[161] NORTON (HON. MRS. CAROLINE, 1808-1877). Poet.

Six Autograph Letters Signed (4 in full, 1 Caroline N, and 1 initials)
to Sir Charles Locock, the physician. 30 pages, 8vo. London and Paris,
N.D.
£25

An unusually interesting series in which Caroline Norton frankly expresses her opinion on husbands and her male friends; refers to her novel "Beatrice" and her pamphlets: discusses her health. &c.

"I think you are very provoking: and as the unhappy Mde. Laffarge occupied her prison hours in proving the celebrated Orfila knew nothing of Chemistry, so will I occupy myself during the illness of which I shall be a precedent, in proving your ignorance.

"I dont believe in husbands. . . . If the real husband I unfortunately have, did not make life a storm, maltreating my second son, & contradicting me about the eldest, I dont believe I should have been ill at all.

"The fatal result of husbands being so untimely forced on my notice (I dont use the word 'untimely' in its usual sense, of 'too soon' but ill-timedly) is that whereas I was extremely fond of my male friends and glad to welcome them I now receive them with fidgetty suspicions. . . . I look the anxious ones fiercely in the face, to shew that I am not embarassed by their anxiety, the timid ones I sneer at, lest they should think I am touched & softened by their humility, and the eager ones, all sorts of man-traps & spring guns await to destroy, when they dare to be enthusiastic even on harmless subjects, such as Literature. A general cold water cure is prescribed for all callers, and I aint near as happy as I was. . . .

"I send you my long over-due novel, out of the six copies which my some- what reticent publisher allows me. Be you equally reticent in lending it, . . . .

"I hope wou will like my 'Beatrice.' I made two attempts in the book: first, to portray a sensual female native, not in the common & grosser interpretation of that term, but one in whom the animal nature is very strong & the sense of

all animal enjoyment; about which people certainly have the most confused notions. . . . Well, then my other attempt was to show the inextricable difficulties that beset a woman slurred, even when a good woman, in all efforts for employment.

"I have of course fallen short, as all persons do, of the exact creation of my ideal, but enough remains I hope, to interest the reader. . . ."

" . . . Poor soul! The brilliant life of unsurpassed social power, she had! & that good clever brother, the Lord Auckland I knew, gone; . . . .

"But I cannot agree with her about my writing. I hold Poetry to be as infinitely below prose, as reason (2) is below fancy (1) I also hold prose to be a much rarer gift of good writing among women. And I think (as the climax of obstinacy) that prose on a real subject must be of higher value than prose for a work of imagination, Infinitely rather would I have written my two pamphlets on the Infant Custody Bill, & this last pamphlet, than all the poetry in the world; or even my three little forgotten letters at the time of the Chartist riots. No review that ever was written to flatter me, on works openly owned, ever gave me a tenth part of the gratification of seeing those letters printed large & pasted on walls by wise town clerks; (who did not know who wrote them:) or receiving & reading the haughty & gentlemanlike apology & retractation of a Mr. Mence, about the Custody Bill, thinking he was writing to another gentleman, & giving me my mock name of 'Mr. Stevenson.' To be praised is glory: but to succeed anonymously, is power, And power is better than glory. . . ." &c.