| √ | Century of Experience | Evidence | Name of Reader / Listener / Reading Group | Author of Text | Title of Text | Form of Text | | |
| 1850-1899 | 'One winter evening I was sitting over the fire engrossed in "Jane Eyre"...' | Mary Vivian (Molly) Hughes | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'Philip Inman conveyed a ... specific sense of the uses of literacy for an early Labour MP. The son of a widowed charw... | Philip Inman | Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | '[Philip Inman] loved everything by Charlotte Bronte, partly for what she had to say about the class system: "Characte... | Philip Inman | Charlotte Bronte | Villette | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | '[Philip Inman] loved everything by Charlotte Bronte, partly for what she had to say about the class system: "Characte... | Philip Inman | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'When asked how books had shaped him, Labour M.P. F.W. Jowett ranged widely: Ivanhoe made him want to read, Unto this ... | F.W. Jowett | Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'By age fourteen Durham collier Jack Lawson would find... emancipation at the Boldon Miners' Institute... "And didn't ... | Jack Lawson | Charlotte Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'By age fourteen Durham collier Jack Lawson would find... emancipation at the Boldon Miners' Institute... "And didn't ... | Jack Lawson | Emily Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | [Alice Foley] read some Morris and less Marx, but for her a liberal education for the proletariat was not merely a mea... | Alice Foley | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'During these early years [Daphne du Maurier] filled her head with tales of adventure, romances, histories and popular... | Daphne du Maurier | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'During these early years [Daphne du Maurier] filled her head with tales of adventure, romances, histories and popular... | Daphne du Maurier | Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | '[William Robertson] Nicoll's boyhood reading included Scott, Disraeli, the Brontes, Bulwer Lytton, Shelley, Johnson, ... | William Robertson Nicoll | Bronte | unknown | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | "Robert Blatchford, growing up in Halifax in the 1860s, read from the penny library there Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Sou... | Robert Blatchford | Charlotte, Anne, Emily Bronte | novels | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 |
'Both ... [Elizabeth and Alice Thompson] were reading voraciously at that time [1854-57]. Their father, by reading ... | Thomas Thompson | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849
1850-1899 | "It is very like Shirley except that there is no heather & the people are all of them of the Yorkshire kind as describ... | Leslie Stephen | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | "He [Mr Morrison] breeds horses, & the colts came up & talked to us, & his great kennelfulls of dogs who came to be pa... | Leslie Stephen | Anne Bronte | Tenant of Wildfell Hall | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849
1850-1899 | "I think, for example, that Shirley is very superior to Dorothea Brooke. She has far more character & power, though sh... | Leslie Stephen | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'The hero seems to me superior to the Rochester or the Louis Moore type, who are all rather lay-figures. Nor do I admi... | Leslie Stephen | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'The hero seems to me superior to the Rochester or the Louis Moore type, who are all rather lay-figures. Nor do I admi... | Leslie Stephen | Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'I prefer Villette to Shirley, on the whole.' | Leslie Stephen | Charlotte Bronte | Villette | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'I prefer Villette to Shirley, on the whole.' | Leslie Stephen | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849
1850-1899 | Charlotte Bronte to Charles Cuthbert Southey, 26 August 1850, regarding possible publication of letters between hersel... | Charlotte Bronte | Robert and Charlotte Southey and Bronte | letters | Manuscript: Letter |
| 1800-1849 | Anne Bronte, diary paper for 31 July 1845 'Emily is engeaged [sic] in writing the Emperor Julius's life She has read ... | Emily Bronte | Emily Bronte | Life of the Emperor Julius (? Gondal story) | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1900-1945 | '[Helen Crawfurd] derived lessons in socialism and feminism from Carlyle, Shaw, Wells, Galsworthy, Arnold Bennett, Ibs... | Helen Crawfurd | Charlotte /Emily/ Anne Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | Charlotte Bronte, Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell, 1850: 'One day, in the autumn of 1845, I accidentally ... | Charlotte Bronte | Emily Bronte | poems | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1800-1849 | George Smith, A Memoir (London, 1902): 'The MS. of "Jane Eyre" was read by Mr Wiliams ... he brought it to me on a Sa... | | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1800-1849 | George Smith, A Memoir (London, 1902): 'The MS. of "Jane Eyre" was read by Mr Wiliams ... he brought it to me on a Sa... | George Murray Smith | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1800-1849 | W. M. Thackeray to William Smith Williams, 23 October 1847: 'I wish you had not sent me "Jane Eyre." It interested me... | William Makepeace Thackeray | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 14 December 1847: 'A few days since I looked over "The Professor." I foun... | Charlotte Bronte | Charlotte Bronte | The Professor | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1800-1849 | Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 18 December 1847: '"The Observer" has just reached me ... I always compel ... | Charlotte Bronte | Charlotte Bronte | | Print: Newspaper |
