The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 2Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
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The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 2
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
Brontë, Charlotte, 1816-1855; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Biography
"I have seen Lewes too. . . . I could not feel otherwise to him than
half-sadly, half-tenderly,--a queer word that last, but I use it
because the aspect of Lewes's face almost moves me to tears; it is
so wonderfully like Emily,--her eyes, her features, the very nose,
the somewhat prominent mouth, the forehead, even, at moments, the
expression: whatever Lewes says, I believe I cannot hate him. Another
likeness I have seen, too, that touched me sorrowfully. You remember
my speaking of a Miss K., a young authoress, who supported her mother
by writing? Hearing that she had a longing to see me, I called on her
yesterday. . . . She met me half-frankly, half-tremblingly; we sate
down together, and when I had talked with her five minutes, her face
was no longer strange, but mournfully familiar;--it was Martha in every
lineament. I shall try to find a moment to see her again. . . . I do not
intend to stay here, at the furthest, more than a week longer; but at
the end of that time I cannot go home, for the house at Haworth is just
now unroofed; repairs were become necessary."
She soon followed her letter to the friend to whom it was written; but
her visit was a very short one, for, in accordance with a plan made
before leaving London, she went on to Edinburgh to join the friends
with whom she had been staying in town. She remained only a few days in
Scotland, and those were principally spent in Edinburgh, with which she
was delighted, calling London a "dreary place" in comparison.
"My stay in Scotland" (she wrote some weeks later) "was short, and
what I saw was chiefly comprised in Edinburgh and the neighbourhood,
in Abbotsford and in Melrose, for I was obliged to relinquish my first
intention of going from Glasgow to Oban, and thence through a portion
of the Highlands; but though the time was brief, and the view of
objects limited, I found such a charm of situation, association, and
circumstance, that I think the enjoyment experienced in that little
space equalled in degree, and excelled in kind, all which London yielded
during a month's sojourn. Edinburgh, compared to London, is like a vivid
page of history compared to a large dull treatise on political economy;
and as to Melrose and Abbotsford, the very names possess music and
magic."
And again, in a letter to a different correspondent, she says:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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