Record Number: 28600

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Charlotte Bronte, as Currer Bell, to her publisher W. S. Williams, 22 June 1848:

'I feel a little difficulty in telling you what I think of the "Life of Mirabeau." It has interested me much, and I have derived additional information; in the course of reading it, I have often felt called upon to approve the ability and tact of the writer [...] but I have also been moved frequently to disapprobation. It is not the political principles of the writer with which I find fault, nor is it his talents [...] it is his manner of treating Mirabeau's errors that offends [...] there, I think, he betrays a little of crudeness — a little of presumption — not a little of indiscretion.
Could you with confidence put this work into the hands of your son, secure that its perusal would not harm him — that it would not leave on his mind some vague impression that there is a grandeur in vice committed on a colossal scale? [comments further, at length, on text]'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 15 Jun 1848 and 22 Jun 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 Apr 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:

John Stores Smith

Title:

Mirabeau: A Life History

Genre:

History, Biography, Politics

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

1848

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

28600

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:

224-225; 224

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. 224-225; 224, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28600, accessed: 28 April 2025

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Additional Comments:

Bronte wrote to Williams with thanks for the text, and with preliminary impressions of it, on 15 June 1848; see p.222 in source.