The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851Various
History
The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
Miss Bronte has just published in London the literary remains of her
sisters, "Ellis" and "Acton Bell," with interesting sketches of their
histories, including some glimpses of her own. We copy a portion of the
reviewal of the work in the _Athenaeum_:
The lifting of that veil which for a while concealed the authorship of
'Jane Eyre' and its sister-novels, excites in us no surprise. It seemed
evident from the first prose pages bearing the signatures of Currer,
Ellis, and Acton Bell, that these were _Rosalinds_--or a _Rosalind_--in
masquerade:--some doubt as to the plurality of persons being engendered
by a certain uniformity of local color and resemblance in choice of
subject, which might have arisen either from identity, or from joint
peculiarities of situation and of circumstance. It seemed no less
evident that the writers described from personal experience the wild and
rugged scenery of the northern parts of this kingdom; and no assertion
or disproval, no hypothesis or rumor, which obtained circulation after
the success of 'Jane Eyre,' could shake convictions that had been
gathered out of the books themselves. In similar cases, guessers are too
apt to raise plausible arguments on some point of detail,--forgetting
that this may have been thrown in _ex proposito_ to mislead the
bystander; and hence the most ingenious discoverers become so
pertinaciously deluded as to lose eye and ear for those less obvious
indications of general tone of style, color of incident, and form of
fable, on which more phlegmatic persons base measurement and comparison.
Whatever of truth there may or may not be generally in the above
remarks,--certain it is, that in the novels now in question instinct or
divination directed us aright. In the prefaces and notices before us, we
find that the Bells were three sisters:--two of whom are no longer
amongst the living. The survivor describes their home as--
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