Charlotte Bronte (as 'Currer Bell') to her publisher, W. S. Williams, 11 December 1847: 'I hardly ever felt delight equal to that which cheered me when I received your letter containing an extract from a note by Mr Thackeray, in which he expressed himself gratified with the perusal of "Jane Eyre." Mr Thackeray is a keen, ruthless satirist. I had never perused his writings but with blended feelings of admiration and indignation. Critics, it appears to me, do not know what an intellectual boa-constrictor he is [...] his is a most scalping humour, a most deadly brilliancy: he does not play with his prey, he coils round it and crushes it in his rings [comments further].'