Brontës (163 page)

A month later, on 20 September 1856, he wrote again to George Smith.

I have read ‘The Professor' over to Mr Brontë. Our opinion is, that with the exception of two or three strong expressions which might be open to misinterpretation, no revision of the MS is necessary. Indeed if any extensive alteration had been requisite we could not have consented to the publication of the tale. We have erased the few seemingly objectionable phrases.
⁵²

Ellen Nussey always claimed that Charlotte's husband cared nothing for her as an author, ‘literally groaning' when she expressed a wish to write and once declaring that ‘Currer Bell could fly up to heaven for all he cared'.
⁵³
Her malicious comments seem to have gained general acceptance because Arthur made no secret of the fact that he loved the woman, rather than the authoress. Nevertheless, this did not preclude a pride in his wife's work. Arthur not only consented to the publication of this and other work by his wife but also was absolutely painstaking in his efforts to preserve its integrity; clearly he knew how she had refused to alter the opening chapter of
Shirley
and the closing chapter of
Villette
. Indeed, his desire to ensure that his wife's wishes were carried out overrode any other considerations and he left in passages, such as Hunsden Yorke's blasphemies, which must have been offensive to him personally as a clergyman. Unlike Sir James, he had no wish to see his own name appear as the editor of the work, but he did the job conscientiously, asking to see proofs as it was printed. On Mrs Gaskell's advice, the payment for the book was worked out on the basis of its length, and Arthur, having meticulously counted the pages of both
Villette
and
The Professor
and done his computation, asked for and received £220 from Smith, Elder & Co.
⁵⁴

Arthur's editorial policy left Mrs Gaskell and George Smith in something of a quandary: ‘oh! I wish Mr Nicholls wd have altered more!' she exclaimed to the publisher. ‘I fear from what you say he has left many little things
you
would & I would have taken out, as \neither/ essential to the characters or the story, & as likely to make her misunderstood. For I would not, if I could help it, have another syllable that could be called coarse to be associated with her name.'
⁵⁵
The problem was that if the novel came out before the biography it would reinforce all the criticisms which had been made in the past. The solution, suggested by George Smith, was to publish the biography first: this would confound the critics by explaining the reasons for Charlotte's apparent coarseness and brutality and convert repugnance into sympathy.
The Professor
would then be viewed more tolerantly by the press. Mrs Gaskell grasped at this suggestion and, fortunately, there was no opposition from Haworth:

I beg to assure you that neither Mr Brontë nor myself could for one moment think of interfering with you in arranging the details of the publication of'The Professor'. The period of its appearance is a matter entirely for your consideration … Our only anxiety, as I am sure yours also, is that no step may be taken, which could possibly prove prejudicial to the fame of the author –
⁵⁶

Though the problem of
The Professor
had been so neatly solved, the difficulties over the biography were not so easily to be overcome. Apart from her two visits to Haworth, almost a year apart, and the few letters from Patrick to Mrs Gaskell, there had been no contact between the biographer and the family of her subject. In the meantime, Patrick had perhaps grown a little uneasy. A new pamphlet, which Patrick described as a ‘strange compound of truth and error' had appeared. He sent Mrs Gaskell a copy, denouncing its account of his marriage as ‘entirely wrong' and seeking to explain the ‘eccentricity' which had been credited to him. He made an interesting defence which, incidentally, reveals him to have been a reader of Mrs Gaskell's novels and to have shared his children's delight in satire.

The Book-making gentry whose little works I have seen, appear to make me a somewhat extraordinary and eccentrick, personage I have no great objection to this, admitting they can make a penny by it. But the truth of the matter is – that
I am, in some respects, a kindred likeness to the father of Margaret, in ‘North and South' peacable, feeling, sometimes thoughtful – and generally well-meaning. Yet unlike him, in one thing – by occasionally getting into a satirical vein – when I am disposed to dissect, and
analyze
human character, and human nature, studying closely its simples and compounds, like a curious surgeon – And being in early life thrown on my own resources – and consequently obliged, under Providence, to depend on my own judgement, and exertions, I may not be so ready as some are, to be a follower of any man, or a worshipper of conventionalities or forms, which may possibly to superficial observers, acquire me the character, of a little exccentricity. Thus freely have I spoken to you – in order that in your work, you may insert such facts, as may counteract, \any/ false statements, that may have been made, or might be made, respecting me, or mine.

From what has already transpired, I think you will see the prudence of our choice, and request, in reference to your undertaking to write the life of ‘Currer Bell'.
⁵⁷

Patrick's confidence in Mrs Gaskell's impartiality was to be sadly misplaced: she, like all the other scandalmongers, would simply repeat the malicious anecdotes she had heard without having the courage to question their supposed perpetrator about their authenticity. Of this Patrick was completely unaware. Though even now he did not actually request to see the manuscript before it was published, Patrick was obviously concerned that this privilege should not be accorded to others.

We begin, now to long for seeing your work in print – And doubt not, you will see the propriety of shewing your Manuscript to none, except Mr Gaskell, your Family, and the Publisher, and compositor. Much harm has often been done, by an opposite line of conduct, Authors, have been fetter'd, bias'd, and made to appear in in other lights than their own – Genius has often been crush'd, and fame mar'd, by officious critics, and familiar Friends.
⁵⁸

It seems that the person Patrick had in mind was Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, whose overbearing conduct on his recent visit to Haworth and attempts to appropriate the editorship of
The Professor
evidently made Patrick fear that he would also exert his influence over Mrs Gaskell. What neither Patrick nor Arthur seems to have suspected was the extent to which Ellen Nussey had been involved in preparing the biography: they seem to
have presumed that she, like them, had simply supplied her letters and left Mrs Gaskell to make up her own mind. Mrs Gaskell leapt to the quite wrong conclusion that Patrick's prohibition on her showing the manuscript to others was aimed at Ellen. ‘There is some little jealousy (the nearest word, but not the right one) of Miss Nussey on Mr Brontës part, and he especially forbids my showing the MS of my biography to her', she told George Smith, revealing how much she had herself been influenced by Ellen's view of things. The prohibition placed Mrs Gaskell in a difficult position because ‘she is about the only person who would care to see it in MS, because she wants to know what extracts I have taken from all her letters; and she has a right to know this, if she wishes'. With typical determination, Mrs Gaskell decided to circumvent the prohibition by inviting Ellen to Manchester and reading the entire manuscript aloud to her. Ellen was thus the only person in Charlotte's circle to know what the biography contained before it was published: not surprisingly, since she had been the source for so much of the material, Mrs Gaskell was ‘gratified to hear her repeatedly say how completely the life at the Parsonage appeared to her reproduced'.
⁵⁹

Although Mrs Gaskell (and indeed Ellen) acted from the best of motives – a desire to vindicate Charlotte to the world – their cosy relationship meant that the former guarded the latter's rights jealously; it never seems to have occurred to Mrs Gaskell that Charlotte's husband and father had equal, if not greater rights than her friend. Her treatment of them was downright shabby. To her they were simply an embarrassment and an irritation, mere obstacles to be circumvented. In her use of Charlotte's letters she was little short of dishonest with them.

From the very start of the undertaking, Patrick, Arthur and Ellen had all been united in expecting Mrs Gaskell to use Charlotte's letters for information only: none of them expected her to quote from them in her biography which, indeed, they had all assumed would be an article, rather than a full-length memoir.
⁶⁰
Mrs Gaskell was well aware of this but was understandably seduced by the power of Charlotte's writing. As early as August 1856, when she was about halfway through the biography, George Smith suggested that her extensive use of Charlotte's letters should be indicated somewhere in the title or advertising. This was an idea that Mrs Gaskell was swift to crush for fear that Arthur would be alerted.

