Charlotte Brontë: From a Yorkshire Girl to a Regency Writer and Dandy

Pike, Judith E.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-34855-7_6

Charlotte Brontë: From a Yorkshire Girl to a Regency Writer and Dandy

Judith E. Pike⁴

Chapter
First Online: 10 June 2020

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture ((PNWC))

Abstract

While Charlotte Brontë is a renowned Victorian novelist, many of her early prose pieces were written well before Victoria ascended the throne in 1837. In her youth, Brontë produced a rich collection of literary works written during the reign of William IV that invites us to rethink the Brontë canon from a new literary and historical perspective. We should consider her not only as a Victorian writer but also as an author of the late Regency. Her silver-fork fiction from the 1830s reveals this un-Victorian side of Brontë’s legacy. However, the treatment of her early manuscripts as material objects—Brontë relics—rather than as narratives has limited our understanding of the breadth of Brontë’s literary legacy.

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Notes

1.
“The Tea Party” is a vignette, dated 9 October 1833, and is part of “Arthuriana or Odds & Ends; Being Miscellaneous Collection of Pieces in Prose & Verse by Lord Charles A F Wellesley.” See also Charlotte Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 250–7.
2.
“Aristocratic Novels,” 381.
3.
Fannie E. Ratchford, “Angrian Cycle,” 494.
4.
Ratchford, “Angrian Cycle,” 494.
5.
Elizabeth Gaskell, Letters, 398.
6.
Gaskell, Letters, 398.
7.
Gaskell, Letters, 399.
8.
Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë, 479, n64.
9.
See Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 3. Christine Alexander dates one manuscript earlier (c. 1826–28, written for her sister Anne).
10.
Gaskell, Letters, 345. Gaskell had considered the idea of a biography months earlier as described in her 31 May 1855 letter to George Smith.
11.
Juliet Barker, Brontës, 783.
12.
Gaskell, Letters, 370.
13.
Gaskell, Letters, 129.
14.
Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë, 64.
15.
Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë, 72. Regarding Brontë’s fascination with Wellington, see Alexander, “Autobiography, and the Image.”
16.
Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë, 71.
17.
Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë, 73.
18.
Barker, Brontës, xvii.
19.
Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë, 77. This portrait is from Mary Taylor’s recollections, which Gaskell included in her third edition of the biography.
20.
Ellen Nussey, “Reminiscences,” 19.
21.
Clement Shorter, Life and Letters, vol. 1, 80.
22.
Nussey, “Reminiscences,” 18–19.
23.
Nussey, “Reminiscences,” 20.
24.
Brontë to Nussey, 21 July 1832, in Margaret Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 114.
25.
Brontë to Nussey, 21 July 1832, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 114.
26.
Brontë to Nussey, 5 September 1832, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 116.
27.
Brontë to Nussey, 1 January 1833, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 120–1.
28.
Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë, 99.
29.
Brontë to Nussey, 11 February 1834, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 125.
30.
Brontë to Nussey, 21 July 1832, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 114.
31.
See Barker, Brontës, 552–3. Brontë had promised her sister Emily that she would not divulge her authorship, even though she does so with Mary Taylor, sending her a copy of Jane Eyre in 1848.
32.
Brontë, Selected Letters, 105.
33.
Alexander, “Charlotte Brontë: The Earnest Amateur” in The Art of the Brontës, 43.
34.
Alexander and Jane Sellars, The Art of the Brontës, 180–7. Fifteen of her Roe Head pencil drawings that vary in subject matter have survived (see figs. 42–56).
35.
This quote appears in “The Secret”; see Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 285.
36.
Alexander and Sellars, The Art of the Brontës, figs. 23 and 25, 166–8.
37.
Brontë, Jane Eyre, 259.
38.
Brontë, Jane Eyre, 140, 143. Jane first associates lavish jewellery (opposed to Miss Temple’s modest pearl brooch) with Céline Varens and Rochester’s gifts of “cashmeres, diamonds, &c” and “satin and jewels.”
39.
Alexander and Sellars, The Art of the Brontës, 216–17. See “The Honble Miss Janet,” dated 14 October 1833, and “Zenobia Marchioness Ellrington,” dated 15 October 1833 (figs. 99 and 100).
40.
See Alexander, “‘That Kingdom of Gloom’”; Elaine Arvan-Andrews, “‘Lure of the Fabulous’”; and Julian North, “Appearing Before the Public.”
41.
Nussey, “Reminiscences,” 20.
42.
Nussey, “Reminiscences,” 20.
43.
Brontë to Nussey, 21 July 1832, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 114. Years later, in The Professor, Brontë presents plain work in stark terms: “I can show no power in sewing, no superiority—it is a subordinate art” (120). On representations of needlework in the later novels, see Tracy Brain, “Stitching a Life”; Peter J. Capuano, “Networked Manufacture”; Eva Badowska, “Choseville”; and Nicola Anne Haxell, “Woman as Lacemaker.”
44.
Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë, 95.
45.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 54.
46.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 54.
47.
See Patrick Branwell Brontë, The Works, vol. 1, 7–8, and 11–31. At twelve, Branwell made his first periodical in January 1829, which he simply called “Magazine” and six months later renamed “Branwell’s Blackwood’s Magazine.” He produced two issues in June and July 1829.
48.
Laura Forsberg, “Miniature World,” 48–9.
49.
Talia Schaffer, Novel Craft, 17.
50.
Schaffer, Novel Craft, 16.
51.
Originally, “The Tea Party” was bound together with the other “miscellaneous” parts with a brown wrapper cover. The manuscript is owned by the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City and is presently being restored. I was fortunately granted permission to examine the quality of the paper and would like to thank the library staff for their help.
52.
Dard Hunter, Papermaking, 199.
53.
