Charlotte’s great novel, Jane Eyre, was published in 1847 and she began it the previous year, while visiting Manchester with her father. Reverend Patrick Brontë was being increasingly blinded by cataracts and his daughters Emily and Charlotte had heard of a Mancunian oculist (an ophthalmologist) called Mr Wilson who might be able to help their father.The sisters went to see Mr Wilson but he couldn’t tell without seeing Rev. Brontë’s eyes whether he could help the old man. So, in August 1846, Charlotte and her father travelled to Manchester to see the oculist, who said he could do the operation. The operation was a success but there was a period of convalescence before they could return to Haworth.
Just as her father had been having his operation, Charlotte’s first book, The Professor (which was published posthumously), was returned to her, rejected by the London publishers she had sent it to. Mrs Gaskell takes up the story in her biography:"Among the dispiriting circumstances connected with her anxious visit to Manchester, Charlotte told me that her tale came back upon her hands, curtly rejected by some publisher, on the very day when her father was to submit to his operation.
"But she had the heart of Robert Bruce within her, and failure upon failure daunted her no more than him. Not only did The Professor return again to try his chance among the London publishers, but she began, in this time of care and depressing inquietude, in those grey, weary, uniform streets; where all faces, save that of her kind doctor, were strange and untouched with sunlight to her, - there and then, did the brave genius begin Jane Eyre." bbc/manchester/
Brontë's determination to portray a plain yet passionate young woman who defied the stereotype of the docile and domestic Victorian feminine ideal most likely developed from her own dissatisfaction with domestic duties and a Victorian culture that discouraged women from having literary aspirations. edsitement.
To MESSRS. SMITH AND ELDER.
"Have you, my dear?" "Yes, and I want you to read it." "I am afraid it will try my eyes too much." "But it is not in manuscript: it is printed." "My dear! you've never thought of the expense it will be! It will be almost sure to be a loss, for how can you get a book sold? No one knows you or your name. "But, papa, I don't think it will be a loss; no more will you, if you will just let me read you a review or two, and tell you more about it."
George Smith
The year 1847 must be the annus mirabilis of English fiction. The manuscript of Jane Eyre reached the publisher, George Smith, in August. He began to read one Sunday morning. "The story quickly took me captive," he wrote. "Before twelve o'clock my horse came to the door but I could not put the book down… before I went to bed that night I had finished reading."
Do you remember the first time you read it? What is your favourite line? We are looking forward to celebrating this great novel and its author throughout 2016 - the bicentenary of the birth of Charlotte Bronte. facebook./Bronte-Parsonage-Museum-
gradesaver/jane-eyre
Brontë's determination to portray a plain yet passionate young woman who defied the stereotype of the docile and domestic Victorian feminine ideal most likely developed from her own dissatisfaction with domestic duties and a Victorian culture that discouraged women from having literary aspirations. edsitement.
"August 24th.
"I now send you per rail a MS. entitled Jane Eyre, a novel in three volumes, by Currer Bell. I find I cannot prepay the carriage of the parcel, as money for that purpose is not received at the small station-house where it is left. If, when you acknowledge the receipt of the MS., you would have the goodness to mention the amount charged on delivery, I will immediately transmit it in postage stamps. It is better in future to address Mr. Currer Bell, under cover to Miss Brontë, Haworth, Bradford, Yorkshire, as there is a risk of letters otherwise directed not reaching me at present. To save trouble, I enclose an envelope."
"I now send you per rail a MS. entitled Jane Eyre, a novel in three volumes, by Currer Bell. I find I cannot prepay the carriage of the parcel, as money for that purpose is not received at the small station-house where it is left. If, when you acknowledge the receipt of the MS., you would have the goodness to mention the amount charged on delivery, I will immediately transmit it in postage stamps. It is better in future to address Mr. Currer Bell, under cover to Miss Brontë, Haworth, Bradford, Yorkshire, as there is a risk of letters otherwise directed not reaching me at present. To save trouble, I enclose an envelope."
"Papa, I've been writing a book."
George Smith
The year 1847 must be the annus mirabilis of English fiction. The manuscript of Jane Eyre reached the publisher, George Smith, in August. He began to read one Sunday morning. "The story quickly took me captive," he wrote. "Before twelve o'clock my horse came to the door but I could not put the book down… before I went to bed that night I had finished reading."
Do you remember the first time you read it? What is your favourite line? We are looking forward to celebrating this great novel and its author throughout 2016 - the bicentenary of the birth of Charlotte Bronte. facebook./Bronte-Parsonage-Museum-
gradesaver/jane-eyre