I do not wish the letters to assume a prominent form in the title or printing, as Mr Nicholls has a strong objection to letters being printed at all; and wished to
have all her letters (to Miss Nussey & every one else) burned. Now I am very careful what extracts I make; but still her language, where it can be used, is so powerful & living, that it would be a shame not to express everything tha[t] can be, in her own words And yet I don't want to alarm Mr Nicholls' prejudices.
⁶¹

Clearly she hoped to get round this problem by simply not revealing how much she had quoted. Arthur might object once the book was published but by then it would be too late. In the middle of November, however, Mrs Gaskell made a discovery which appalled her. Henry Chorley, the literary critic of the
Athenaeum
, having learnt that she was intending to quote Charlotte's correspondence, wrote to warn her: ‘Remember correspondent's permission to publish goes for nothing; the legal power over any deceased person's papers lies with the executors … and thus Mr Nicholls
may
, if he likes turn sharp round on you, and not merely protest, but
prohibit'
. She wrote in a panic to George Smith.

Now I did
not
know all this; and Mr Nicholls is a terribly tickle person to have to do with; if I asked him for leave \to make large extracts from her letters as I am doing/, he would, ten to one, refuse it, – if I did not ask him, but went on, as I am doing, I
think
he would sigh & submit; but I could not feel sure … what shall I do if Mr N were to prohibit all I have written from appearing[?]

George Smith was just as alive to the problem as Mrs Gaskell. The letters gave the memoir much of its life and originality: without them it would be a much poorer work. ‘I am
most
careful to put nothing in from Miss Brontës letters that can in any way implicate others', she declared. ‘I conceal in some cases the names of the persons she is writing to.'
⁶²
She seems to have been impervious to the fact that Arthur himself was unmistakably revealed to the world making his trembling proposal of marriage and being accepted as a less than brilliant destiny by his future wife.

Publisher and author put their heads together and came up with a scheme to outwit Charlotte's husband. They decided that George Smith would send him a ‘business form of application' which would transfer the copyright of the ‘materials of the biography' into Mrs Gaskell's hands: this seems to have been passed off as standard practice – a simple precaution to obviate any future financial claims on the biographer by Charlotte's executors.
⁶³
Though completely unused to the workings of the publishing world, Arthur was not to be fooled by the small print. He declined to sign, ‘not
because I have, or ever had the slightest intention of making any pecuniary claim on Mrs Gaskell on account of the work on which she is engaged; but simply because, if I did so, I should be thereby precluded from making any further use of the MS. referred to –'. Patiently explaining his own reluctant involvement in commissioning the biography – ‘if such a work was undertaken at all I would rather she did it than anyone else, as I knew her kindly feelings toward my wife' – he nevertheless pointed out that his only role had been to forward manuscripts to her ‘but never with any idea of giving the exclusive right to them'.
⁶⁴

George Smith, ‘the man-of-business' as Charlotte had so often teasingly called him, now showed the steel that underlay his genial manner. Though his side of the correspondence is missing, he seems to have accused Arthur of reneging on his agreement with Mrs Gaskell. To a man of such transparent honesty, such an accusation was unbearable: ‘I never authorized her to publish a single line of my wife's MS & correspondence', he wrote indignantly, ‘such a thing was never mentioned – in fact until the receipt of your note I was not even aware that it was contemplated –'.
⁶⁵
Arthur bowed to the pressure and did as he was required, but not without considerable bitterness at the way he had been outmanoeuvred. ‘I have signed the enclosed document,' he told George Smith,

as it seems to be taken for granted that I am to do so, tho' why it should, I know not, as I never entered into any arrangement with Mrs Gaskell to convey to her the copyright of any of my wife's MS. for the purposes of the Memoir or any other – I trust I shall not be required to do anything more in a matter, which from beginning to end has been a source of pain and annoyance to me; as I have been dragged into sanctioning a proceeding utterly repugnant to my feelings – Indeed nothing but an unwillingness to thwart Mr Brontës wishes could have induced me to acquiesce in a project, which in my eyes is little short of desecration –
⁶⁶