But I have now made good resolutions, which were
tried this morning by another notice in the same style in the
_Observer_. The praise of such critics mortifies more than their
blame; an author who becomes the object of it cannot help momentarily
wishing he had never written. And to speak of the press being still
ignorant of my being a woman! Why can they not be content to take
Currer Bell for a man?
'I imagined, mistakenly it now appears, that _Shirley_ bore fewer
traces of a female hand than _Jane Eyre_; that I have misjudged
disappoints me a little, though I cannot exactly see where the error
lies. You keep to your point about the curates. Since you think me
to blame, you do right to tell me so. I rather fancy I shall be left
in a minority of one on that subject.
'I was indeed very much interested in the books you sent.
Eckermann's _Conversations with Goethe_, _Guesses at Truth_, _Friends
in Council_, and the little work on English social life pleased me
particularly, and the last not least. We sometimes take a partiality
to books as to characters, not on account of any brilliant intellect
or striking peculiarity they boast, but for the sake of something
good, delicate, and genuine. I thought that small book the
production of a lady, and an amiable, sensible woman, and I like it.
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