Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes Charlotte, Emily, Anne Brontë (Illustrated) (601 page)

by

CURRER, ELLIS
and
ACTON BELL

london
Aylott & Jones, 8 Paternoster Row
1846

We see by the letter to Aylott & Jones the first announcement of
Wuthering Heights
,
Agnes Grey
, and
The Professor
.  It would not seem that there was much, or indeed any, difficulty in disposing of
Wuthering Heights
and
Agnes Grey
.  They bear the imprint of Newby of Mortimer Street, and they appeared in three uniform volumes, the two first being taken up by
Wuthering Heights
, and the third
 
by
Agnes Grey
,
  
which is quaintly marked as if it were a three-volumed novel in itself, having ‘Volume III’ on title-page and binding.  I have said that there were no travels before the manuscripts of Emily and Anne.  That is not quite certain.  Mrs. Gaskell implies that there were; but, at any rate, there is no definite information on the subject.  Newby, it is clear, did not publish them until all the world was discussing
Jane Eyre
. 
The Professor
, by Currer Bell, had, however, travel enough!  It was offered to six publishers in succession before it came into the hands of Mr. W. S. Williams, the ‘reader’ for Smith & Elder.  The circumstance of its courteous refusal by that firm, and the suggestion that a three-volumed novel would be gladly considered, are within the knowledge of all Charlotte Brontë’s admirers.
 

One cannot but admire the fearless and uncompromising honesty with which Charlotte Brontë sent the MSS. round with all its previous journeys frankly indicated.

It is not easy at this time of day to understand why Mr. Williams refused
The Professor
.  The story is incomparably superior to the average novel, and, indeed, contains touches which are equal to anything that Currer Bell ever wrote.  It seems to me possible that Charlotte Brontë rewrote the story after its rejection, but the manuscript does not bear out that impression.
 

Charlotte Brontë’s method of writing was to take a piece
 
of cardboard — the broken cover of a book, in fact — and a few sheets of note-paper, and write her first form of a story upon these sheets in a tiny handwriting in pencil.  She would afterwards copy the whole out upon quarto paper very neatly in ink.  None of the original pencilled MSS.  of her greater novels have been preserved.  The extant manuscripts of
Jane Eyre
and
The Professor
are in ink.

Jane Eyre
was written, then, under Mr. Williams’s kind encouragement, and immediately accepted.  It was published in the first week of October 1847.

The following letters were received by Mr. Williams while the book was beginning its course.

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘
October
4
th
, 1847.

‘Dear Sir, — I thank you sincerely for your last letter.  It is valuable to me because it furnishes me with a sound opinion on points respecting which I desired to be advised; be assured I shall do what I can to profit by your wise and good counsel.

‘Permit me, however, sir, to caution you against forming too favourable an idea of my powers, or too sanguine an expectation of what they can achieve.  I am myself sensible both of deficiencies of capacity and disadvantages of circumstance which will, I fear, render it somewhat difficult for me to attain popularity as an author.  The eminent writers you mention — Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Dickens, Mrs. Marsh,
  
etc., doubtless enjoyed facilities for observation such as I have not; certainly they possess a knowledge of the world, whether intuitive or acquired, such as I can lay no claim to, and this gives their
 
writings an importance and a variety greatly beyond what I can offer the public.

‘Still, if health be spared and time vouchsafed me, I mean to do my best; and should a moderate success crown my efforts, its value will be greatly enhanced by the proof it will seem to give that your kind counsel and encouragement have not been bestowed on one quite unworthy. — Yours respectfully,

‘C. Bell.’

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘
October
9
th
, 1847.

‘Dear Sir, — I do not know whether the
Dublin University Magazine
is included in the list of periodicals to which Messrs. Smith & Elder are accustomed to send copies of new publications, but as a former work, the joint production of myself and my two relatives, Ellis and Acton Bell, received a somewhat favourable notice in that magazine, it appears to me that if the editor’s attention were drawn to
Jane Eyre
he might possibly bestow on it also a few words of remark.

‘The
Critic
and the
Athenæum
also gave comments on the work I allude to.  The review in the first-mentioned paper was unexpectedly and generously eulogistic, that in the
Athenæum
more qualified, but still not discouraging.  I mention these circumstances and leave it to you to judge whether any advantage is derivable from them.

‘You dispensed me from the duty of answering your last letter, but my sense of the justness of the views it expresses will not permit me to neglect this opportunity both of acknowledging it and thanking you for it. — Yours sincerely,

‘C. Bell.’

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘Haworth,
December
13
th
, 1847.

‘Dear Sir, — Your advice merits and shall have my most serious attention.  I feel the force of your reasoning.  It is my wish to do my best in the career on which I have entered. 
 
So I shall study and strive; and by dint of time, thought, and effort, I hope yet to deserve in part the encouragement you and others have so generously accorded me.  But time will be necessary — that I feel more than ever.  In case of
Jane Eyre
reaching a second edition, I should wish some few corrections to be made, and will prepare an errata.  How would the accompanying preface do?  I thought it better to be brief.

