Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 4026

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'The hero seems to me superior to the Rochester or the Louis Moore type, who are all rather lay-figures. Nor do I admire the sister?s work [Wuthering Heights] so much as you do. I see in it more violence than real strength & more rant than genuine passion. However all this is a matter of taste. I will remark, by the way, that I think there is some excuse for the charge of coarseness, as, e.g., the scene where Jane Eyre is half inclined to go to Rochester?s bedroom. I don?t mean coarseness in the sense of prurience; for I fully agree that Miss Bronte writes as a thoroughly pureminded woman; but she is more close to the physical side of passion than young ladies are expected to be?There is also some coarseness in the artistic sense in Jane Eyre. The mad wife is I fancy, unnecessarily bestial? I don?t think justice is generally done to C Bronte now & I shall be glad for that reason to insert your eloquent article.'
Century: 1850-1899
Date: Until: 1873
Country: England
Time: n/a
Place: n/a
   
Type of Experience (Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Type of Experience (Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Reader/Listener/Reading Group:

Reader:Leslie Stephen
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 28 Nov 1832
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: Literary critic, historian, journalist, biographer
Religion: Christian
Country of origin: England
Country of experience: England
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Emily Bronte
Title: Wuthering Heights
Genre: Fiction
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 4026  
Source - Print  
  Author: Leslie Stephen
  Editor: John Bicknell
  Title: The Selected Letters of Leslie Stephen Vol. 1 1864-1882
  Place of Publication: Ohio State University Press
  Date of Publication: 1
  Vol: 1996
  Page: 123
  Additional comments: Letter from Stephen to G. B. Smith accepting his article 'The Brontes' which appeared in the July 1873 number of the Cornhill.

Citation: Leslie Stephen, John Bicknell (ed.), The Selected Letters of Leslie Stephen Vol. 1 1864-1882 (Ohio State University Press, 1), 1996, p. 123, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=4026, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)