COPYRIGHTED BY JOSEPH HENRY DUGAS 1952 THE LITERARY REPUTATION OF THE BRONTES: 1846-1951 BY JOSEPH HENRY DUGAS B.S. in Ed. University of Illinois, 1939 f A.M., University of Illinois, 1947 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH IN THE GRADUATE COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, I9B1 URBANA, ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS THE GRADUATE COLLEGE AUGUST 15, 1951 __ I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY. JQSEPH HENRY DUGAS ENTITLED. THE LITERARY REPUTATION OF THE BRONTES: 13/.6-1951 BE ACCEPTED* AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF_ zO/7 .^ 67<JS J In C h s ^^ Thesis 1 \ lead of Department Recommendation concurred tnf ID.tU. Qj.^-tiK Committee on Final Examinationf * Subject to successful final examination in the case of the doctorate, t Required for doctor's degree but not for master's. 6M—12-48—40199K iii PREFACE In this thesis, I have attempted to account as best I can for the fame of the fiction written by Charlotte and Emily Bronte and for the effect which their writing has had on literary critics and scholars since 1846. To do this, I have read every thing in English dealing with the sisters1 fiction which I have been able to lay my hands upon. A glance at the Bronte check list at the end of this survey will give the reader an indication of the extent of the labor involved in such an undertaking. Even so, I have left many items out of the list because they add little or nothing to our understanding of the sisters' writing. A study such as this is, I believe, a valuable under taking in three different ways: 1. it gives the student a chance to read an important literary figure more carefully than he might otherwise do; 2. it gives him an opportunity to study a good deal of the criticism of this important writer; 5. it helps the student to clarify his own thinking about some aspect of literature by allowing him to note and evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of those who have read and judged before him. Admittedly, this survey could have been a much longer piece of work. Evidence could have been piled upon evidence until the weight of fact buried from sight any valid generali zation about literary criticism or the temper of the time in which the evidence was produced. My method, especially in the later chapters, has been to Indicate through generalization in iv the text and through suggestion in the footnotes what I believe are the main tendencies in the criticism of the novels of Char lotte and Emily, meanwhile adding a few extra comments on Anne as well. The whole process—the reading, the note-taking, and the writing—has been one of the most absorbing tasks I have ever begun. The possibilities for later investigations into the crit icism of other Victorian novelists are apparent and inviting; such studies would be highly valuable for the deeper understanding which they would provide of Victorian fiction, of the time in which the works were written, and of the critical thought of following generations. Perhaps the future will allow me to make such inquiries into this aspect of literary history. I hope so. In the meantime, I should like to thank Professor Royal A. G-ettmann for his wise counsel and patient, unfailing courtesy in his role as my adviser. It is indeed a privilege to have worked under his direction. V TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE iii Chapter I. 1846-1855 THE CONTEMPORARY RECEPTION 1 II. 1856-1885 FROM MRS. GASKELL TO LESLIE STEPHEN: 3I0GRAPHICAL CRITICISM 48 III. 1884-1912 THE BEGINNING OF CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY 96 IV. 1913-1929 PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND THE RISE OF THE CRITICISM OF TECHNIQUE 152 V. 1950-1950 THE FINAL APPRAISAL OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE AND THE FULL RECOGNITION OF WUTHERING REIGHTS 194 CONCLUSION CHECK-LIST 1 CHAPTER I 1846-1855: THE CONTEMPORARY RECEPTION The story of how the Bronte sisters got their earliest book (Poems, by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell) Into print was first told by Charlotte in her introduction to her 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights and Agnes G-rey. Having accidentally dis covered Emily1s poems in the autumn of 1845, Charlotte recog nized their value (even though she did not completely understand them) and tried to persuade Emily to edit them for publication. Emily at first stubbornly refused, being, in Charlotte's under statement, "not a person of demonstrative character."1 Never theless, Charlotte was finally able to gain Emily's grudging oon- sent, and the sisters spent the rest of the year selecting and editing their poems (for all three had been writing poetry since childhood), while Charlotte carried on a correspondence with pub lishers. The firm of Aylott and Jones, London, agreed to issue the poems if the sisters would pay the cost of printing and pub lishing them.