See Alexander and Sellars, The Art of the Brontës, 180. In contrast to the poor quality paper used for these little books, the paper for the Roe Head drawings was better quality, indicated by the J WHATMAN/1829 watermark.
54.
Shorter, Life and Letters, vol. 1, 81.
55.
Gaskell, Letters, 398.
56.
Some of Brontë’s other book covers were made from coarse blue wrapper paper. This common form of paper was often used to package household products, such as Epsom salt.
57.
Shorter, Life and Letters, vol. 1, 55.
58.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 125.
59.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 126.
60.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 133–40. Brontë identifies Lord Charles as the author of the gothic tale “The Adventures of Mon Edouard de Crack.”
61.
Winifred Gérin, Five Novelettes, 21.
62.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 143–4. Passage from “Third Volume of the Tales of the Islanders,” May 1830. She identifies this work under dual authorship by signing CW (Charles Wellesley) and CB or C. Brontë.
63.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 153.
64.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 141.
65.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 268.
66.
Winifred Hughes, “Silver Fork,” 329, 330.
67.
Hughes, “Silver Fork,” 330.
68.
Hughes, “Silver Fork,” 330.
69.
William Hazlitt, “Dandy School,” 3.
70.
Edward Copeland, Silver Fork Novel, 16.
71.
“Aristocratic Novels,” 381.
72.
“Aristocratic Novels,” 380.
73.
“Dominie’s Legacy,” 319.
74.
Charlotte Brontë to Branwell Brontë, 17 May [18]32, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 112. Branwell had recently visited her at Roe Head, as mentioned in this letter, at which point he must have shared this news with her about the subscription to Fraser’s Magazine.
75.
“Dominie’s Legacy,” 321.
76.
See Alexander and Smith, Oxford Companion, 518. Verdopolis was the capital of Glass Town.
77.
“Dominie’s Legacy,” 321.
78.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 10.
79.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 10.
80.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 10.
81.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 10–11.
82.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 10.
83.
C. Brontë, An Edition, vol. 1, 300.
84.
C. Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 10, 12.
85.
C. Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 10, 12.
86.
C. Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 10, 12.
87.
C. Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 10, 12.
88.
Heather Glen, “Introduction” in Brontë, Tales of Angria, xlvi, n24.
89.
Glen, “Introduction” in Brontë, Tales of Angria, xx.
90.
See Thomas Carlyle, “Sartor Resartus.”
91.
Copeland, 13.
92.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 252.
93.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 252.
94.
Charlotte and Branwell’s Glass Town and Angrian saga revolves around the intense political and personal rivalry between these two men. The Marquis is Charlotte’s central hero and Ellrington is Branwell’s.
95.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 256.
96.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 257.
97.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 257.
98.
Sally Shuttleworth, “Introduction” in Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey, x.
99.
The theme of the orphaned governess also surfaces in “The Secret,” but Foxley is orphaned at the “age of twenty-one,” so she is significantly older than the orphaned Jane Eyre. See Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 276.
100.
Brontë, Jane Eyre, 87.
101.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 271.
102.
“English Genealogy—Sunday,” 409. Interestingly, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) provides this citation as the earliest appearance of the word “danziette,” defined as a “female dandy.” The OED offers several meanings of “septenary,” but the reference to “the division of time” that is “based on the number seven, e.g. a week” suits the quote and hyperbole of fashion changing on a weekly basis.
103.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 273.
104.
Copeland, Silver Fork Novel, 19.
105.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 273.
106.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 273–4.
107.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 273.
108.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 274.
109.
Brontë to William Smith Williams, 12 May 1848 in Smith, Selected Letters, 107.
110.
Brontë to William Smith Williams, 12 May 1848 in Smith, Selected Letters, 318–19.
111.
See Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 317 for identification of the manuscript’s dimensions as “9.4 × 11.63 cm.”
112.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 318–19.
113.
Brontë, An Edition, vol. 2, part 1, 318–19.
114.
Brontë to Messrs Aylott and Jones, 28 March 1846, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 459.
115.
Brontë to Aylott and Jones, 16 February and 7 May 1846, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 453, 470.
116.
Brontë to Aylott and Jones, 11 March 1846, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 457.
117.
Brontë to Aylott and Jones, 31 January 1846, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 449.
118.
Brontë to Aylott and Jones, 16 February 1846, in Smith, Letters, vol. 1, 453.

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Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD, USA
Judith E. Pike

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Faculty of Humanities, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Justine Pizzo
Faculty of Humanities, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Eleanor Houghton

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Pike, J.E. (2020). Charlotte Brontë: From a Yorkshire Girl to a Regency Writer and Dandy. In: Pizzo, J., Houghton, E. (eds) Charlotte Brontë, Embodiment and the Material World. Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34855-7_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34855-7_6
Published: 10 June 2020
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