The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

This is the folder for all of you to post information and related resources that you believe will enhance our group read and discussion of Charlotte Bronte's wonderful novel, Jane Eyre. Please do provide any appropriate 'spoiler' warnings if the information in your post warrants it. Have fun!

Haworth, where the Bronte sisters and their brother Branwell lived, is in Yorkshire, north east England, close to where I was born so is a favourite part of the country for me. These websites are of Haworth Parsonage, now a Bronte Museum, and of the Yorkshire Dales and Moors, where the 'action' of the Bronte novels mostly takes place. As well as reading the novel again, I shall be 'seeing' it too:).

http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/bro...

One of the things which struck me most in the museum was Charlotte's dress, displayed in her bedroom - it is so very small and would fit an ll year old today. And her gloves are also tiny.

(The 360o panoramic views seem not to be working:(.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssFsEe...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w43R5d...

Mrs Gaskell's famous biography The Life of Charlotte Bronte is online but this reporter considers it 'sanitised' and gives a very different description of a 'sexy' Charlotte! (view spoiler)[

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/...

(hide spoiler)]

Here are some pics of the places Charlotte wrote of in Jane Eyre:-

Lowood School is based on the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge which Charlotte and her sisters attended. This is an 1899 photo of it:-

http://images.francisfrith.com/c10/45...

As it is today with more details:-

http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/bro...

Thornfield Hall is based on Norton Conyers, about which an interesting piece of history was revealed in 2004:-

(view spoiler)[ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/dec... (hide spoiler)]

http://www.lovetoescape.com/cdps/holi...

Morton and Moor house are based on the lovely area of Hathersage in the Hope Valley of the Derbyshire Peak District (another area I know well!). There are some photos here - click to enlarge - and details of the area's relevance to Jane Eyre (SPOILER):-

http://www.peakdistrictinformation.co...

Ferndean Manor is based on Wycoller Hall. It is now a ruin but this is an old painting of it:-

http://www.visitlancashire.com/xsdbim...

http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/bro...

Bewick's History of British Birds, which we find Jane reading at the beginning of Chapter 1, was first published in 1847 so would have been new to the Bronte's. It became a best seller, not least for its glorious woodcuts and wonderful descriptions of the landscapes which the birds inhabited. I remember my grandfather poring over it and I learned much about bird life and the British countryside from him:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesig...

This web article tells of 'Bronte's knowledge of Bewick' s History of British Birds' and there are some pertinent observations about the relationship between Bewick's images and the word images painted by Charlotte in Jane Eyre. (See link below - contains SPOILERS.)

'One of her earliest extant drawings is a copy of Bewick's engraving of the cormorant drawn in 1829. The Bronte children were avid readers and copiers of Bewick's work, and, as a young adult, Charlotte recommends to her friend Ellen Nussey in a letter dated July 4th, 1834 from Haworth that "For Natural History, read Bewick, and Audubon, and Goldsmith and White-of Selborne".'

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_01...

great links! thanks for sharing.

Madge, I've always wanted to find a copy of "Bewick's History of British Birds" as I am a big-time birder myself. One of North America's pretty little wrens is "Bewick's wren" (Thryomanes bewickii), and I must believe that it's name must honor this famous British ornithologist. Thanks for the link!

I had forgotten you were a birder Chris - we call them birdwatchers or twitchers over here:). Are you unable to obtain a copy in the US? This edition is available at £1.99 over here so with postage the cost wouldn't be too bad for you.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bewicks-Briti...

Franco Zeffirilli made a film of Jane Eyre in 1996 which has been widely acclaimed as the best, the most 'gothic', and as having a Jane who was appropriately 'plain'.

SPOILER: Here is a preview and the rest is also on Youtube:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjPzjZ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsB3pT...

Something about the film locations here (SPOILERS):-

http://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/see/...

Hi Madge,
How lucky for you that your live so close to Haworth! What a lovely part of the world. I'm located waaaaaay over near Seattle. Last summer I took a two week journey through your beautiful countryside, following in the footsteps of Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Brontë.

Like you, I was amazed at the tiny size of Charlotte's dress while visiting the Brontë Parsonage Museum. I was also struck when seeing one of their miniature hand made books, done in childhood. the museum is fantastic, and what a treasure the entire town of Haworth is!

One more note I'll add to your excellent links: based on what I've read in Juliet Barker's The Brontës (a MUST read for anyone who wants to know more about this talented family), Thornfield Hall is somewhat based on North Lees Hall in Hathersage.

