The Brontë Family, with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë. Vol. 2 of 2Leyland, Francis A.
History
The Brontë Family, with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë. Vol. 2 of 2
Leyland, Francis A.
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Biography; Brontë family; Brontë, Patrick Branwell, 1817-1848
On the 28th of January, 1846, Charlotte, as we have been informed,
wrote to Messrs. Aylott and Jones, asking if they would publish a
one-volume, octavo, of poems; if not at their own risk, on the authors'
account. Messrs. Aylott and Jones did not hesitate to accept the latter
proposal.
It must have been when the sisters became aware that publishers would
not accept the poetry of unknown writers on any other terms, that they
turned their thoughts to prose composition. Branwell, in his dire
distress, had fixed his attention on the writing of a three-volume
novel, principally as a refuge from mental disquiet; but his sisters,
now, with very different feelings, each set to work on a one-volume
tale. It had occurred to them, we are told, that by novel writing money
was to be made. They were, in fact, influenced by precisely the view of
the profit to be derived from fiction which Branwell had propounded in
his remarkable letter to his friend Leyland. 'Ill-success,' says
Charlotte, 'failed to crush us: the mere effort to succeed had given a
wonderful zest to existence; it must be pursued. We each set to work on
a prose tale: Ellis Bell produced "Wuthering Heights," Acton Bell,
"Agnes Grey," and Currer Bell also wrote a narrative in one volume.'
The business-like way in which the sisters went about their novel
writing, forbids us to believe that they brooded very much on the
conduct of their brother when the literary fervour was upon them; but
Miss Robinson leads her readers to think that his character and
failings had much to do with the tone which their works assumed.
Writing under this belief, and with this intention,--as might have been
expected,--she has found it necessary to paint every circumstance
relating to him, and the inmates of the parsonage, in the darkest
colours, and often has arrived at conclusions widely different from the
actual facts. Moreover this writer, in supporting her views, has fallen
into the serious error of placing the event which completed Branwell's
disappointment, and its consequences to him, four months earlier than
they occurred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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