| 1800-1849 | J. G. Lockhart to a friend, 29 December 1847: 'I have finished the adventures of Miss Jane Eyre, and think her far the... | John Gibson Lockhart | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 4 January 1848: '"Jane Eyre" has got down into Yorkshire; a copy has even ... | | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | Mary Taylor to Charlotte Bronte, 24 July 1848: 'About a month since I received and read "Jane Eyre".' | Mary Taylor | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, September 1848: ' ... of ["Ellis Bell's" poetry's] merit I am deeply convi... | Charlotte Bronte | Emily Bronte | poems | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1800-1849 | Charlotte Bronte to Ellen Nussey, 12 April 1849: 'I read Anne's letter [of 5 April] to you; it was touching enough ...' | Charlotte Bronte | Anne Bronte | letter to Ellen Nussey | Manuscript: Letter |
| 1800-1849
1850-1899 | Charlotte Bronte to Ellen Nussey, 19 January 1850: 'Mr Nicholls having finished "Jane Eyre" is now crying out for the ... | Arthur Bell Nicholls | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | Charlotte Bronte to Ellen Nussey, 28 January 1850: 'Mr Nicholls has finished reading "Shirley" he is delighted with i... | Arthur Bell Nicholls | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | Charlotte Bronte to Ellen Nussey, 28 January 1850: 'Mr Nicholls has finished reading "Shirley" he is delighted with i... | Arthur Bell Nicholls | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | Mary Taylor to Charlotte Bronte, c.29 April 1850: 'I have seen some extracts from "Shirley" in which you talk of women... | Mary Taylor | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley (extracts) | Unknown |
| 1850-1899 | Mary Taylor to Charlotte Bronte, 13 August 1850: 'On Wednesday I began "Shirley" and continued in a curious confusion ... | Mary Taylor | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 28 September 1850, on preparing to write preface to new edition of "Wuther... | Charlotte Bronte | Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | Unknown |
| 1850-1899 | Charlotte Bronte Nicholls to Ellen Nussey, 20 October 1854: "Arthur has just been glancing over this note -- He thinks... | Arthur Bell Nicholls | Charlotte Bronte | note to Ellen Nussey | Manuscript: Letter |
| 1900-1945 | [Communist activists often displayed hostility to literature, including Willie Gallacher. However his 'hostility to li... | William Gallacher | Charlotte Bronte | [unknown] | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | " ... in the early 1870s, the ten-year-old Annabel Huth Jackson 'was terribly frightened by the episode of the mad wom... | Annabel Huth Jackson | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899
1900-1945 | '[Alice] Foley continued her education by attending night school after going to work full-time in the mill when she wa... | Alice Foley | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'Growing up in Clapton during the Depression, Michael Stapleton needed a signature from his father (an Irish navvy) fo... | Michael Stapleton | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'James Williams admitted that, growing up in rural Wales, "I'd read anything rather than not read at all. I read a gre... | James Williams | Anne/Charlotte/Emily Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | '"Reading for me then was haphazard, unguided, practically uncritical", recalled boilermaker's daughter Marjory Todd. ... | Marjory Todd | Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | [imaginative role play] 'One chauffeur's daughter alternated effortlessly between heroes and heroines: "I have plotted... | Margaret Wharton | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'Marjory Todd read [the books of Hesba Stretton, Mrs O.F. Walton and Amy le Feuvre but felt later that] "I would not n... | Marjory Todd | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | [L.M. Montgomery] 'read a great deal; she mentions fifty different authors in her journal which covers the years 1910 ... | Lucy Maud Montgomery | Charlotte Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'Am reading "Jane Eyre" and adore it.' | Hilary Spalding | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'Today I finished "Wuthering Heights" and began "Villette". I must try and get a set of the Bronte books as soon as I... | Hilary Spalding | Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'Today I finished "Wuthering Heights" and began "Villette". I must try and get a set of the Bronte books as soon as I... | Hilary Spalding | Charlotte Bronte | Villette | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'Finished "Villette", and went fast asleep on couch.' | Hilary Spalding | Charlotte Bronte | Villette | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | [Communist activists often displayed hostility to literature, including Willie Gallacher. However his 'hostility to li... | William Gallacher | Emily Bronte | [unknown] | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | [Communist activists often displayed hostility to literature, including Willie Gallacher. However his 'hostility to li... | William Gallacher | Anne Bronte | [Unknown] | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | [List of books read in 1945]:
