Record Number: 28736

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 20 September 1851:

'Of all the articles respecting which you question me I have seen none, except that notable one in the "Westminster" on the Emancipation of Women [...] Well argued it is — clear, logical — but [...] I think the writer forgets there is such a thing as self-sacrificing love and disinterested devotion. When I first read the paper, I thought it was the work of a powerful, clear-headed woman [...] a woman who longed for power, and had never felt affection [...] I believe J. S. Mill would make a hard dry, dismal world of it; and yet he speaks admirable sense through a great portion of his article, especially when he says that if there be a natural unfitness in women for men's employment there is no need to make laws on the subject; leave all careers open, let them try; those who ought to succeed will succeed [...] In short, J. S. Mill's head is, I dare say, very good, but I feel disposed to scorn his heart. You are right when you say that there is a large margin in human nature over which the logicians have no dominion; glad am I that it is so.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1851 and 20 Aug 1851

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:

Harriet Taylor

Title:

'Enfranchisement of Women'

Genre:

Essays / Criticism, Politics

Form of Text:

Print: Serial / periodical

Publication Details

Westminster Review, 55 (July 1851): 289-311

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

28736

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:

2:3

Page:

277-278

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington (ed.), The Brontes: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence, (Oxford, 1980), 2:3, p. 277-278, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=28736, accessed: 19 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

See p.278 n.2 in source for eds.' identification of author of text, and for quotation from a letter in which Mill stated that he was not the author of this article, but that 'The writer is a woman, and the most warm-hearted woman, of the largest and most genial sympathies, and the most forgetful of self in her generous zeal to do honour to others, whom I have ever known.' Bibliographical details are taken from the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals.