An example (from the USA) of the problems for reviewers posed by the Acton, Currer, and Ellis Bell pseudonyms, courtesy of Edwin Percy Whipple (brief bio here):
[...] The truth is, that the whole firm of Bell & Co. seem to have a sense of the depravity of human nature peculiarly their own. It is the yahoo, not the demon, that they select for representation; their Pandemonium is of mud rather than fire.
This is especially the case with Acton Bell, the author of Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and, if we mistake not, of certain offensive but powerful portions of Jane Eyre. Acton, when left altogether to his own imaginations, seems to take a morose satisfaction in developing a full and complete science of human brutality. In Wuthering Heights he has succeeded in reaching the summit of this laudable ambition. He appears to think that spiritual wickedness is a combination of animal ferocities, and has accordingly made a compendium of the most striking qualities of tiger, wolf, cur, and wild-cat, in the hope of framing out of such elements a suitable brute-demon to serve as the hero of his novel. Compared with Heathcote, Squeers is considerate and Quilp humane. He is a deformed monster, whom the Mephistopheles of Goethe would disdain to acknowledge, whom the Satan of Milton would consider as an object of simple disgust, and to whom Dante would hesitate in awarding the honor of a place among those whom he has consigned to the burning pitch. This epitome of brutality, disavowed by man and devil, Mr. Acton Bell attempts in two whole volumes to delineate, and certainly he is to be congratulated on his success. (396)
"Heathcote"? Oh, dear. In any event, it's interesting to see Whipple ascribe the role of dominant author to Anne Bronte, whom he believes must be a man. As you can see, Whipple also believes that Jane Eyre has been co-authored. A good example of how Victorians reacted to Heathcliff, though. Modern readers will probably sympathize with Whipple's assessment of Bulwer-Lytton: "the most superficial writer that ever acquired the reputation of a great novelist" (404).
Comments