‘The
Observer
has just reached me.  I always compel myself to read the analysis in every newspaper-notice.  It is a just punishment, a due though severe humiliation for faults of plan and construction.  I wonder if the analysis of other fictions read as absurdly as that of
Jane Eyre
always does. — I am, dear sir, yours respectfully,

‘C. Bell.’

The following letter is interesting because it discusses the rejected novel, and refers to the project of recasting it, which ended in the writing of
Villette
.
 

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘
December
14
th
, 1847.

‘Dear Sir, — I have just received your kind and welcome letter of the 11th.  I shall proceed at once to discuss the principal subject of it.

‘Of course a second work has occupied my thoughts much.  I think it would be premature in me to undertake a serial now — I am not yet qualified for the task: I have neither gained a sufficiently firm footing with the public, nor do I possess sufficient confidence in myself, nor can I boast those unflagging animal spirits, that even command of the faculty of composition, which as you say, and, I am persuaded, most justly, is an indispensable requisite to success in serial literature.  I decidedly feel that ere I change my ground I had better make another venture in the three volume novel form.

 
‘Respecting the plan of such a work, I have pondered it, but as yet with very unsatisfactory results.  Three commencements have I essayed, but all three displease me.  A few days since I looked over
The Professor
.  I found the beginning very feeble, the whole narrative deficient in incident and in general attractiveness.  Yet the middle and latter portion of the work, all that relates to Brussels, the Belgian school, etc., is as good as I can write: it contains more pith, more substance, more reality, in my judgment, than much of
Jane Eyre
.  It gives, I think, a new view of a grade, an occupation, and a class of characters — all very commonplace, very insignificant in themselves, but not more so than the materials composing that portion of
Jane Eyre
which seems to please most generally.

‘My wish is to recast
The Professor
, add as well as I can what is deficient, retrench some parts, develop others, and make of it a three volume work — no easy task, I know, yet I trust not an impracticable one.

‘I have not forgotten that
The Professor
was set aside in my agreement with Messrs. Smith & Elder; therefore before I take any step to execute the plan I have sketched, I should wish to have your judgment on its wisdom.  You read or looked over the Ms. — what impression have you now respecting its worth? and what confidence have you that I can make it better than it is?

‘Feeling certain that from business reasons as well as from natural integrity you will be quite candid with me, I esteem it a privilege to be able thus to consult you. — Believe me, dear sir, yours respectfully,

‘C. Bell.

‘
Wuthering Heights
is, I suppose, at length published, at least Mr. Newby has sent the authors their six copies.  I wonder how it will be received.  I should say it merits the epithets of “vigorous” and “original” much more decidedly than
Jane Eyre
did. 
Agnes Grey
should please such critics as Mr. Lewes, for it is “true” and “unexaggerated” enough.  The books are not well got up — they abound in errors of the
 
press.  On a former occasion I expressed myself with perhaps too little reserve regarding Mr. Newby, yet I cannot but feel, and feel painfully, that Ellis and Acton have not had the justice at his hands that I have had at those of Messrs. Smith & Elder.’

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘
December
31
st
, 1847.

‘Dear Sirs, — I think, for the reasons you mention, it is better to substitute
author
for
editor
.  I should not be ashamed to be considered the author of
Wuthering Heights
and
Agnes Grey
, but, possessing no real claim to that honour, I would rather not have it attributed to me, thereby depriving the true authors of their just meed.

‘You do very rightly and very kindly to tell me the objections made against
Jane Eyre
— they are more essential than the praises.  I feel a sort of heart-ache when I hear the book called “godless” and “pernicious” by good and earnest-minded men; but I know that heart-ache will be salutary — at least I trust so.

‘What is meant by the charges of
trickery
and
artifice
I have yet to comprehend.  It was no art in me to write a tale — it was no trick in Messrs. Smith & Elder to publish it.  Where do the trickery and artifice lie?

‘I have received the
Scotsman
, and was greatly amused to see Jane Eyre likened to Rebecca Sharp — the resemblance would hardly have occurred to me.

‘I wish to send this note by to-day’s post, and must therefore conclude in haste. — I am, dear sir, yours respectfully,

‘C. Bell.’

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘Haworth,
January
4
th
, 1848.

‘Dear Sir, — Your letter made me ashamed of myself that I should ever have uttered a murmur, or expressed by any sign that I was sensible of pain from the unfavourable opinions of
 
some misjudging but well-meaning people.  But, indeed, let me assure you, I am not ungrateful for the kindness which has been given me in such abundant measure.  I can discriminate the proportions in which blame and praise have been awarded to my efforts: I see well that I have had less of the former and more of the latter than I merit.  I am not therefore crushed, though I may be momentarily saddened by the frown, even of the good.

‘It would take a great deal to crush me, because I know, in the first place, that my own intentions were correct, that I feel in my heart a deep reverence for religion, that impiety is very abhorrent to me; and in the second, I place firm reliance on the judgment of some who have encouraged me.  You and Mr. Lewes are quite as good authorities, in my estimation, as Mr. Dilke or the editor of the
Spectator
, and I would not under any circumstances, or for any opprobrium, regard with shame what my friends had approved — none but a coward would let the detraction of an enemy outweigh the encouragement of a friend.  You must not, therefore, fulfil your threat of being less communicative in future; you must kindly tell me all.