The Brontës: Fact and FictionDodd Mead, 1897 - 172 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
Alice Brontë Alice McClory alleged Anne Anne Brontë Augustine Birrell Aunt Mary author of Jane Ballynaskeagh Bookman Boyne Brontë novels Brontë students Brontës in Ireland brothers Brussels episode character Charlotte Brontë Charlotte's critics daughter described doubt Drogheda Emily Brontë evidence F. H. TOWNSEND facts father feeling Frank Prunty Gaskell genius grandfather Haworth heard heart Heslip Hugh Brontë Hugh II Hugh II.'s Hugh's Illustrations by F. H. imagination Irish Brontës J. B. Lusk Jane Eyre knew literary lived Lough Erne Lucy Snowe Madame Héger married Miss Nussey Miss Shannon myth narrative Nathaniel Hawthorne never novelists old Alice Paragon passion Patrick Brontë Paul Emanuel peasant Pensionnat person quoted reader says secret shillelagh Shirley Shorter Shorter's book sister South of Ireland suffering suppose tells tenant-right theory told tragedy true uncle Villette W. M. THACKERAY word Wright Wright's book writes wrote Wuthering Heights
Popular passages
Page 67 - The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad - as I am now.
Page 40 - A lover masculine so disappointed can speak and urge explanation, a lover feminine can say nothing : if she did the result would be shame and anguish, inward remorse for self-treachery. Nature would brand such demonstration as a rebellion against her instincts, and would vindictively repay it afterwards by the thunderbolt of self-contempt smiting suddenly in secret. Take the matter as you find it : ask no questions ; utter no remonstrances : it is your best wisdom.
Page 44 - Well! thought I, I have heard of love at first sight, but this beats all! I leave you to guess what my answer would be, convinced that you will not do me the injustice of guessing wrong.
Page 53 - I returned to Brussels after aunt's death against my conscience, prompted by what then seemed an irresistible impulse. I was punished for my selfish folly by a total withdrawal for more than two years of happiness and peace of mind.
Page 163 - Hence it ensued that what her mind had gathered of the real concerning them, was too exclusively confined to those tragic and terrible traits of which, in listening to the secret annals of every rude vicinage, the memory is sometimes compelled to receive the impress. Her imagination, which was a spirit more sombre than sunny, more powerful than sportive, found in such traits material whence it wrought creations like Heathcliff, like Earnshaw, like Catherine.
Page 163 - And yet she knew them : knew their ways, their language, their family histories ; she could hear of them with interest, and talk of them with detail, minute, graphic, and accurate ; but with them she rarely exchanged a word.
Page 40 - Take the matter as you find it: ask no questions; utter no remonstrances: it is your best wisdom. You expected bread, and you have got a stone; break your teeth on it, and don't shriek because the nerves are martyrized...
Page 48 - What I taste of happiness is of the soberest order. I trust to love my husband —I am grateful for his tender love to me. 1 believe him to be an affectionate, a conscientious, a high-principled man; and if, with all this, I should yield to regrets, that fine talents, congenial tastes and thoughts are not added, it seems to me I should be most presumptuous and thankless.
Page 65 - Some time in the afternoon I raised my head, and looking round and seeing the western sun gilding the sign of its decline on the wall, I asked, "What am I to do?" But the answer my mind gave - "Leave Thornfield at once" - was so prompt, so dread, that I stopped my ears. I said I could not bear such words now. "That I am not Edward Rochester's bride is the least part of my woe...
Page 15 - ... papa, and told him what had taken place. Agitation and anger disproportionate to the occasion ensued ; if I had loved Mr. Nicholls, and had heard such epithets applied to him as were used, it would have transported me past my patience ; as it was, my blood boiled with a sense of injustice. But papa worked himself into a state not to be trifled with : the veins on his temples started up like whip-cord, and his eyes became suddenly bloodshot. I made haste to promise that Mr. Nicholls should on...