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 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
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 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
Charlotte Bronte to G. H. Lewes, 17 October 1850:
'Accept my thanks for some hours of pleasant reading. Balzac was for me quite a new author,
and in making his acquaintance, through the medium of "Modeste Mignon" and "Illusions
Perdues" — you cannot doubt I have felt some interest.
At first I thought he was going to be painfully minute, and fearfully tedious; one grew
impatient of his long parade of detail [...] but by-and-by, I seemed to enter into the mystery
of his craft and to discover with delight where his force lay: is it not in the analysis of motive,
and in a subtle perception of the most obscure and secret workings of the mind? Still —
admire Balzac as we may — I think we do not like him. We rather feel towards him as
towards an uncongenial acquaintance who is for ever holding up, in strong light, our defects,
and who rarely draws forth our better qualities.
'Truly — I like George Sand better. Fantastic, fanatical, unpractical enthusiast as she often is
[...] George Sand has a better nature than M. Balzac — her brain is larger — her heart warmer
than his. The "Lettres d'un Voyageur" are full of the writer's self, and I never felt so strongly
as in the perusal of this work — that most of her very faults spring from the excess of her
good qualities [...] her mind is of that order which disastrous experience teaches without
weakening or too much disheartening'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Brontë Print: Book
