harriet Martineau: very much attracted in spite of her complacent priggishness and self-righteousness. A very [italics] true [end italics] nature there; honest and unflinching and courageous. One gets nourished by the oddest people...'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Antonia White Print: Book
From Emily Tennyson's Journal, 1869:
'Sept. 13th. [...] Read the "Idylls" through in their proper sequence during these months, also Tom Hughes' Alfred the Great, Pressense's Life of Christ, Martineau's Endeavours After a Christian Life, and Lecky's European Morals.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Emily Tennyson Print: Book
James Martineau to Hallam Tennyson (1893), recalling meetings of the Metaphysical Society:
'I remember a special interest shown by your father in a paper contributed by the Rev. F. D. Maurice on the meaning of the words "Nature," "Natural," "Supernatural," November 21st, 1871 [...]
'The other subjects on which papers were read in your father's presence were the following:
'July 14, 1869. The commonsense philosophy of causation: Dr W. B. Carpenter.
'June 15, 1870. Is there any Axiom of Causation? Myself. (Mr Tennyson in the chair.)
'July 13. The relativity of Knowledge: Mr Fred. Harrison.
'Dec. 13. The emotion of Conviction: Mr Walter Bagehot.
'July 11, 1871. What is Death? Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.
'July 9, 1872. The supposed necessity for seeking a solution of ultimate Metaphysical Problems: Mr F. Harrison.
Nov. 12. The five idols of the Theatre: Mr Shadworth H. Hodgson.
Dec. 16, 1873. Utilitarianism: Professor Henry Sidgwick.
Feb. 12, 1878. Double truth: Rev. M. Pattison, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.'
Unknown
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Martineau
'The girl [Ada Byron] was then [1831] seventeen; her mother had been reading Harriet Martineau's Five Years of Youth, and wrote to a friend: "It is very good -- chiefly directed against Romance, and therefore not necessary for Ada."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella Lady Byron Print: Book
Harriet, Countess Granville to her sister, Lady Carlisle, 10 January 1844:
'Tell me more about Miss Martineau's book [Letters on Mesmerism]. I am afraid of it. The old tales, which I have been re-reading, have such an effect upon me that I can scarcely read them. She writes in a way that harrows up every feeling. It is, I think, quite a strange power, because no writer is so simple and so strong upon sorrows that come to all.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Countess Granville Print: Unknown
Harriet, Countess Granville to her sister, Lady Carlisle, 10 January 1844:
'Tell me more about Miss Martineau's book [Letters on Mesmerism]. I am afraid of it. The old tales, which I have been re-reading, have such an effect upon me that I can scarcely read them. She writes in a way that harrows up every feeling. It is, I think, quite a strange power, because no writer is so simple and so strong upon sorrows that come to all.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Countess Granville Print: Unknown
Harriet, Countess Granville to her sister, Lady Carlisle (February 1844):
'I should like Miss Martineau, if somebody would translate it. I have only read a chapter, which I cannot understand.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Countess Granville Print: Unknown
'A most striking book, & gives abundant food for thought & admiration, one of those which to read is an epoch for the mind… I think the whole book calculated to be of great use both to invalids & still more to those who are with them, it is so searching & so ennobling; at the same time there is a good deal of pride and sterness, perhaps of self-sufficiency which seem s the besetting taint of her line of opinions, & she presents rather an appalling idea of pain.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Book
'It is clear to me that mesmerism is not to be poo-pood, but diligently & reverently investigated'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: G. W. F. Howard, Lord Morpeth Print: Unknown
Charlotte Bronte to James Taylor, 1 October 1849:
'The perusal of Harriet Martineau's "Eastern Life" has afforded me great pleasure; and I have found a deep and interesting subject of study in Newman's work on the "Soul." Have you read this work? It is daring — it may be mistaken — but it is pure and elevated. Froude's "Nemesis of Faith" I did not like; I thought it morbid; yet in its pages, too, are found sprinklings of truth.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte (as Currer Bell) to Harriet Martineau, in note accompanying copy of Bronte's novel Shirley:
'When C. B. first read Deerbrook he tasted a new and keen pleasure, and experienced a genuine benefit. In his mind Deerbrook ranks with the writings that have really done him good, added to his stock of ideas and rectified his views of life.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to G. H. Lewes, 23 November 1850:
'I am glad to hear that Miss Martineau's little story in the "Leader" touched you and made you
cry. I thought it a sample of real suffering; a case piteous, cureless,
voiceless. It is to be feared there are many such [...] I used to think human destinies were
nearly equal, but the older I grow the weaker becomes my hold on this doctrine'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte to G. H. Lewes, 23 November 1850:
'I am glad to hear that Miss Martineau's little story in the "Leader" touched you and made you
cry. I thought it a sample of real suffering; a case piteous, cureless,
voiceless. It is to be feared there are many such [...] I used to think human destinies were
nearly equal, but the older I grow the weaker becomes my hold on this doctrine'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Henry Lewes Print: Serial / periodical
Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, 7 January 1851:
'I did enjoy my visit to Miss Martineau very much [...] I rather tremble at
the anticipation of a work she is about to publish conjointly with a Mr Atkinson. She read me
some passages of it which partially mesmerised me, but she is ready to meet any shock of
opposition for the sake of what she believes the Truth.'
Unknown
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau
Charlotte Bronte to George Smith, 7 January 1851:
'I did enjoy my visit to Miss Martineau very much [...] I rather tremble at
the anticipation of a work she is about to publish conjointly with a Mr Atkinson. She read me
some passages of it which partially mesmerised me, but she is ready to meet any shock of
opposition for the sake of what she believes the Truth.'
Unknown
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau
‘Talking of this, my Sara, what d’ye think / (To ask the question is but waste of Ink) / Of
Harriet Martineau’s political novels? / Fine food, forsooth, for starving paupers’ hovels - / No
doubt, ’twould much improve the poor’s behaviour, / And make them happy in their low
conditions / To teach them all to disbelieve their Saviour / And make them infidel
Arithmeticians. / Were I woman, I should blush for shame / That such a thing should bear a
woman’s name. ...’
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hartley Coleridge Print: Book