'For Whom the Bell Tolls; Henry Brocken; Doctor Faustus; Life of the Bee; The Screwtape... | Hilary Spalding | Charlotte Bronte | Professor, The | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'As to what they read [at the Gower Street School in the 1880s] -- and [...] Lucy Harrison [headmistress] read aloud t... | Lucy Harrison, headmistress, Charlotte Mew, and other pupils at Gower Street school | Emily Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'Over the New Year [1922] [...] [Charlotte Mew] went down to Cambridge and, as a particular treat, Sydney [Cockerell, ... | Charlotte Mew | Bronte | letters | Manuscript: Letter |
| 1800-1849 | 'Can you tell me about "Jane Eyre", - who wrote it? I am told I wrote the 1st vol: and I don't know how to disbelieve ... | Harriet Martineau | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | 'O! "Esmond"! That book marks its own year in one's life. I never did any justice to Thackeray before; and I cannot | Harriet Martineau | Charlotte Bronte | Villette | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | 'When I [Harriet Martineau] read ["Jane Eyre"], I was convinced that it was by some friend of my own, who had portions... | Harriet Martineau | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'In various letters to Osborne he mentions having received "Tom Jones" which he did not care for; "Jane Eyre" he thoug... | Arthur Symons | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'As I began to mend, the Governor, to keep me from brooding too much, gave orders that I was to have all the reading m... | Stuart Wood [pseud?] | Charlotte Bronte | [unknown] | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'As I began to mend, the Governor, to keep me from brooding too much, gave orders that I was to have all the reading m... | Stuart Wood [pseud?] | Emily Bronte | [unknown] | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'As I began to mend, the Governor, to keep me from brooding too much, gave orders that I was to have all the reading m... | Stuart Wood [pseud?] | Anne Bronte | [unknown] | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 'Tuesday Evening, 9th June [1857]':
'I have just finished Mrs. Gaskell's [it... | Elizabeth Missing Sewell | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'A slight work, but just about perfect. In fact I do not know how to find fault with it. ["Nocturne", 1917] . . . An... | Arnold Bennett | Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | 'Read 'Jane Eyre', it is an uncommon book. I don't know if I like or dislike it. I take the opposite side to the perso... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | 'Do you know Dr Epps - I think you do - ask him to tell you who wrote Jane Eyre and Shirley,- <...> Do tell me who wro... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | 'she said to H M, 'What did you really think of "Jane Eyre"?' H M. I thought it a first rate book, whereupon the littl... | Harriet Martineau | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | 'I think I told you that I disliked a good deal in the plot of Shirley, but the expression of her own thoughts in it i... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'They used to read to each other when they had written so much. Their father never knew a word about it.' | the Bronte sisters | Bronte | [works by all three sisters] | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1850-1899 | [Gaskell relates how Charlotte Bronte presented her father with 'Jane Eyre'] ''May I read you some reviews.' So she re... | Patrick Bronte | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'The difference between Miss Bronte and me is that she puts all her naughtiness into her books, and I put all my good... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | Villette | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'The difference between Miss Bronte and me is that she puts all her naughtiness into her books, and I put all my good... | Lady Kay-Shuttleworth | Charlotte Bronte | Villette | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'She [Charlotte Bronte] has had an uncomfortable kind of coolness with Miss Martineau, on account of some [italics] ve... | Harriet Martineau | Charlotte Bronte | Villette | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'Mr N. never knew, till long after Shirley was published, that she wrote books; and came in, cold & disapproving one d... | Arthur Bell Nicholls | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'I have looked for Mr Macarthey's character in Shirley, and I find it exactly corresponds with what you have told me o... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'I have read [italics] once [end italics] over all the letters you so kindly entrusted me with, and I don't think even... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | [letters to Ellen Nussey] | Manuscript: Letter |
| 1850-1899 | 'I am extremely obliged to you for the pacquet of Miss Bronte's letters which I found here on my return home, too late... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | [letters to W.S. Williams] | Manuscript: Letter |
| 1850-1899 | '[Having visited Haworth, Gaskell acquired MSS of 'The Professor', 'Emma'], & by far the most extraordinary of all, a ... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | [manuscripts] | Manuscript: books |
