Brontës

by Juliet Barker

  it seemed to imply that of course he would read the book. He took great pains to put into words a neat apology for not immediately giving himself that specially congenial pleasure. I hope some kind-hearted domestic has long ere this ‘sided’ the volumes out of his reach – thus enabling him to sink into oblivion of their existence.94

  Five days after the publication, before the first reviews appeared, Charlotte returned home. The visit had been as quiet as she could have wished and yet there was a lingering sense of disappointment. ‘My visit has on the whole passed pleasantly enough with some sorrowful impressions’, she enigmatically reported to Ellen. One can only surmise that Villette had erected a barely perceptible but nevertheless insuperable barrier between herself and the Smiths. The knowledge that they had unwittingly provided the raw material for her novel inevitably created a feeling of mutual unease. Perhaps the long hours George Smith spent in his office were an attempt to avoid seeing too much of her.95

  It was hardly surprising that Charlotte was unable to face the prospect of returning home alone. In her absence, events had gradually come to a head. Patrick had written her two vitriolic letters, pouring out his venom on the unfortunate Mr Nicholls and hinting obliquely that he held her partly responsible for encouraging his curate’s attentions.

  You may wish to know, how we have been getting on here especially in respect to Master, and Man, On yesterday, I preached twice, but my man, was every way, very queer – He shun’d me, as if I had been a Cobra de Capello – turning his head from the quarter, where I was, and hustling away amongst the crowd, to avoid contact – It required no Lavater to see, that his countenance was strongly indicative of mortified pride, and malevolent resentment – People have begun to notice these things, and various conjectures, are afloat – You thought me too severe – but I was not candid enough – His conduct might have been excus’d by the world, in a confirmed rake – or unprincipled army officer, but in a Clergyman, it is justly chargeable, with base design and/ inconsistency, – I earnestly wish that he had another and better situation – As I can never trust him any more, in things of importance – I wish him no ill – but rather good, and wish that every woman may avoid him forever, unless she should be determined on her own misery – All the produce of the Australian Diggins would not/ make him and any wife he might have, happy – 96

  In his second letter, Patrick reverted to a formula he had used to pleasanter effect as a young man, writing to his daughter in the character of Anne’s dog, Flossy. Though the letter was intended to be humorous, it was too savage and too insidious in its denigration of Mr Nicholls to be funny.

  You have condescendingly sent your respects to me, for which I am very grateful, and in token of my gratitude, I struck the ground three times with my tail – But let me tell to you/ my affairs … As many things are done before me, which would not be done, if I could speak, (well for us dogs that we cannot speak) so, I see a good deal of human nature, that is hid from those who have the gift of language, I observe these manuoevres, and am permitted to observe many of them, which if I could speak, would never be done before me – I see people cheating one another, and yet appearing to be friends – many are the disagreeable discoveries, which I make, which you/ could hardly believe if I were to tell them – One thing I have lately seen, which I wish to mention – No one takes me out to walk now, the weather is too cold, or too/ wet for my master to walk in, and my former travelling companion, has lost all his apparent kindness, scolds me, and looks black upon me – 97

  Patrick’s relentless campaign of vilification evidently extended to Mr Nicholls’ failure to walk the parsonage dog. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the curate at last gave up and, in an uncharacteristically dramatic gesture, offered himself to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as a missionary to the Australian Colonies of Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide. On the standard application form he was sent to fill in, he gave his reason for wanting to be a missionary as, ‘I have for some time felt a strong inclination to assist in ministering to the thousands of of[sic] our fellow Countrymen, who by Emigration have been in a great measure deprived of the means of grace.’98 ‘Disappointment in love’ was hardly the sort of motivation likely to appeal to the society.

