Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1853-06-07
MISCELLANEOUS.
q lS CUYHt1e7'
JANE EYRE. SHIRLEY. YlLLETTE-BY CURRER
BELL.-iHarper 4. Brothers.
Inv xA-R xrSEapnl

A n EYRE, SHIRLEY. V~lLLETTE-BY CURRER
BELL.-lHarper {. Brothers.
[BY KATE xESSARp
went, yesterday morning, into one OF our largest BOOK
stores, and, standing by the table set apart for the new publ
cations, out of twenty new books. l counted eleven, whose
authors were women. Light literature it all was certainly,
bu, light literature makes its way with the public.
What it lacks in weight, il somehow in these days makes
up In velocity, according 10 a long established Law Of mo-
lion. While Mills' Logic is forcing its way into one brain,
Queechy glides with rail road speed through a thousand.
1t behoves US, then, TO look at this lgh; literature, and see
what it lie worth, and what change may be wrought upon II
by is falling so generally into women's hands.
The first results are certainly not promising; for the last
3or 4 years we have been drluscd by a flood Of weak, senti-
mental novels, which could only have been sold because there
were weak, sentimental people to read them; all that class
OF readers, who formerly read Cooley and Graham, and were
con,ented with noveIle,tes, but who. since the Harpers have
ruined our taste, and burdened our libraries with such Won
derfully cheap publications, are not satisfied without at least
a couple of hundred pages Of sentiment for a quarter.
Sometimes, however, We geta great deal more than we
had reason to expect. Instead of a volume OF very weak
sentiment, only kept from spelling by q dash of piety, we
&c, a strong dose of metaphysics, well spiced by something
very like wickedness.
Such o hook from a woman's hand, the last few weeks
have brought us, in the new novelb by Currer Bell,-'vlIette.'
We all remember Jane Eyre and the commolion she
IRl6eQ. " " v u ulOfdi VI u u u IIShS
improper to pu, into the hands Of young girl2 Did a wo.
man write it7 Could a man write i'll &C., &c. Then came
Shirley avowedly by a woman; and stories were whispered
Of the three Miss Bronte's, and their isolated lives. Now
.vlNette' is offered to our criticism, to stand the severe or.
deal OF satisfying the expectations raised BY its predecessors
Let us see what the three books are.
These books all repeat themselves in q most remarkable
manner; the same hand Is there, welding the metaphysical
scalpel with anatomical accuracy; laying bare the secret
workings of the mind and heart, and showing a condition OF
mind not healthy, certainly, but not unnatural
There, too, is the same deficiency of plot; the parts Of the
story do not even hang together, much less grow out Of each
other 10 my artistic manner; but Incidents seem TO come
into the authors mind by a sort of chance medley, and to be
taken up and forced into the story by a forty horse power OF
compression and ada ptatlon.
am not sure that the power of forming an artistic plot is
not denied to women. Many most successful writer's Of 6c-
ton have we of The gcntler sex but where can we point 10
one who has constructed an artistic plot story in which
the incidents are SO artfuny disposed as to draw 10 one end
aud make a complete whole-a picture which can be taken
In oil one look7
To this talent il Is that Scotts novels owe much Of their
power. His novels show the hand of the artist in their con.
slruction. The story grows as if il were from the beginning
even Incidents, apparently the slightest, are found in The end
10 have had their bearing upon the progress of the plot-and
you look with a sense OF completeness upon each novel as il
rises before your memory.
But In this power, MISS Bronte Is entirely oenclent. ner
stories hardly hang together.
In "Jane Eyre you feel that there are three distinct parts,
each of which might have stood by itself. Her early life a,
school, her companions, her experiences, are all shut out
from your view, when her life at MIR. Rochesters begins, and
tina. in turn disappears 10 make room for the forced episode
of ST. John and his sisters, who are all violently thrust out
of the way to make room for Rochester again.
So in "Shirley'-the two heroines and their TWO trains Of
adventures do not run side by side. On the contrary, when
one goes out the other comes in, and vice versa. With the
present novel, there is not even the semblance of a plot
Things happen or do not happen, as most conveniently suits
the authors necessity f1 a brilliant analysis or a caustic
conversation and though the characters, in themselves,
are not unnatural, they certainly put themselves in most un
natural positions.
From the time that Little Polly al six, falls in love with
Graham Breton of sixteen, and has inexplicable long
Ings for his society, cannot live' when he negIecls her, and
she says she "has no future when she leaves him, 10 the
end Of the book, where NJ, Paul wins Miss Lucy by kissing
out sarcasms in her ear, all is overdone and inflated.
Where, then, lies the power of the wri,ct7 Whence comes
the living interest we take in her characteristic lasting i'm.
preston which her novels make : II lies, l believe, In her
wonderful power Of unfolding the hidden motives Of the hu.
man heart, It's innermost thoughts and feelings.
We are conscious that so might we have acted and felt,
had not custom, the conventionallties of society, the pro.
prieties of life, strong as iron in their hold, formed a net
work around US, and kept, even our inward musings in a shape
such US we would not be ashamed TO present TO the word.
She startles Us by holding up a convex mirror, wherein we
see. in maPnihed reflection, the defects of our own souls
,hose defects which We roula not look at, and all broush,
Into full view. Reading one Of her books ia like studying
Rochefoucault's niaxims: one rises from the perusal "a sad
der but a wiser man."
Miss Bronte's writings have this quality which our wo
men authors so gricvously lack-strength.
With all their faults, faults Of an undisciplned mInd-aud
we may also say, a defective educa,ion-th they have ,he merit
of clear, accurate thinking, thinking which Is 10 the point.
and nervous and terse writing.
Their conversations, though certainly not like any we
meet with In polite society where people are no, in the habit
Of openly abusing each other, are as certainly full of life and
power.
She dramatizes admirably; the speakers stand GU, before
you; nothing flags; there never seem 10 be words thrown 10
for the sake of tying sentences together; no awkward 'says
she,' or "said he;'' bu, you turn from one dsputant Il use
the most fitting word) TO the other, with your interent kept
awake by her lfs-like presentations.