Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre won immediate and widespread acclaim
upon its first release. The Times called it "a remarkable
production…that "stand[s] boldly out from the mass." Fraser's
Magazine urged its readers to "lose not a day in sending for
it." Some, however, declared the book coarse and immoral, and unfit
reading for young ladies.
Writing under the pseudonym "Currer Bell," Brontë placed her novel with the London publisher Smith, Elder & Co., who assumed the writer was male. She received £500: a princely sum for a first novel. Brontë’s true identity, revealed the following year, caused great controversy.
With Jane Eyre, Brontë achieved the literary celebrity that Southey had warned her to eschew.
Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. Edited by Currer Bell. London: Smith,
Elder and Co., 1847. Private Collection.
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Copyright
© 2002 Division of Rare & Manuscript
Collections
2B Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853
Phone Number: (607) 255-3530. Fax Number: (607) 255-9524
For
reference questions, send mail to:
rareref@cornell.edu
If you have questions or comments about the site, send mail to: webmaster.