If anyone is interested in seeing photos of Brontë country, feel free to check out my travel blog www.ScribbleManiac.com (And thank you, Chris, for already visiting!)

And thank you for the excellent information about Bewick's History of British Birds! I can't wait to learn more!

Don't know if any of you are familiar with the illustrator Fritz Eichenberg, but I thought I'd share these links with pictures of the engravings he did for Jane Eyre. Absolutely amazing!!!

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blo...

http://bookcoversanonymous.blogspot.c...


and here's a link on wikipedia about eichenberg, just for fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Ei...

MadgeUK wrote: "Mrs Gaskell's famous biography The Life of Charlotte Bronte is online but this reporter considers it 'sanitised' and gives a very different description of a 'sexy' Charlotte! (view spoiler)[http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/... (hide spoiler)] ..."

I have been reading Cranford and I am not convinced that history will always ascribe Glaskell to the position of "second-rate writer" as Tanya Gold does, even if Tanya Gold happens to be accurate in her beliefs about Charlotte Bronte.

MadgeUK wrote: "Franco Zeffirilli made a film of Jane Eyre in 1996 which has been widely acclaimed as the best, the most 'gothic', and as having a Jane who was appropriately 'plain'.

SPOILER: Here is a preview..."

Eh. I wasn't a huge fan of the Zefferelli version (although I LOVE his Romeo and Juliet, and had hoped to feel similarly about his JE). I've always wanted to see Helen Burns done very well, and he deliberately didn't even try. ARGH.

Ah, finally, Jane Eyre is here. I've been waiting for two months.

I only saw the 1970 film with George C. Scott and Susannah York (gothic and brooding, indeed) , and a nice music soundtrack by John Williams. None of the later versions have a comparable soundtrack, AFAIK, which makes this version the most memorable to me.

(Spoiler The End)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkT8to...

Great blog Denise and some lovely photos of Whitby, my favourite seaside town. Did you buy any jet?

I think there is a bit of a dispute about Thornfield Hall - there are parts of Jane Eyre which seem to fit both places, especially the 'spoiler' part, details of which were unearthed quite recently.

MadgeUK wrote: "Great blog Denise and some lovely photos of Whitby, my favourite seaside town. Did you buy any jet?

I think there is a bit of a dispute about Thornfield Hall - there are parts of Jane Eyre which ..."

Thanks for visiting ScribbleManiac.com, Madge! I just loved Whitby. I did buy a piece of jet in Windsor (it was so darn expensive in Whitby) but I now suspect it is actually bog oak, and not jet.

I agree with you - I'll bet Charlotte used both places as her inspiration for Thornfield Hall... I asked Ann Dinsdale (head of Brontë Parsonage Museum) about Charlotte visiting great houses throughout the area, and Ann said she most likely did view many of them. And it's fun to read through Barker's book about all of the Brontës and see inspiration for so many bits of Jane Eyre!

Yes, visiting stately homes became very popular in Victorian times when transport, especially rail travel, became easier and there are many of them in that part of the world, built on the profits from coal mining and wool.

You will find quite a lot of references to phrenology in JE. It was a popular way of judging people's character. For instance in Chapter 14 there is this phrase:

'He lifted up the sable waves of hair which lay horizontally over his brow, and showed a solid enough mass of intellectual organs, but an abrupt deficiency where the suave sign of benevolence should have risen.'

And characters elsewhere say: 'Really your organs of wonder and credulity are easily excited...' 'You,
who have an eye for natural beauties, and a good deal of the organ of Adhesiveness...'

Here is a Victorian diagram of the 'organs' of the brain:-

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zre1ULoM48w...

Here is some information about the pseudo-science of phrenology:-

http://vichist.blogspot.com/2008/11/i...

http://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/2009/04...

http://www.victorianweb.org/science/p...

All this might be easy to deduce when men sport a balding head but what about men with good heads of Victorian Byronic curls or Victorian women with false ones?!

I am currently reading Juliet Barker's superb biography about the Bronte family, The Brontës, and am truly enjoying it! I highly recommend this book for those of you who are fans of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Please be aware that if you've not read any of the novels of the Bronte women, do be advised that you will encounter spoilers to many plot details found in their books.

I agree Christopher although I suppose we ought to warn that there are some spoilers in it:).

MadgeUK wrote: "I agree Christopher although I suppose we ought to warn that there are some spoilers in it:)."