  On the form he listed six referees, all of whom were required to submit letters on his behalf. Their tributes were all more or less fulsome. Sutcliffe Sowden, the vicar of Hebden Bridge and a friend of eight years’ standing, declared, ‘His character & conduct are above all reproach. His abilities are certainly more than average’, and expressed his regret that if Nicholls succeeded in gaining the appointment, Sowden himself would lose by it ‘one of my most esteemed & respected neighbours’.99 Joseph Grant, incumbent of Oxenhope, took pains to point out how the church at Haworth had prospered since Nicholls’ appointment: the National School had increased its scholars from sixty to between two and three hundred, church attendance had increased six-fold and in Stanbury he had been personally responsible for building a schoolroom used by both weekday and Sunday schools and as a place of worship where he took the Sunday service.100 William Cartman, Headmaster of the Grammar School at Skipton, in a long and generous tribute, expressed the general feeling.

  for uprightness & steadiness of Conduct, Activity in the prosecution of his pastoral labours, Zeal & devotion to his ministrations, & specially/ successful management of the Parochial Schools in his Parish, there is not to [be] found his equal.

  In the whole Course of my ministerial Career for the last 30 years, (& I do indeed speak advisedly) I never met with a young man whom in every respect as to his general demeanour & personal Qualities I so much admired.

  Perhaps fearing that Patrick might do his curate less than justice in his reference, Cartman made a point of informing the society that ‘Mr Brontê has often detailed to me his invaluable services, & has frequently said, that shd. he leave him, he should not know how to supply his place’.101 He need not have worried. Though Patrick could not work himself up into the enthusiastic tones of his fellow clergymen, neither could he be less than fair to the curate who had served him so well for the last eight years. During that time, NichoUs had

  behaved himself, wisely, soberly, and piously – He has greatly promoted the interest of the National, and Sunday Schools; he is a man of good abilities, and strong constitution – He is very discreet, is under no pecuniary embarrassment, that I am aware of, nor is he, I think, likely to be so, since, in all pecuniary and other matters, as far as I have been able to discover, he is wary, and prudent – In principles, he is sound and orthodox – and would I think, under Providence, make an excellent Missionary.102102

  By the time Charlotte returned home from London, the die had been cast. NichoUs had sent off his application form and given the society notice that his ‘present engagement’, as curate of Haworth, would be concluded at the end of May.103

  Whether she knew of these developments or not, Charlotte obviously dreaded her reception in Haworth and wrote from London asking Ellen Nussey to meet her at Keighley and accompany her on the final stage of her journey home.104 No doubt eager enough to learn the state of affairs in Haworth, Ellen agreed to lend the moral support of her presence and came to stay for a fortnight. Together, the two friends awaited the critics’ verdict on Villette. ‘The book, I think, will not be considered pretentious – nor is it of a character to excite hostility’, Charlotte had averred as she completed the manuscript.105 This time she was to be proved right.

  The reviews were almost unanimously favourable, though they seem to have been infected by the subdued tones of the book. The Examiner declared that Villette ‘amply sustains the fame of the author of Jane Eyre and Shirley’, while the Literary Gazette, praising as ‘infinitely delightful’ its ‘charm of freshness’, went further:

  This book would have made her famous, had she not been so already. It retrieves all the ground she lost in Shirley, and it will engage a wide
r circle of admirers than Jane Eyre, for it has all the best qualities of that remarkable book, untarnished, or but slightly so, by its defects.106

  The criticisms, on the whole, were minor but justified. There were complaints about the transfer of interest from Paulina – a character whom, despite Charlotte’s reservations, most critics seemed to think one of the most attractive and successful in the book – to Lucy; and some reviewers were disgruntled by the lack of plot, though even the most hostile admitted the veracity and excellence of her characters.107 The largest number of complaints, however, were about the character of Lucy Snowe. In an otherwise entirely favourable review, the critic of the Spectator argued that ‘this book, far more than Jane Eyre, sounds like a bitter complaint against the destiny of those women whom circumstances reduce to a necessity of working for their living by teaching’.108 The Guardian complained of the ‘somewhat cynical and bitter spirit’ in which ‘Currer Bell’ conceived her tales, excusing this on the grounds that ‘It may be the world has dealt hardly with her; it may be that in her writings we gather the honest and truthful impressions of a powerful but ill-used nature; that they are the result of affections thrown back upon themselves, and harshly denied their proper scope and objects.’ Though Charlotte would never admit it, this was fair comment. Nevertheless, the reviewer spoilt his case by arguing from it that one should reject an acquaintance with Jane Eyre, Lucy Snowe and the creator of whom they were manifestations. Williams considered this an ‘unmanly insult’, but Charlotte was simply contemptuous of the ‘poor Guardian Critic’ and his ‘right to lisp his opinion that Currer Bell’s female characters do not realize his notion of ladyhood’.109

