Chapter XIV

I have always been much struck with a passage in Mr Forster’s Life of Goldsmith.* Speaking of the scene after his death, the writer says:— ‘The staircase of Brick Court is said to have been filled with mourners, the reverse of domestic; women without...

Chapter VI

During the earlier months of this spring, Haworth was extremely unhealthy. The weather was damp, low fever was prevalent, and the household at the Parsonage suffered along with its neighbours. Charlotte says,* ‘I have felt it (the fever) in frequent thirst and...

Chapter II

The next year opened with a spell of cold dreary weather, which told severely on a constitution already tried by anxiety and care. Miss Brontë describes herself as having utterly lost her appetite, and as looking ‘grey, old, worn and sunk,’* from...

Chapter XII

Towards the end of January, the time came for Charlotte to return to Brussels. Her journey thither was rather disastrous. She had to make her way alone; and the train from Leeds to London, which should have reached Euston-square early in the afternoon, was...

Chapter VII

Miss BrontË; left Roe Head in 1832, having won the affectionate regard both of her teacher and her school-fellows, and having formed there the two fast friendships which lasted her whole life long; the one with ‘Mary,’ who has not kept her letters; the...

Chapter IX

Immediately after the republication of her sister’s book she went to Miss Martineau’s.* ‘I can write to you now, dear E——,* for I am away from home, and relieved, temporarily, at least, by change of air and scene, from the heavy burden...

Chapter V

Her life at Haworth was so unvaried that the postman’s call was the event of her day. Yet she dreaded the great temptation of centring all her thoughts upon this one time, and losing her interest in the smaller hopes and employments of the...

Chapter III

An article on ‘Vanity Fair’ and ‘Jane Eyre’ had appeared in the Quarterly Review of December, 1848.* Some weeks after, Miss Brontë wrote to her publishers, asking why it had not been sent to her; and conjecturing that it was unfavourable, she...

Chapter I

During this summer of 1846, while her literary hopes were waning, an anxiety of another kind was increasing. Her father’s eyesight had become seriously impaired by the progress of the cataract which was forming. He was nearly blind. He could grope his way about,...

Chapter XI

I am not aware of all the circumstances which led to the relinquishment of the Lille plan. Brussels had had from the first a strong attraction for Charlotte; and the idea of going there, in preference to any other place, had only been...