You're absolutely correct, Madge. Thanks! I've gone back and edited my original posting. ;-)

I just realized that a friend clearing her book collection has given me a copy of one of Juliet Barker's works on the Bronte family. But, oh, when to find the time to read it.

Thanks to all of you for these fabulous links and background resources! I'm especially interested in the houses that inspired the Brontes. I visited Haworth in September, and I absolutely loved it. I've read the book several times, but I'm looking forward to reading it again with this group. I've also added the Barker works to my TBR shelf.

hi everyone, I found this article on The New York Times. The article talk mostly about the recent movie version but it still is quite interesting so I decided to share.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/mov...

Camilla wrote: "hi everyone, I found this article on The New York Times. The article talk mostly about the recent movie version but it still is quite interesting so I decided to share.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011..."

Thanks, Milla, this is a review I'd not yet read. I still have not seen the movie, and I am waiting to get it through Netflix. Thank you so much for sharing the review, Milla! I hope school has gone well for you this term too! Cheers! Chris

Denise, a ScribbleManiac wrote: "Hi Madge,
How lucky for you that your live so close to Haworth! What a lovely part of the world. I'm located waaaaaay over near Seattle. Last summer I took a two week journey through your beautiful..."

Thanks for the lovely photos of Whitby! I was lucky enough to visit Whitby and Haworth last fall. I was struck, too, by the tiny size of Charlotte's dress. But, actually, the first thought that went through my mind was "Oh my! Charlotte would have been horrified to have her stockings on public display!" After all, Victorian ladies considered stockings a very personal item. My friend laughed when I told her my reaction. But I loved the museum and was fascinated by the manuscripts and juvenalia.

Very true Christina! I doubt the sisters would have liked the Parsonage being on display at all but thank goodness it is:). The juvenalia is delightful isn't it? Some of it (probably the originals) can be seen at the British Library in London, for those who cannot trek up to Yorkshire:-

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/online...

Apropos our conversation on Charlotte Bronte's narrative strategy in JE, the Victorian Web, from which I quoted an extract, has an interesting piece on this, although it is a spoiler for the later stages of the novel: (view spoiler)[http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/b... (hide spoiler)]

MadgeUK wrote: "Apropos our conversation on Charlotte Bronte's narrative strategy in JE, the Victorian Web, from which I quoted an extract, has an interesting piece on this, although it is a spoiler for the later ..."

Hopefully, readers will not consider this excerpt a spoiler:

"In conclusion, Jane Eyre uses a first-person narrative strategy strongly emphasizing the correctness of the narrator's views. Since this narrator is a governess, the focus on her feelings is very significant, given the male-dominated and class-conscious society in which she would have lived. Females had fewer freedoms than males did, and governesses had uncertain class and social status. Lending a strong voice to such an otherwise marginalized narrator makes a statement vis-à-vis the contemporary society. However, instead of greeting this narrative strategy as a victory in terms of feminism and a challenge to class rigidity, some prominent Victorian reviewers harshly criticized the novel. It is possible that these criticisms grew out of an ulterior motive, that being the perceived sense of threat to gender and class roles." (Emphasis added.)

However, I would add that as a narrative technique, first person narrator is often viewed as intrinsically unreliable, since such a narrator, unlike the so-called omniscient narrator, is perceived to have only a partial access to all the situation. That is not to say but what within those boundaries, the narrator is truthful and reliable. Such is a separate issue.

Just lost a post. D...

It went something like this: As I reread/listen to Jane Eyre, one of the questions I posit is how accurately do the vocabulary, observations, and feelings projected on the young Jane by the older narrator reflect what we might expect from a precocious ten-year old.

MadgeUK wrote: "VVery true Christina! I doubt the sisters would have liked the Parsonage being on display at all but thank goodness it is:). ."

I found that a fascinating thought, though I think a very common one today. But I think it's fascinating that we can be pleased when the wishes or desires of the dead are ignored to provide us with information, entertainment, amusement, education, scholarly study, or whatever which we otherwise wouldn't have. It's similar in a way to when an author directs that his papers, manuscripts, letters, etc. be burned on his or her death, but an executor refuses to comply with that direction but not only doesn't burn, but publishes the papers.

I wish I had the knowledge to dig into the psychology of this.

Lily wrote: "Just lost a post. D...

It went something like this: As I reread/listen to Jane Eyre, one of the questions I posit is how accurately do the vocabulary, observations, and feelings projected on the ..."

