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342 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
¦ ^* Reprin Sail Ts . . B Mrs Y Acton . ...
Now that we know more of tliem , we can easily distinguish , one _irpro . the other , or rather we find it _impossible to confuse their
identities . We can see that Charlotte could not have written ' _* Wuthering Heights" any more than Anne could have written " Jane
Eyre . " We can more accurately measure their relative magnitudes than when we confidently pronounced that " Wuihering Heights" and
"Agnes Grey" were cruder performances of _theaiithor of " JaneEyre . " These sisters from , their youngest years had been accustomed to
• write , their childish games were miniature dramas of their own conceiving ; and they formed a habit of noting down such small
incidents as varied the monotony of their daily life . As it appears * these literary amusements were never wholly laid aside , not even
during the time in which they were undergoing the drudgery of governess existence . They had always a belief in their own powers ,
and at intervals discussed ainong themselves how they could turn these powers to account . Thus we find Charlotte writing one
Christmas to Southey begging of him an opinion on certain enclosed poems . Again Branwell ( the brother ) writes to Wordsworth , and
_ag-ain , some three years after her application to Southey , Charlotte is in correspondence with Wordsworth about a story which she has
commenced . However discouraged , they invariably return to their literary essays , and seem never to have lost hope of some time .
. achieving success in that way ; a hope wMch nevertheless did not rise into rivalry with their cherished project of establishing a ,
school at Haworth . The poems were published in May , 1846 . They are little known
even now , and less appreciated . How they came to be published Charlotte has herself related in her biographical notice of Ellis and
Acton Bell , This was their first launching into print , and their venture was by no means successful . The advent of the Look was
scarcely noticed , The " _Athenaeum" gave praise especially to Emily , the ' _< Dublin _Magazine" impertinent censure . The poems were heard
of no more , and did not sell . We have not space here to consider these poems at lengthbut we purpose returning to this branch of
our subject at some future , time . They are infinitely better than nine-tenths of the froth which is published every year . Of Emily ' s
verses Charlotte writes , " A deep conviction seized me that these were not common effusions , nor at all like the poetry women
generally write . I thought them condensed and terse , vigorous ancl genuine . To my ear , they had also a peculiar music , wild , melan _«
choly , and elevating . " . Of Anne ' s verses she writes that they seemed to _lier to have " a sweet sincere pathos of their own . " Emily ' s
share in this volume is undeniably the best . If that had been printed separately it is probable it would _hewe enforced public
attention _. While the poems were going through the press , the three sisters ,
ti _^ . _ad _Agnes in hand Grey each , " and a story k , . The . Professor These stories . " Of were _ifae _clopiestic _^ Wuthering _cdrcuiftstunoes Heights , "
342 Notices Of Books.
342 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1860, page 342, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011860/page/54/
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