Blackwell Reference Online

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literary child prodigy who fizzled out young. A product of Manchester Grammar School, his professional work was in industry and commerce mainly in Manchester, Halifax, and Chesterfield. He published the intriguing-sounding Barnard, A Modern Romance in 1846, Mirabeau two years later, and Social Aspects in 1850, at the grand old age of 22. Charlotte was sent Mirabeau from Smith, Elder, and wrote about it at length to W. S. Williams. Her complaint was that its subject’s early profligacy was glossed over and excused – a familiar complaint from her which clearly springs from Branwell’s self-indulgent life, and explains her dislike of many eighteenth-century novels. Not knowing that judgment had already been passed on it, Stores Smith sent Mirabeau to Charlotte in March 1850, following it up in July with Social Aspects . In return he received in September an invitation to dine at the Parsonage, of which, much later, he wrote an account (see Lemon, 1986). Though sometimes inaccurate (Patrick was not at that time blind) and generally over-heated by his conviction that the Brontës’ lives were unrelieved tragedy (“Of all the sad, heart-broken looking dwellings I had passed through this looked the saddest”) much of the account carries conviction, including his description of Charlotte’s appearance, her noticing gaze at her visitor (“There was no boldness in the gaze, but an intense, ... log in or subscribe to read full text