Great question. I hope you will post your conclusions on this to the appropriate book threads.

Great stuff, folks! All of this is quite thought-provoking and has certainly caused me to look at the novel with a 'fresh set of eyes' as I read on. Thank you, One and All! Cheers!

http://books.google.com/books?id=CBTw...

See page 151ff. You can't get to all of it here, but, if your library has the book ( Female Icons: Marilyn Monroe to Susan Sontag by Carl Rollyson), may be of interest.

Yes, I certainly 'see a clear line of descent from Wollstonecraft through Bronte to West' and have often mentioned Wollstonecraft when discussing the female Victorian authors. You even see it in Austen, the least rebellious. But what we seem not to know, even from Mrs Gaskell, is if the Bronte sisters read her. I just take it for granted that they did because she was such popular reading amongst Victorian intellectuals. Rather as I assume that they read the gothic novels so popular at the time. There were fewer books around to read or to buy at that time so the likelihood of them reading those at the top of the Victorian bestweller list seems high.

I wish I had the knowledge to dig into the psychology of this.

You've dug into it countless times:) There is no evidence that the Bronte's did not want the Parsonage to be used as a Museum. I was just surmising that they may not have liked the intrusion into their privacy, as Christina says, into their very underwear. But unless you believe, as I do not, that the dead can hear and/or see us, I do not see that it does any harm and it has had the advantage of educating millions of people from all over the world about the Brontes and their writing. The bookshops in Haworth do a roaring trade in Bronte novels! Had they been hounded by the paparazzi of their day to reveal all, as literary and other stars are today, that would have been a different matter.

MadgeUK wrote: "You've dug into it countless times:) ."

Actually, I haven't ever. You misread my post. But Christopher asked us to stop getting personal, so I won't go further into your response.

There are better pics of the JE homes here but the descriptions contain SPOILERS:-

http://www.walk2read.com/books/jane_e...

Susan asked for some contempoary reviews of JE. I have quoted from various reviews of the time as we went along but here are some links, several of which contain SPOILERS:-

Chapter II of Mrs Gaskell's Life of Charlott Bronte tells of the reception of JE and of correspondence between CB and Lewes:

http://www.online-literature.com/eliz...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/...

Here is a facsimile of the Quarterly Review of December 1848 (to which I have already referred):-

http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/peter....

There are various contemporary reviews on this Brooklyn uni website:-

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/eng...

This Guardian review of the latest BBC adaptation mentions several contemporary reviews:-

This Guardian review gives more information about Thackeray and of other reviews of the time but has SPOILERS:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/...

Victorian Web also gives several contemporary resources:-

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/b...

More about governesses in JE's time (Anne Bronte, of course, based Agnes Grey on her own sad experiences as a governess.):-

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/j...

http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng...

The contemporaneous descriptions of Charlotte Bronte as a schoolgirl in Chapter 6 of Gaskell's life of Bronte is reminiscent of her own descriptions of Jane:-

http://classiclit.about.com/library/b...

MadgeUK wrote: "Here is a facsimile of the Quarterly Review of December 1848 (to which I have already referred):-

http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/peter.fri...
"

An interesting review: Some passages I found of interest:

For Jane Eyre is merely another Pamela, who, by the force of her character and the strength of her principles, [spoiler omitted]. Nor is she even a Pamela adapted and refined to modern notions; for though the story is conducted without those derelictions of decorum which we are to believe had their excuse in the manners of Richardson's time, yet it is stamped with a coarseness of language and a laxity of tone which have certainly no excuses in ours. It is a very remarkable book: we have no remembrance of another combining such genuine power with such horrid taste. Both together have equally assisted to gain the great popularity it has enjoyed; for in these days of extravagant adoration of all that bears the stamp of novelty and originality, sheer rudeness and vulgarity have come in for a most mistaken worship.

How reminiscent of some modern critics deploring the taste for rudeness and vulgarity in some modern fiction!

She is an orphan, and a dependant in the house of a selfish, hard-hearted aunt, against whom the disposition of the little Jane chafes itself in natural antipathy, till she contrives to make the unequal struggle as intolerable to her oppressor as it is to herself.

The criticisms of Mrs. Reed are there, but in fairly normal terms, not in those of the monster that has been discussed here. And the reviewer notes that Jane chooses to become an active participant in the conflict, sharing responsibility for the intolerable relationship between them.

The rest of the review moves into parts of the book we haven't gotten to yet, so can't be discussed here.

