Charlotte Bronte

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 256, 25 July 1936, Page 19

Charlotte Bronte

The identity of the author of “Jane Eyre” was known in 'Wellington some time before it was found out in England that Currer Bell was a woman— Charlotte Bronte. As soon as the book had been published, Charlotte Bronte sent a presentation copy to her friend Mary Taylor in Wellington, in a letter of July 24, 1848, the latter refers to the work she had just received: “About a mouth since I received and read ‘Jane Eyre.’ It seemed to me incredible that you had actually written a book. Such events did not happen while I was in England. I begin to believe in your existence much as I do In Rochester’s. In a believing mood I don’t doubt either of them. . . Your novel surprised me by’ being so perfect as a work of art. I expected something more changeable and unfinished. You have polished to some purpose. I mention the book to no one and hear no opinion. I lend it a good deal because its a novel. They say ‘lt makes them cry.’ They are no't literary enough to give an opinion. If I hear ono I’ll embalm it for you.” Mary Taylor had always been a very close friend of tho Brontes. She had been a schoolfellow’ of Charlotte at Roe Head, a school about 20 miles from Haworth, and was with her later in Brussels. Her brother, Waring Taylor, came to New Zealand in 1842, and she followed him three years later. She set up a small drapery store in Cuba Street and lived in Wellington till 1858, when she returned to England, w’here she remained till her death in 1893 She herself wrote a novel “Miss Mlles, or a Tale of Yorkshire Life Sixty Yeans Ago,” which was published in 1893. She is believed to have been the first user of a sewing machine in Wellington.— J.W. (Lyall Bay).