  The Guardians point that the book was steeped in bitterness was made most tellingly in the review that Charlotte took most to heart. It was not simply that the Daily News review made criticisms which hurt her deeply, but the fact that it was written by a woman she had considered to be her friend, Harriet Martineau. Just as G. H. Lewes had once presumed upon his personal acquaintance with Charlotte in his review of Shirley, so Harriet Martineau allowed her intimate knowledge of the author to infuse her critique of Villette.

  The book is almost intolerably painful … An atmosphere of pain hangs about the whole, forbidding that repose which we hold to be essential to the true presentment of any large portion of life and experience. In this pervading pain, the book reminds us of Balzac, and so it does in the prevalence of one tendency, or one idea, throughout the whole conception and action. All the female characters, in all their thoughts and lives, are full of one thing, or are regarded by the reader in the light of that one thought – love. It begins with the child of six years old, at the opening – a charming picture – and it closes with it at the last page; and, so dominant is this idea – so incessant is the writer’s tendency to describe the need of being loved, that the heroine, who tells her own story, leaves the reader at last under the uncomfortable impression of her having either entertained a double love, or allowed one to supersede another without notification of the transition. It is not thus in real life. There are substantial, heartfelt interests for women of all ages, and under ordinary circumstances, quite apart from love:

  Miss Martineau also criticized the way Charlotte had gone ‘out of her way to express a passionate hatred of Romanism’ which she found a ‘striking peculiarity’ in ‘one so large and liberal, so removed from ordinary social prejudices as we have been accustomed to think “Currer Bell’”.110 She reiterated her disapproval in a personal letter: ‘I do deeply regret the reasons given to suppose your mind full of the subject of one passion – love – I think there is unconscionably too much of it (giving an untrue picture of life) &, speaking with the frankness you desire, I do not like its kind – I anticipate a renewal of the sort of objection which you mentioned to me as inexplicable to you, the first evening we met; & this time, I think it will not be wholly unfounded.’111 This brought an angry response from Charlotte: ‘I know what love is as I understand it – & if man or woman sh[oul]d feel ashamed of feeling such love – then is there nothing right, noble, faithful, truthful, unselfish on this earth as I comprehend rectitude, nobleness, fidelity, truth, & disinterestedness.’112

  It was perhaps fortunate that Charlotte did not learn Thackeray’s opinion of Villette which, while coinciding with Miss Martineau’s, at least had the merit of being expressed privately.

  it amuses me to read the author’s naive confession of being in love with 2 men at the same time; and her readiness to fall in love at any time. The poor little woman of genius! the fiery little eager brave tremulous homely-faced creature! I can read a great deal of her life as I fancy in her book, and see that rather than have fame, rather than any other earthly good or mayhap heavenly one she wants some Tomkins or another to love her and be in love with. But you see she is a little bit of a creature without a penny worth of good looks, thirty years old I should think, buried in the country, and eating up her own heart there, and no Tomkins will come. You girls with pretty faces and red boots (and what not) will get dozens of young fellows fluttering about you – whereas here is one a genius, a noble heart longing to mate itself and destined to wither away into old maidenhood with no chance to fulfil the burning desire.113

  One wonders what Thackeray would have made of the fact that Charlotte had received four proposals of marriage – though he was certainly right in that these had all been turned down because Charlotte felt no reciprocal passion.