MadgeUK wrote: "Victorian Web also gives several contemporary resources:-

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bron..."

Some interesting stuff there, though also some spoilers.

It seems that many contemporary critics were not enamored of the book:

According to the Quarterly Review, Jane Eyre exemplified the "tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code human and divine."

Matthew Arnold wrote, "Miss Brontë has written a hideous, undelightful, convulsed, constricted novel . . . one of the most utterly disagreeable books I've ever read . . . [because] the writer's mind contains nothing but hunger, rebellion and rage and therefore that is all she can, in fact, put in her book"

Other aspects of this article will require waiting until later in the book, but it may be interesting to note that none of the criticism they quote has any criticism at all of Mrs. Reed, though it may have been in the reviews but not quoted in the article -- I don't know.

Some interesting stuff there, though also some spoilers.

Yes, I wrote 'here are some links, several of which contain SPOILERS.'

I have said elsewhere that the reviews of the book were bad, that many Victorians, like yourself, were shocked by it but you had queried this. The Victorians were shocked that an aunt could be depicted badly and be argued with by a child, just as they were shocked that a governess could 'give herself' airs and seek to better herself. It is Charlotte Bronte, as Jane Eyre, who is criticising Mrs Reed, (view spoiler)[whose nasty character is revealed as the book progresses, as are the chracters of her children (hide spoiler)], and championing governesses. Thackeray championed the novel and CB dedicated the second edition to him. The critic Henry Lewes wrote to tell her that JE filled him with 'delight'. And of course Mrs Gaskell, then an established author, liked her work. (I had quoted Matthew Arnold elsewhere - the phrase about 'hunger, rebellion and rage' is well known. They eventually became good friends and she visited him at Loughrigg.)

Most of the works by authors like Dickens, the Brontes and Gaskell, which criticised their society, were badly received at first but then became bestsellers as those members of the public who agreed with them about the need for social reform got to read them and spread the word. Charlotte Bronte became quite a socialite, visiting London frequently and was read by Queen Victoria and her daughters.

MadgeUK wrote: "I have said elsewhere that the reviews of the book were bad, that many Victorians, like yourself, were shocked by it."

I am not shocked by it. Not at all. Indeed, some others here seem much more shocked than I am.

I just think that looking at the situations in the book only from Jane's point of view may sometimes be vastly unfair to some of the other people involved. I have spent much of my life representing the underdog, particularly including people in domestic conflicts who have been wrongly and unfairly accused of all sorts of horrible things. I have a natural affinity for trying to remove the emotionality from domestic conflict situations and for looking objectively and a rational understanding of the roots of the conflict. I am simply bringing this professional training and experience to bear on this situation of domestic conflict. Mrs. Reed and her children are often contemned by readers in the most strident terms (monsters, for example) because they accept without any question the version of events as seen just from Jane's point of view. I am simply trying to provide some balance and fairness to the view and treatment of these people.

OK. I appreciate your concern for real people but these are people in a book written by an author who had suffered under the conditions she is describing and who wanted to redress the balance too. CB and authors like her were writing on behalf of underdogs like Jane Eyre, poor orphans and governesses with no-one to support them and she had seen their treatment, and the behaviour of their rich relatives and employers, at first hand. Jane Eyre does not die but CB had seen three of her sisters die as a result of the unkind and cruel treatment of the time. It wasn't the Mrs Reeds of her world who needed balance and fairness, it was orphans and governesses, so I am on the side of those real underdogs, as portrayed in the book. I also look at the autobiographical situations there with the knowledge that they have been confirmed as true by CB's contemporaries and so know that in looking at the book from Jane's p.o.v. I am looking at the nearest thing I can get to the truth, or reliable narration. (view spoiler)[You also claim to have read the book and if this is so, you will know that there is even more contempible behaviour by Mrs Reed to come, behaviour that I do not think a lawyer could defend.

BTW I do not think we should continue this conversation in this Background thread. It is part of the general reading. (hide spoiler)]

Thank you for given us such an impressive list of resources, Madge. I was struck by this quote from a contemporary review:

"It is true Jane does right, and exerts great moral strength, but it is the strength of a mere heathen mind which is a law unto itself. No Christian grace is perceptible upon her."

Sometimes I think the Victorian (and Christian at the time) rules of decorum and humility were merely meant to keep the classes as they stand, which, of course, merely benefit the rich and do not permit a way out for the poor.

