of Charlotte and Anne Brontë to Smith, Elder and Company.
That morning, George Smith was hard at work at his desk, with a busy day ahead of him. He was less than pleased to hear that two ladies had come to see him, and that they declined to give their names. Smith had them shown into his office and vowed to deal quickly with this irksome interruption. He looked up to see two “rather quaintly dressedlittle ladies, pale-faced and anxious-looking.” The smaller one handed him a letter that he had written to Currer Bell.
Smith glanced at the letter in his hand, and then at the woman. He looked again at the letter, and back at the woman. Several moments passed before he understood that he was meeting the author of
Jane Eyre.
His morning’s work forgotten, he introduced the Misses Brontë to his colleague William Smith Williams, a gentle older man. His earlier annoyance transformed into joy, George Smith suddenly wanted the Brontës to see London’s sights and its people. He urged them to view the latest art exhibition. He talked excitedly of presenting them to his mother and sisters, and to Thackeray and Lewes.
No, Charlotte said, although she would have loved to meet these literary stars. She and Anne were telling their secret to their publishers alone. The rest of the world must go on thinking of the Bells as three gentlemen, she insisted. But wouldn’t they at least attend a party while pretending to be his “country cousins,”Smith asked. Charlotte saw that “he would have liked some excitement,”but again she said no.
That evening, Smith called for Charlotte and Anne at their hotel. He was with his two sisters and William Smith Williams, and all were elegantly dressed. They were on their way to the opera and insisted the Brontës come along. Charlotte’s head ached, and she and Anne had nothing fancy to wear, but they put on their best country dresses and went anyway. “Fine ladies and gentlemenglanced at us with a slight, graceful superciliousness quite warranted by the circumstances—still I felt pleasurably excited,” Charlotte reported to Mary Taylor, “and I saw Anne was calm and gentle which she always is.”
Charlotte Brontë and George Smith later wrote down their impressions of each other. In a letter to Mary Taylor, Charlotte summed up Smith as “a firm, intelligent manof business though so young.” He was “bent on getting on—and I think desirous to make his way by fair, honourable means.” Smith was “enterprising—but likewise cool & cautious.” And, finally, “Mr. Smith is a practical man.”
Long after Charlotte Brontë’s death, George Smith confessed that he thought she looked “interesting rather than attractive.She was very small, and had a quaint old-fashioned look. Her head seemed too large for her body. She had fine eyes, but her face was marred by the shape of the mouth.” Charlotte displayed very little “feminine charm,” and, Smith perceived, “of this fact she herself was uneasily and perpetually conscious. It may seem strange that the possession of genius did not lift her above the weakness of an excessive anxiety about her personal appearance. But I believe she would have given all her genius and her fame to have been beautiful.”
Anne Brontë, wrote Smith, “was a gentle, quiet, rather subdued person, by no means pretty, yet of a pleasing appearance. Her manner was curiously expressive of a wish for protection and encouragement, a kind of constant appeal which invited sympathy.” Anne proved that appearances can deceive, because her new book was not only frank, but downright shocking.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
begins in the village of Linden-Car, where everyone seems curious about Helen Graham, the woman who has come to live in the old stone mansion called Wildfell Hall. Helen is the mother of a five-year-old boy, and apparently she is a widow, but she remains aloof from village society. Her dark beauty entrances a young farmer named Gilbert
That morning, George Smith was hard at work at his desk, with a busy day ahead of him. He was less than pleased to hear that two ladies had come to see him, and that they declined to give their names. Smith had them shown into his office and vowed to deal quickly with this irksome interruption. He looked up to see two “rather quaintly dressedlittle ladies, pale-faced and anxious-looking.” The smaller one handed him a letter that he had written to Currer Bell.
Smith glanced at the letter in his hand, and then at the woman. He looked again at the letter, and back at the woman. Several moments passed before he understood that he was meeting the author of
Jane Eyre.
His morning’s work forgotten, he introduced the Misses Brontë to his colleague William Smith Williams, a gentle older man. His earlier annoyance transformed into joy, George Smith suddenly wanted the Brontës to see London’s sights and its people. He urged them to view the latest art exhibition. He talked excitedly of presenting them to his mother and sisters, and to Thackeray and Lewes.
No, Charlotte said, although she would have loved to meet these literary stars. She and Anne were telling their secret to their publishers alone. The rest of the world must go on thinking of the Bells as three gentlemen, she insisted. But wouldn’t they at least attend a party while pretending to be his “country cousins,”Smith asked. Charlotte saw that “he would have liked some excitement,”but again she said no.
That evening, Smith called for Charlotte and Anne at their hotel. He was with his two sisters and William Smith Williams, and all were elegantly dressed. They were on their way to the opera and insisted the Brontës come along. Charlotte’s head ached, and she and Anne had nothing fancy to wear, but they put on their best country dresses and went anyway. “Fine ladies and gentlemenglanced at us with a slight, graceful superciliousness quite warranted by the circumstances—still I felt pleasurably excited,” Charlotte reported to Mary Taylor, “and I saw Anne was calm and gentle which she always is.”
Charlotte Brontë and George Smith later wrote down their impressions of each other. In a letter to Mary Taylor, Charlotte summed up Smith as “a firm, intelligent manof business though so young.” He was “bent on getting on—and I think desirous to make his way by fair, honourable means.” Smith was “enterprising—but likewise cool & cautious.” And, finally, “Mr. Smith is a practical man.”
Long after Charlotte Brontë’s death, George Smith confessed that he thought she looked “interesting rather than attractive.She was very small, and had a quaint old-fashioned look. Her head seemed too large for her body. She had fine eyes, but her face was marred by the shape of the mouth.” Charlotte displayed very little “feminine charm,” and, Smith perceived, “of this fact she herself was uneasily and perpetually conscious. It may seem strange that the possession of genius did not lift her above the weakness of an excessive anxiety about her personal appearance. But I believe she would have given all her genius and her fame to have been beautiful.”
Anne Brontë, wrote Smith, “was a gentle, quiet, rather subdued person, by no means pretty, yet of a pleasing appearance. Her manner was curiously expressive of a wish for protection and encouragement, a kind of constant appeal which invited sympathy.” Anne proved that appearances can deceive, because her new book was not only frank, but downright shocking.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
begins in the village of Linden-Car, where everyone seems curious about Helen Graham, the woman who has come to live in the old stone mansion called Wildfell Hall. Helen is the mother of a five-year-old boy, and apparently she is a widow, but she remains aloof from village society. Her dark beauty entrances a young farmer named Gilbert
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