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420 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.
^».Reprints Hall. . B Mrs Y Ac . Graskel...
was a-house . -in tlie neighbourhood called Oakwell Hall . The scenery all round Roe Head is the scenery of " Shirley . " The heroine , we
hear , was intended in many points as a portrait of Emily . It is very difficult to assimilate the frank , open-hearted , somewhat
dashing- Shirley with her prototype ; but , as was her custom , Miss Bronte took the " germ " of the character and developed it according * to what
Stud she y conceived ing Shirley woul more d be carefull its development y we iind under under her new frank con exterior ditions .
mucli mental tenacity , reservation , and self-sufficient strength . The incident of the mad dog -we have said before is described literally as
it happened . The Yorkes were , it seems , intended to be portraits more accurate than ordinary . Their description was shown to one
of the family , and he pronounced it true , but not " half strong enough . " There is no character of Miss Bronte ' s surpassed by
Caroline Helstone . The tinge of- sadness and of self-depreciation which assimilates it to the autobiographists of the other two novels
gives it a life in the hands of the authoress , which animates and harmonises all its quiet , tender beauties . Robert Moore is admirably
worked out . Even the most romantic reader cannot despise the man . He shows to the greatest advantage at the very moment of his
disgrace , in the _vexy consummation of his meanness and weakness . That confession of his , its manliness and bitterness , and then the
avenging shot , achieve pardon for him even from the most devoted advocate of true love and disinterestedness . How brave is the
man as he stands humiliated before Shirley , and will not add another lie to _exjDlain or excuse or palliate that one monstrous lie of offering
his hand to her . _" Hortense" is a sketch truly humorous . The manner in which history is introduced in this novel serves as an
example to some maxims laid down by Miss Bronte on the subject , arising- from criticisms on Mr . Thackeray ' s " Esmond . " She
complains of the undue extent to which the history of the time is introduced in that book , and goes on to say that history should , occupy
no further place in a novel than as it acts directly on tire fortunes of the characters . There are few authors who , in connection with the
Luddite riots and the affairs of Robert Moore , would not have taken occasion to launch _oiit into some description and consideration of
public matters and measures . Miss Bronte confines herself strictly to their influence on Hollow ' s Mill and its vicinity : to the readers
of " Shirley" the orders in council are repealed ,- and the blockaded ports thrown open solely for the benefit of Moore .
In tlie midst of the composition of this story came those heavy a _fictions which left Miss Bronte alone with her father . First
Branwell died , suddenly at last , though they had known that this must be the not distant end of his excesses . Then came the terrible
List illness of Emily ; and immediately after Anne began to fade , and _passed away gently and gradually . These great griefs are too holy
f > r a stranger to touch upon . " I left papa soon , and went into the
dining-room : I shut the door ; I tried to be glad that I was come
420 Notices Of Books.
420 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1860, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021860/page/60/
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