Still we say again this is a very remarkable book. We are painfully alive to the moral, religious, and literary deficiencies of the picture and such passages of beauty and power as have quoted cannot redeem it, but it is impossible not to be spellbound with the freedom of the touch. It would be mere hackneyed courtesy to call it ‘fine writing’. It bears no impress of being written at all, but is poured out rather in the heat and hurry of an instinct, which flows ungovernably on to its object, indifferent by what means it reaches it, and unconscious too. As regards the author’s chief object, however, it is a failure – that, namely, of making a plain, odd woman, destitute of all the conventional features of feminine attraction, interesting in our site. We deny that he had succeeded in that. Jane Eyre, in spite of some grand things about her, is totally uncongenial to our feelings from beginning to end. We acknowledge her firmness – we respect her determination – we feel for her struggles; but for all that, and setting aside higher considerations, the impression she leaves on our mind is that of a decidedly vulgar-minded woman – one whom we should not care for as an acquaintance, whom we should not seek as a friend, whom we should not desire as a relation, and who we should scrupulously avoid as a governess.
Elizabeth Eastlake, The Quarterly Review, December 1848
It is not without a modicum of trepidation that I confront the words which others in publications of some import have chosen to devote to the praise or criticism of my work. Dear Reader, please understand that I do not wish to present myself as one averse to criticism; nevertheless, the days I passed in conjuring my heroine to the page have rendered me protective of her, and I feel that here, with all due respect meant to Ms. Eastlake, I must come to the defense of my very own Jane Eyre.
Though I will concede the truth that Jane Eyre bears no great physical beauty, (and it was not my intent to present her in such a fashion!), I must simply state that Ms. Eastlake's suggestion that I have not succeeded in making my character interesting is a matter of opinion, merely. Her interest lies in her spirit, an oft-overlooked quality in the females of the novels of our time. Jane exhibits this indomitable spirit when she states defiantly, "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you" (253). She says this, you will recall, to Mr. Rochester, which leads me to the more pressing matter of Ms. Eastlake's questioning of Jane Eyre's scruples. I reject the notion that Ms. Eyre is a vulgar-minded woman. When she is at last made aware of the existence of Mr. Rochester's unfortunate wife, she insists upon leaving him. She is scrupulous even in the face of great loss. The compassion and love she shows for Mr. Rochester at the conclusion of the novel proves her to be beyond the reproach Ms. Eastlake has given her in this quarterly review.
It is perhaps irresponsible of me to speculate, but it is possible that Ms. Eastlake has not had the opportunity to experience such a love as is shared by Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester in my book. It is my deepest wish that I am not correct in this estimation.
I remain, Dear Reader, ever faithfully your most gracious,
~Currer Bell
(1848)
