"C. B."
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
"_April_ 3_rd_, 1850.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I have received the _Dublin Review_, and your letter inclosing the Indian Notices. I hope these reviews will do good; they are all favourable, and one of them (the _Dublin_) is very able.
I have read no critique so discriminating since that in the _Revue des deux Mondes_. It offers a curious contrast to Lewes"s in the _Edinburgh_, where forced praise, given by jerks, and obviously without real and cordial liking, and censure, crude, conceited, and ignorant, were mixed in random lumps--forming a very loose and inconsistent whole.
"Are you aware whether there are any grounds for that conjecture in the _Bengal Hurkaru_, that the critique in the _Times_ was from the pen of Mr. Thackeray? I should much like to know this. If such were the case (and I feel as if it were by no means impossible), the circ.u.mstance would open a most curious and novel glimpse of a very peculiar disposition. Do you think it likely to be true?
"The account you give of Mrs. Williams"s health is not cheering, but I should think her indisposition is partly owing to the variable weather; at least, if you have had the same keen frost and cold east winds in London, from which we have lately suffered in Yorkshire. I trust the milder temperature we are now enjoying may quickly confirm her convalescence. With kind regards to Mrs. Williams,--Believe me, my dear sir, yours sincerely,
"C. BRONTE."
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
"_April_ 25_th_, 1850.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I cannot let the post go without thanking Mr. Smith through you for the kind reply to Greenwood"s application; and, I am sure, both you and he would feel true pleasure could you see the delight and hope with which these liberal terms have inspired a good and intelligent though poor man. He thinks he now sees a prospect of getting his livelihood by a method which will suit him better than wool-combing work has. .h.i.therto done, exercising more of his faculties and sparing his health. He will do his best, I am sure, to extend the sale of the cheap edition of _Jane Eyre_; and whatever twinges I may still feel at the thought of that work being in the possession of all the worthy folk of Haworth and Keighley, such scruples are more than counterbalanced by the attendant good;--I mean, by the a.s.sistance it will give a man who deserves a.s.sistance. I wish he could permanently establish a little bookselling business in Haworth: it would benefit the place as well as himself.
"Thank you for the _Leader_, which I read with pleasure. The notice of Newman"s work in a late number was very good.--Believe me, my dear sir, in haste, yours sincerely,
"C. BRONTE."
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
"_May_ 6_th_, 1850.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I have received the copy of _Jane Eyre_. To me the printing and paper seem very tolerable. Will not the public in general be of the same opinion? And are you not making yourselves causelessly uneasy on the subject?
"I imagine few will discover the defects of typography unless they are pointed out. There are, no doubt, technical faults and perfections in the art of printing to which printers and publishers ascribe a greater importance than the majority of readers.
"I will mention Mr. Smith"s proposal respecting the cheap publications to Greenwood. I believe him to be a man on whom encouragement is not likely to be thrown away, and who, if fortune should not prove quite adverse, will contrive to effect something by dint of intelligence and perseverance.
"I am sorry to say my father has been far from well lately--the cold weather has tried him severely; and, till I see him better, my intended journey to town must be deferred. With sincere regards to yourself and other Cornhill friends,--I am, my dear sir, yours faithfully,
"C. BRONTE."
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
"_September_ 5_th_, 1850.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I trust your suggestion for Miss Kavanagh"s benefit will have all success. It seems to me truly felicitous and excellent, and, I doubt not, she will think so too. The last cla.s.s of female character will be difficult to manage: there will be nice points in it--yet, well-managed, both an attractive and instructive book might result therefrom. One thing may be depended upon in the execution of this plan. Miss Kavanagh will commit no error, either of taste, judgment, or principle; and even when she deals with the feelings, I would rather follow the calm course of her quiet pen than the flourishes of a more redundant one where there is not strength to restrain as well as ardour to impel.
"I fear I seemed to you to speak coolly of the beauty of the Lake scenery. The truth is, it was, as scenery, exquisite--far beyond anything I saw in Scotland; but it did not give me half so much pleasure, because I saw it under less congenial auspices. Mr. Smith and Sir J. K. Shuttleworth are two different people with whom to travel. I need say nothing of the former--you know him. The latter offers me his friendship, and I do my best to be grateful for the gift; but his is a nature with which it is difficult to a.s.similate--and where there is no a.s.similation, how can there be real regard? Nine parts out of ten in him are utilitarian--the tenth is artistic. This t.i.the of his nature seems to me at war with all the rest--it is just enough to incline him restlessly towards the artist cla.s.s, and far too little to make him one of them. The consequent inability to _do_ things which he _admires_, embitters him I think--it makes him doubt perfections and dwell on faults. Then his notice or presence scarcely tend to set one at ease or make one happy: he is worldly and formal. But I must stop--have I already said too much? I think not, for you will feel it is said in confidence and will not repeat it.