^ Because the sisters were afraid of personal pub- ^-Biographical Not ice of Ellis and Acton Bell, Haworth Edition, V, withering Heights and Agnes Grey, xllil. All ref erences to the Bronte* novels will be to this edition. ^Charlotte's negotiations, the handling of the proofs, and the decisions as to general appearance of the volume were all carried out through the mail. The Bronte side of the correspon dence is published in full in Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington, eds., The Shakespeare Head Bronte (Oxford, 1932), Life and Letters. II, 79-94. All references to the letters of the Bronte sisters will be to this edition. , 3 | licity and wanted to avoid the embarrassment of being subjected to attack or flattery because of their sex, they assumed the ambiguous names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell for Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte, respectively. Their volume of poems was published in May, 1846; and review copies were sent, at Char lotte's direction, to the Athenaeum. Bentley's Miscellany. Jerrold's Shilling Magazine. Blackwood's Magazine. Edinburgh Review. Talt's Edinburgh Magazine. Dublin University Magazine. The Critic, and a few others.3 Just two copies of the book were sold, and it was reviewed by only three publications. The whole affair was a dismal disappointment to Charlotte, but Emily did not appear to be affected. The notice in the Athenaeum was the first to appear.4 Of the three poets, said the reviewer, the "instinct of song" is shared unequally. Emily is a "fine quaint spirit" who shows real promise and a genuine originality. Anne's poetry, he found, was least inspired, with Charlotte's somewhere in between. The Critic (July, 1846) said that the poems, collectively, indicated a presence of "more genius than it was supposed this utilitarian age had devoted to the loftier exercises of the intellect."5 The problem of authorship worried the oritic of the Dublin Uni versity Magazine. He finally decided that the poems could have been written by only one person, for they all were "uniform" in 3Letter of May 7, 1846, Life and Letters. II, 93. 4(July 4, 1846),p.682. 5As quoted by Lawrence and E. M. Hanson, The Brontes (London, 1949), note 3, p. 375. 3 containing "a sort of Cowperlan amiability and sweetness." After quoting from Charlotte's "The Wife's Will" and Emily's "Death Scene," both of which he called "touching," he went on to say that their poems were full of "unoDtruslve feeling" and an "unaffected and sincere" tone of thought,6 From October, 1846, until the publication of Jane Eyre in October, 1847, no further notice was taken of the Bronte poems. Because of the public neglect of their work, the sisters, in June, 1847, decided to sell their remaining copies to the trunkmaker. Before doing so, however, Charlotte sent complimen tary copies to William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson, John Gibson Lockhart, and Thomas DeQulncey.7 One wishes that these men of high reputation had made public their opinions of the Bronte poetry. Their comments might have been valuable as Judgments on the sisters' poems and upon themselves as poets and critics. With the publication of Jane Eyre and its great pop ularity, a few critics turned back to the poems in their natural curiosity for more information about the still unknown Currer bell. The reviewer for the People's Journal was disappointed in what the poems revealed about Charlotte Bronte as a creative artist: "...they hardly afforded any sign of the vigorous lntel- bXXVIII (OctoDer, 1846), 393. Charlotte read this re- view carefully and dispatched a letter to the editor on October 6, 1846, thanking him not only for his "indulgeni; notice" of the poems but also for the long essay on modern poetry and poetic creation whloh preceded his remarks. His review, she says, "ful fils tne right end of erlxiolsm"— that of inspiring the poet "to do more and better things." Life and Letters. II, 112. 7Llfe and Letters. II, 136. 4 ,lect, shrewd observation, and great, if undisciplined, powers, unquestionably manifested in the story of Jane Eyre."6 This writer's opinion found no second in the Judgment of the critic in the Atlas. who believed that Charlotte's poems were of the "highest order of merit."9 John Gibson Lockhart's opinion coin cided witn the Atlas critic's evaluation of Charlotte's poetry.10 Again we have a long hiatus between the Atlas's criticism and the next mention of the Bronte poetry. There was a great deal of criticism of the Bronte novels in the period from 1847 to 1855, but the poems were badly neglected. After Charlotte's death in 1855, the usual eulogies and memorials were written about her, and, of course, some mention of the poetry was made. The most extended discussion of the Bronte poetry appeared in Hogg's Instructor. The reviewer found that Emily's poetry was full of "strength and freshness," and Its "power of melody1* appeared to him sure and strong. He was further convinced that Emily's work was the best poetry written by the three sisters. However, he continued, her poetry was to be avoided as "not healthful." It is like'fe wild beauty gleaming on a hectic cheek." He summarized: 8IV (November, 1847), 269. 9As quoted by Edith M. Weir, "Contemporary Reviews of the First Bronte Novels," Transactions of the Bronte Society. XI, part 57, (1947), 90. Weir's quotations, which will be refer red to again later in this chapter, were taken from a set of newspaper and magazine clippings found in Emily's desk. They are undated but are presumed to have been written in early 1848. The Transactions of the Bronte Society will hereinafter be refer red to as BST. lOLetter from Lockhart to Miss Rigby, November 13, 1848, Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake. C. E. Smith, ed. (London, 1895), I, 221-23.