Appendix
(MA 32, Pierpont Morgan Library)
Preface
This little book was written before either "Jane Eyre" or "Shirley" |
and yet *no indugence can be solicited for it [ab. del. 'the
plea
of a first attempt'] on the plea of a first at-|tempt. A first attempt it
certainly was not as the pen | which wrote it had been *previously worn
down a good deal ['previously worn down **a good deal
[intrl.]
['exercising' del.] ab. del. 'down' ab.
del. 'worn and hackneyed'] in a ['secret' del.]
prac-|tice
of some years. I had not indeed published anything before I | commenced
the Professor" — but in many *a crude [ab. del. 'an']
effort
destroyed al-|most as soon as composed. I had *got over [ab.
del. 'exhau' ab. del. 'man'] ['any' del.]
*any
such [ab. del. 'an early'] taste | *as I might once [ab.
del. 'for the redundant'] have had for *the [intrl.]
ornamented and redundant compo-|sition — and had come to prefer
what
was plain *and homely' [ab.
del. simple and | direct'] | At the same time I had adopted a set of
principles on the | subject of incident etc. such as would be generally
approved in | theory, but the results of which when carried out in practice
| often procure for an author more surprise than pleasure. | ['The strictest
resolutions to eschew what was [unreal' del.] ['improbable'
del.] | startling were mine | The most religious
determination'
del.] I said | to myself that my hero should work his way
through life | as I had seen real living men work theirs — that he
should
| never get a shilling he had not earned — that no sudden turns |
should
lift him in a moment to wealth and high station — that | ['to'
del.] whatever *small [ab. del. 'ease']
competency
he might gain should be won by the | sweat of his brow — that
before
he could find so much as an | arbour to sit down in he should master at
least half the ascent | of the hill of Difficulty — that he should not
even marry a beauti-|ful wife, nor a *lady of rank [ab. del.
'great nor a rich'] lady [undel. in error] — as Adam's
son he
| should *share [ab. del. 'have'] Adam's doom —
& drain
throughout life and a mixed | and moderate cup of enjoyment. |
In the sequel, however, I found most Publishers in general [end
of recto page] | scarcely approved this system, but would have liked
something | more imaginative and poetical — something more
consonant
with | a highly wrought fancy, with a native taste for pathos — |
with
sentiments more tender — elevated — unworldly —
indeed until |
an author has tried to dispose of a M. S. of this kind he | can never know
what stores of romance and sensibility lie | hidden in breasts he would not
have suspected of casketing such | treasures. Men in business are *usually
[ab. del. 'often'] thought to prefer the real | — on trial
this
idea will be often found fallacious: a pas-|sionate preference for the wild
wonderful and thrilling — the | strange, startling and harrowing
agitates
*divers [intrl.] souls that show a calm | and sober surface.
|
Such being ['ent' del.] the case — the reader will
comprehend
that to have | reached him in the form of a
printed book — this brief narrative | must have gone through some
['difficulties' del.] struggles — which | indeed it has
—
and after all — its worst struggle and strongest | ordeal is yet to
come
— but it takes comfort — subdues fear — leans | on
the staff of a
moderate expectation — and mutters under its | breath —
while lifting
its eye to that of the Public, |
"He that is low need fear no fall." |
Works Cited
- Alexander, Christine. The Early Writings of Charlotte
Brontë. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983.
- Brammer, M. M. "The Manuscript of The
Professor,"
The Review of English Studies, ns, 11 (May 1960):
157-170.
- Brontë, Charlotte. The Professor. London:
Smith,
Elder & Co., 1857; rpt. New York: Dutton, 1969.
- ____. Shirley. London: Smith, Elder & Co.,
1849,
rpt. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.
- Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Life of Charlotte
Brontë.
London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857; rpt. New York: Penguin Books,
1975.
- Wise, Thomas James, and John Alexander Symington, eds.
The Brontës: Their Lives, Friendships and
Correspondence
(The Shakespeare Head Bronte), 4 vols. Oxford: Basil Blackwell,
1932.
- Wroot, Herbert E. "Sources of Charlotte Brontës Novels:
Persons and Places," Brontë Society Transcriptions 8,
no.
4 (1935), Supplementary Part.