| 1850-1899 | 'I have read the Professor, - I don't see the objections to its publication that I apprehended, - or at least only suc... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | Professor, The | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1850-1899 | 'I dreaded lest the Prof: should involve anything with M. Heger - I had heard her say it related to her Brussels life,... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | Professor, The | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1850-1899 | 'The Professor is curious as indicating strong character & rare faculties on the part of the author; but not interesti... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | Professor, The | |
| 1850-1899 | 'I am afraid I never told you that I did not mind your reading Jane Eyre'. | Marianne Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | 'From what I can judge from the letters Mr Nicholls has entrusted me with, her [Charlotte Bronte's] very earliest way ... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | [letters] | Print: NewspaperManuscript: Letter |
| 1850-1899 | 'The letters Mr Smith does send principally relate to the other Bronte's transactions with Newby, or else they are (ve... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | [letters] | Manuscript: Letter |
| 1850-1899 | 'She has also received a packet of letters from Mr Williams (another London publisher, I believe), which she says are ... | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell | Charlotte Bronte | [letters] | Manuscript: Letter |
| 1850-1899 | Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella Moulton-Barrett, 12 March 1850:
'Robert is reading "the Caxtons" & is much p... | Elizabeth Barrett Browning | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1850-1899 | Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Anna Brownell Jameson, 2 April 1850:
'I have read Shirley lately: it is not equal to ... | Elizabeth Barrett Browning | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | '[letter from M. Jusserand to Mrs Ward] 'I spent yesternight a most charming evening reading your essay [on the Bronte... | M. Jusserand | Charlotte Bronte | Shirley | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | Transcript of interview: 'And another one that I loved was when I had mumps and was in the san which had a very small ... | Hilary Spalding | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | Transcript of interview: 'And another one that I loved was when I had mumps and was in the san which had a very small ... | Hilary Spalding | Emily Bronte | Wuthering Heights | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'J.J. Cooper introduced the subject of the Brontes with some excellent biographical notes & readings were given from t... | Sylvanus A. Reynolds | Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'J.J. Cooper introduced the subject of the Brontes with some excellent biographical notes & readings were given from t... | Henry Marriage Wallis | Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'J.J. Cooper introduced the subject of the Brontes with some excellent biographical notes & readings were given from t... | Charles Evans | Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'J.J. Cooper introduced the subject of the Brontes with some excellent biographical notes & readings were given from t... | Alfred Rawlings | Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'J.J. Cooper introduced the subject of the Brontes with some excellent biographical notes & readings were given from t... | Helen Rawlings | Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1900-1945 | 'J.J. Cooper introduced the subject of the Brontes with some excellent biographical notes & readings were given from t... | Janet Rawlings | Bronte | | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | [Branwell Bronte to Francis H. Grundy, 9 June 1842:]
'Mr James Montgomery and another literary gentleman who have l... | James Montgomery | Branwell Bronte | | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1800-1849 | Branwell Bronte to Francis H. Grundy, 9 June 1842:
'Mr James Montgomery and another literary gentleman who have lat... | anon | Branwell Bronte | | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1800-1849 | [From Charlotte Bronte's introduction to the 1850 edition of her sisters' novels:]
'One day in the autumn of 1845 I... | Charlotte Bronte | Emily Bronte | poems | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1800-1849 | [From Charlotte Bronte's introduction to the 1850 edition of her sisters' novels:]
'One day in the autumn of 1845 I... | Charlotte Bronte | Anne Bronte | poems | Manuscript: Unknown |
| 1800-1849 | [W. M. Thackeray to W. S. Williams, 23 October 1847:]
'I wish you had not sent me Jane Eyre. It interested me so mu... | William Makepeace Thackeray | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | [George Henry Lewes to Elizabeth Gaskell:]
'When Jane Eyre first appeared, the publishers courteously sent me a cop... | George Henry Lewes | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | [Charlotte Bronte (as 'Currer Bell') to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 11 December 1847:]
'There are moments when I... | Sir John Herschel | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | [Charlotte Bronte (as 'Currer Bell') to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 11 December 1847:]
'There are moments when I... | James Henry Leigh Hunt | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849 | [Sidney Biddell to Ellen Nussey, 15 February 1885:]
'I am having a great treat in Cross's "Life of G... | George Eliot | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |
| 1800-1849
1850-1899 | [A former pupil of Cowan Bridge School, Yorkshire (the model for 'Lowood' in Jane Eyre), to
Charlotte Bronte's wi... | Anon | Charlotte Bronte | Jane Eyre | Print: Book |