"The article in the _Palladium_ is indeed such as to atone for a hundred unfavourable or imbecile reviews. I have expressed what I think of it to Mr. Taylor, who kindly wrote me a letter on the subject. I thank you also for the newspaper notices, and for some you sent me a few weeks ago.
"I should much like to carry out your suggestions respecting a reprint of _Wuthering Heights_ and _Agnes Grey_ in one volume, with a prefatory and explanatory notice of the authors; but the question occurs, Would Newby claim it? I could not bear to commit it to any other hands than those of Mr. Smith. _Wildfell Hall_, it hardly appears to me desirable to preserve. The choice of subject in that work is a mistake: it was too little consonant with the character, tastes, and ideas of the gentle, retiring, inexperienced writer. She wrote it under a strange, conscientious, half-ascetic notion of accomplishing a painful penance and a severe duty. Blameless in deed and almost in thought, there was from her very childhood a tinge of religious melancholy in her mind. This I ever suspected, and I have found amongst her papers mournful proofs that such was the case. As to additional compositions, I think there would be none, as I would not offer a line to the publication of which my sisters themselves would have objected.
"I must conclude or I shall be too late for the post.--Believe me, yours sincerely,
"C. BRONTE."
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
"_September_ 13_th_, 1850.
"MY DEAR SIR,--Mr. Newby undertook first to print 350 copies of _Wuthering Heights_, but he afterwards declared he had only printed 250. I doubt whether he could be induced to return the 50 pounds without a good deal of trouble--much more than I should feel justified in delegating to Mr. Smith. For my own part, the conclusion I drew from the whole of Mr. Newby"s conduct to my sisters was that he is a man with whom it is desirable to have little to do.
I think he must be needy as well as tricky--and if he is, one would not distress him, even for one"s rights.
"If Mr. Smith thinks right to reprint _Wuthering Heights_ and _Agnes Grey_, I would prepare a preface comprising a brief and simple notice of the authors, such as might set at rest all erroneous conjectures respecting their ident.i.ty--and adding a few poetical remains of each.
"In case this arrangement is approved, you will kindly let me know, and I will commence the task (a sad, but, I believe, a necessary one), and send it when finished.--I am, my dear sir, yours sincerely,
"C. BRONTE."
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
"_October_ 16_th_, 1850.
"MY DEAR SIR,--On the whole it is perhaps as well that the last paragraph of the Preface should be omitted, for I believe it was not expressed with the best grace in the world. You must not, however, apologise for your suggestion--it was kindly meant and, believe me, kindly taken; it was not _you_ I misunderstood--not for a moment, I never misunderstand you--I was thinking of the critics and the public, who are always crying for a moral like the Pharisees for a sign. Does this a.s.surance quite satisfy you?
"I forgot to say that I had already heard, first from Miss Martineau, and subsequently through an intimate friend of Sydney Yendys (whose real name is Mr. Dobell) that it was to the author of the _Roman_ we are indebted for that eloquent article in the _Palladium_. I am glad you are going to send his poem, for I much wished to see it.
"May I trouble you to look at a sentence in the Preface which I have erased, because on reading it over I was not quite sure about the scientific correctness of the expressions used. Metal, I know, will burn in vivid-coloured flame, exposed to galvanic action, but whether it is consumed, I am not sure. Perhaps you or Mr. Taylor can tell me whether there is any blunder in the term employed--if not, it might stand.--I am, yours sincerely,
"C. BRONTE."
Miss Bronte would seem to have corresponded with Mr. George Smith, and not with Mr. Williams, over her third novel, _Villette_, and that correspondence is to be found in Mrs. Gaskell"s biography.
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
"_February_ 1_st_, 1851.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I cannot lose any time in telling you that your letter, after all, gave me heart-felt satisfaction, and such a feeling of relief as it would be difficult to express in words. The fact is, what goads and tortures me is not any anxiety of my own to publish another book, to have my name before the public, to get cash, etc., but a haunting fear that my dilatoriness disappoints others.
Now the "others" whose wish on the subject I really care for, reduces itself to my father and Cornhill, and since Cornhill ungrudgingly counsels me to take my own time, I think I can pacify such impatience as my dear father naturally feels. Indeed, your kind and friendly letter will greatly help me.
"Since writing the above, I have read your letter to papa. Your arguments had weight with him: he approves, and I am content. I now only regret the necessity of disappointing the _Palladium_, but that cannot be helped.--Good-bye, my dear sir, yours very sincerely,
"C. BRONTE."
TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY
"_Tuesday Morning_.
"DEAR ELLEN,--The rather dark view you seem inclined to take of the general opinion about _Villette_ surprises me the less, dear Nell, as only the more unfavourable reviews seem to have come in your way.
Some reports reach me of a different tendency; but no matter, time will shew. As to the character of Lucy Snow, my intention from the first was that she should not occupy the pedestal to which Jane Eyre was raised by some injudicious admirers. She is where I meant her to be, and where no charge of self-laudation can touch her.