2 (p. 216) The story must be told: Gaskell vilifies Lydia Robinson as the seducer of innocent Branwell. Patrick Brontë approved this version of the events, but it is unclear where the truth lies, or if there was indeed a sexual liaison, as Branwell claimed. See the Introduction.
3 (p. 219) she thus writes to M. Héger: The text that follows is compiled from carefully culled extracts made by Heger for Gaskell from two of Brontë’s letters (July 24 and October 24, 1844). For the full French text of the letters, see Gérin, Charlotte Brontë:The Evolution of Genius, Appendix D.
4 (p. 219) “Il n‘y a rien que je craigns ... Agréez, Monsieur, &c.”: “There is nothing I fear as much as idleness, inertia, lethargy of the faculties. When the body is lethargic, the spirit suffers cruelly; I would not know this lethargy, if I could write. I used to spend days, weeks, entire months writing, and not altogether without success, since Southey and [Hartley] Coleridge, two of our best authors, to whom I sent some manuscripts, were pleased to give their approbation; but at present, my eyesight is weak; if I write too much I will become blind. This weakness of sight is a terrible privation for me; without it, do you know what I would do, Monsieur? I would write a book and dedicate it to my literature master, to the only master I have ever had—to you, Monsieur! I have told you often in French how much I respect you, how indebted I am to your kindness and your instruction. I would like to say it one time in English. But that cannot be; there’s no use thinking about it. A literary career is closed to me.... Do not forget to tell me how you are and how Madame and the children are. I hope to receive news from you soon; this idea cheers me, because the memory of your kindness will never be effaced from my mind, and as long as this memory endures, the respect that you have inspired will endure also. Accept, Monsieur, &c.” (translated by Anne Taranto).
5 (p. 222) “Je crains beaucoup d’oublier le français ... j‘y irai” “I very much fear that I will forget my French—I learn half a page of French by heart every day, and I take great pleasure in the lesson. I want to assure Mme. of my esteem for her; I fear that Marie, Louise, and Claire will have already forgotten me; but I will see you again one day; As soon as I can earn enough money to go to Brussels I will do so“” (translated by Anne Taranto).
6 (p. 225) never see Branwell Brontë again: Mr. Robinson’s will reveals this claim to be untrue. Branwell might have floated this face-saving rumor, or, as Barker suggests, Lydia Robinson may have done so in an effort to deter Branwell’s unwanted attentions (Barker, The Brontës, pp. 493-496).
CHAPTER XIV
1 (p. 228) an intelligent man living in Haworth: The man is John Green-wood, the Haworth stationer. According to Gaskell, Brontë counted him her only friend in Haworth (The Letters of Mrs. Gaskell, letter 337).
2 (p. 231) railway panic: In the mid-nineteenth century several companies formed to build rail lines across England, selling shares on the stock market to raise money for their ventures. Especially notorious was George Hudson (1800—1871), the “Railway King,“” chairman of the York and North-Midland Company and a speculator who merged several companies into one conglomerate and engaged in what is now termed insider trading, to inflate holdings artificially. The bubble Hudson helped to create burst in 1847, bringing financial ruin to many investors.
3 (p. 237) her father’s curate: Arthur Bell Nicholls (1818?-1906) came to Haworth as curate in May 1845. He was born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Note how Gaskell frames Brontë’s apparent indifference to Nicholls as modesty.
Volume II
CHAPTER I
1 (p. 246) Mr. Trench: Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886), professor of divinity, philologist, and later archbishop of Dublin, wrote On the Study of Words ( 1851) and English, Past and Present (1855).
2 (p. 247) “the death of Currer Bell”: The anonymous obituary of Brontë by Harriet Martineau, a novelist who influenced Brontë, appeared in the Daily News, April 1855 (see Allot, ed., The Brontës:The Critical Heritage, pp. 301-305).
CHAPTER II
1 (p. 255) Mr. Smith: George Smith (1824-1901), Brontë’s publisher, revitalized the business founded by his father in 1816, making Smith, Elder and Company a house of literary distinction. Smith counted Ruskin and Darwin among his authors, and the success of Jane Eyre attracted other prominent novelists, among them Thackeray and Gaskell. Smith founded the Cornhill Magazine (1860), the foremost literary periodical of its day, and published the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900).
2 (p. 259) gentleman connected with the firm to read it first: William Smith Williams (1800-1875), Smith’s literary adviser, was the first to recognize the merit of Jane Eyre. Williams’s critical acumen was central to the firm’s success.
3 (p. 259) The Reviews: Reviews of the first edition of Jane Eyre mentioned here appeared in the following periodicals (in these notes and the footnotes, brackets are placed around a writer’s name to indicate that the review appeared unsigned—that is, as an anonymous review): [H. F. Chorley], Athenaeum, October 23, 1847; Spectator, November 6, 1847; Literary Gazette, October 23, 1847; and [A.W Fonblanque], the Examiner, November 27, 1847. Other reviews ran in the Economist, November 27, 1847, and People’s Journal, November 1847. Reviews of the second edition of Jane Eyre include Elizabeth Rigby’s infamous, if unsigned, ad hominem attack in the Quarterly Review 84 (December 1848) and an unsigned notice by G. H. Lewes, in Fraser’s Magazine (December 1847). For a selection, see Allot, ed., The Brontës: The Critical Heritage.
4 (p. 266) one who offered presumptuous and injudicious praise: Samuel Johnson admonished Hannah More to ”consider what her flattery was worth, before she choaked him with it.“ (Hester Lynch Piozzi, Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson [1786]). In The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791) James Boswell renders it: “Dearest madam, consider with yourself what your flattery is worth, before you bestow it so freely.”
5 (p. 267) G. H. Lewes: The versatile and largely self-educated thinker George Henry Lewes (1817-1878) was a philosopher, journalist, literary critic, novelist, playwright, and sometime actor. He had a fraught professional relationship with Brontë, who thought he had a touch too much of dogmatism.”
6 (p. 269) truth is considered a libel in speaking of such people: Gaskell is referring to Thomas Cautley Newby, who published Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Anne’s Agnes Grey in 1847, but rejected Charlotte’s manuscript of The Professor. Newby’s unscrupulous business practices deprived both Emily and Anne Brontë proceeds from the sale of the copyrights for their novels; more damagingly, his false advertising capitalized on the success of Jane Eyre to portray the Bells as one person.