Thankyou Susan - I enjoy doing the research , it has become one of my retirement hobbies:).

Yes, as the now deleted verse from the Victorian hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful opined:-

'The rich man in his castle
The poor man at his gate
God made them high or lowly
And ordered their estate'

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/l/al...

One of the difficulties in dealing with the problems Dickens, Bronte and others faced were contemporary attitudes like ‘God had put people in their place in life and this must not be interfered with because the life after death was more important’.

It was firmly believed at this stage of our history that God chose the way of life for everyone, including women of course, and that to try to change that 'estate' was sinful. This is why Jane's rebellion against her aunt, her criticism of Lowood and her actions as a mere governess so enraged the original readers. And it was why in Chapter 4 that Jane told Mr Brocklehurst, when he inquired, that naughty children went to hell and were consumed forever in a pit of fire, because that was there she had been told the wicked go after death. What an idea to implant in a child's mind!

Although Charlotte and Emily Bronte learned French at Cowan Bridge school, they also went to Brussels in Belgium to perfect their French with a Professor Heger, with whom (despite his 'choleric and irritable' temperament!) she fell in love. There are some nice old prints of the Pensionnat Heger here and further information about the sisters' stay there:-

http://www.thebrusselsbrontegroup.org...

Four of the love letters she wrote to Professor Heger are now on show at Haworth and others are in the British Library:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/jun...

Margaret Smith put together 950 of Charlotte's letters, including the above, in 2007:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/1995/...

Charlotte's early book The Professor, was partly based on Heger:-

http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-cent...

Yes, as the words of the now omitted verse from All Things Bright and Beautiful said:-

The rich man in his castle
The poor man at his gate
He made them, high or lowly
And ordered their estate

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/l/al...

Re the reception of Jane Eyre and other novels by the Victorin public, this paragraph from Richard Altick's Victorian People and Ideas on Literature and 'Circulating Library Morality' may be of interest:-

During the decades early in the century when Evangelism was most resolute in its avoidances, fiction was at the top of its literary Index Expurgatorius. Religious magazines echoed with denunciations of the novel, which was believed to stimulate the imagination to a false perception of reality. "Instead of embellishing life, as it is falsely represented to do" asserted one writer, "it heightens only imginary and unattainable enjoyments, and transforms life itself into a dream, the realities of which are all made painful and disgusting, from our false expectation and erroneous notions of happiness". For this and other reasons, fiction was barred from countless serious households. By the thirties, however, Scott's fame had induced many who had formerly averted their eyes from fiction to inspect his novels, and what they found was unexceptionable. When Dickens burst upon the scene at the same time, it took an extraordinarily scrupulous reader (there were some) to find any offence in Pickwick Papers. Thanks mainly to these two novelists, the Evangelical stand against secular fiction was modified and although severe canons of propriety were maintained throughout the era, fiction ceased being a pariah among the literary genres except in the view of the most austere religious groups. But the obloquy that had been attached to it during the first third of the century had much to do with delaying its claim to critical attention.'

'....Because their scruples prevented many Evangelicals from attending public entertainments they occupied their free time in reading. This is as true of middle-class Victorians in general as it was of Evangelicals in particular. The fireside was the centre of family life, and the products of the press were as indispensable to household custom as tableware and furniture. In addition to private reading, there was that familiar institution of the middle class Victorian household, the Reading Circle, in which most members of the family, children and adults alike, joined to hear one of their number, usually the father, read aloud from a book or magazine. The popularity of the reading circle had a momentous effect upon the content of Victorian literature. The Evangelicals suffered from an often neurotic anxiety lest the impressionable mind be sullied by impure thoughts. It was requisite upon editors and publishers therefore that all reading matter be devoid of the faintest impropriety of language or thought....This is what was meant by the Victorians' notorious prudery, which extended, of course, to all language, ordinary speech as well as print and to pictures and sculpture revealing more of the human body than many people were prepared to admit existed. Indelicacy was almost as much to be deplored as blasphemy....When Bowdler's Family Shakspeare was published a contemporary reviewer observed: "the editor has sometimes shewn the truth of the old saw, that the nicest person has the nastiest ideas and has omitted many phrases as containing indelicacies which we cannot see, and of the guilt of which our Bard, we think, is entirely innocent.':)

Fascinating quip I picked up at BEA (a major publishers convention) from a publicist -- to be considered a "Christian" book in the U.S. market parlance, the book must contain no swear words! (I still ask myself, is that REALLY true?)