Anne Bronte. The critical introduction by Mrs. Humphry Ward is
of particular importance. About Charlotte Bronte's work there is a pretty general agreement of intellectual judgment, at least, if not of taste ; but there is plenty of room for what a broad- minded critic has to say about the tales of the younger sisters. They were received at the time with a general consensus of dis- approval which the Quarterly, more suo, expressed with special brutality. If they were to appear now, the qualities which were then so strongly censured would pass without remark. Mrs. Htunphry Ward points out the impersonality of Wuthering Heights : "It is pure mind and passion." She points out also, in a very interesting passage, the influence that the study of Con- tinental literature had on Emily Brontë. It is remarkable how these three women puzzled the reviewers. Here is a passage in which Charlotte describes how she read to Emily and Anne a criticism which had appeared in the North American Review :— "I studied the two ferocious authors. Ellis, the 'man of uncommon talents, but dogged, brutal, and morose,' sat lean-
ing back in his easy chair it is not his wont to laugh, but he smiled, half amused, half in scorn, as he listened. Acton was sewing ; no emotion ever stirs him to loquacity ; so he only smiled too, dropping at the same time a single word of calm
amazement I wonder what the reviewer would have thought of his own sagacity could he have beheld the pair as I did."
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