  Well might Charlotte cry again, ‘I can be on my guard against my enemies, but God deliver me from my friends!’114 She had taken such offence at Miss Martineau’s comments that there was now an irreparable rift between them. Having shown her friend loyalty when she was under attack for the Atkinson letters, Charlotte now felt doubly betrayed. ‘You express surprise that Miss Martineau should apply to you for news of me’, she wrote to George Smith towards the end of March;

  The fact is I have never written to her since a letter I received from her about eight weeks ago – just after she had read ‘Villette’. What is more – I do not know when I can bring myself to write again. The differences of feeling between Miss M. and myself are very strong and marked; very wide and irreconcilable … In short she has hurt me a good deal, and at present it appears very plain to me that she and I had better not try to be close friends; my wish indeed is that she should quietly forget me.115

  For a few more weeks Charlotte brooded on the quarrel, then gathered courage to write to Miss Martineau herself to tell her that the gulf between them was so wide and deep as to be unbridgeable.116 The unlikely alliance between two ‘literary lions’ was at an end.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  TOMKINS TRIUMPHANT

  Villette had fully justified Charlotte’s expectation that it would cause less controversy and be better received than its two predecessors. Writing to Ellen, who had returned to Brookroyd after a brief fortnight at Haworth, Charlotte owned that ‘the import of all the notices is such as to make my heart swell with thankfulness to Him who takes note both of suffering and work and motives – Papa is pleased too’.1

  Patrick had taken a disproportionate amount of interest and pride in Villette as if to compensate for his unbending and vitriolic treatment of Mr Nicholls: perhaps he thought to divert his daughter’s thoughts from marriage to her career. Not only had he closely followed the book’s critical reception, but he had also intervened to secure a review in the provincial press. He wrote to George Smith requesting that a copy should be sent to the Leeds Mercury, which ‘enjoys a wide circulation, and considerable influence in the North of England’, and also wrote to its editor, Edward Baines, stating that ‘Already, several, able, and just reviews, have appeared in the London papers – but from what I know of your critical taste and talents, I have a strong desire to learn your opinion.’ The Leeds Mercury no longer reviewed books in its columns, but a long and highly appreciative notice of Villette did appear in the Leeds Intelligencer, which cordially commended the book to t
he paper’s readers.2

  Such was Patrick’s pride that he even sent a copy of the single-volume edition of Jane Eyre to his brothers and sisters back in Ireland, inscribing it with a justifiably boastful note.

  To Mr Hugh Brontë, Ballinasceaugh, near Rathfriland Ireland – This is the first work, published by my Daughter – under the fictitious name of Currer Bell – which is the usual way – at first, by Authors, but her real name, is everywhere known – She sold the copyright of this, and her other two works for fifteen hundred pounds – so that she has to pay for the books she gets, the same as others – Her other two books, are in six volumes, and would cost nearly four pounds – This was formerly in three volumes – In two years hence, when all shall be published in a cheaper form, if all be well, I may send them – You can let my brothers and sisters, read this – P. Brontë, A. B. Incumbent of Haworth near Keighley.

  Jany.20th.1853—3

  Though Charlotte may have cringed at her father’s actions, she took considerable pleasure in the fact that he was enjoying her success. She was less happy about the assiduity with which some of her so-called friends brought the bad notices to his attention. Mr Grant, for instance, who had been lampooned in Shirley and was probably taking a quiet revenge, was the first to bring the Guardian review, that ‘choice little morsel for foes’. ‘For my own part I can only record this significant fact’, Charlotte told Williams who was responsible for sending her the reviews,

  I am indebted to my publishers for all I know of the favourable notices of ‘Villette’. The hostile notices have been the care of my friends. When I revolve this consideration it makes me smile. My friends are very good – very. I thank some of them for the pains they take to enlighten me. My publishers on the other hand are extremely vexatious – they excite a tendency to chiding and expostulation – but to speak truth – I like them no worse for provoking as they are – I feel they mean kindly. But seriously – they must please to remember that I would far rather receive unpleasant news through their medium than that of any other. The book is in one sense theirs as much as it is mine; and I know they are not glad to hear it cried down.4