Charlotte Bronte to William Smith Williams, 22 November 1848: '"The North American Review" [containing reviews of the Bronte sisters' works in which the authors are presumed to be men of "ferocious" temperaments] is worth reading ... To-day as Emily appeared a little easier, I thought the Review would amuse her so I read it aloud to her and Anne. As I sat between them at our quiet but now somewhat melancholy fireside, I studied the two ferocious authors. Ellis the "man of uncommon talents but dogged, brutal and morose," sat leaning back in his easy chair drawing his impeded breath as he best could ... but he smiled half-amused and half in scorn as he listened -- Acton was sewing ... he only smiled too, dropping at the same time a single word of calm amazement to hear his character so darkly portrayed.'