This little
book was written before either "Jane Eyre" or "Shirley," and
yet no indulgence can be solicited
for it on the plea of a first
attempt. A first attempt it certainly
was not, as the pen which wrote
it had been previously worn a
good deal in a practice of some
years. I had not indeed published
anything
before I commenced "The Professor," but in many a crude effort, destroyed almost
as soon as composed, I had got over any such taste as I might once have had for
ornamented and redundant composition, and come to prefer what was plain and homely.
At
the same time I had adopted a set of principles on the subject
of incident, &c., such as would be generally approved in theory, but the result
of which, when carried out into practice, often procures for an author more surprise
than pleasure.
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 whatever small
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 beautiful girl
or a lady of rank. As Adam's
son he should share Adam's doom,
and drain throughout life a mixed
and moderate cup of enjoyment.
In the sequel, however, I find
that publishers in general scarcely
approved of this system, but
would have liked something more
imaginative and poetical--something
more consonant with a highly
wrought fancy, with a taste for
pathos, with sentiments more
tender, elevated, unworldly.
Indeed, until an author has tried
to dispose of a manuscript 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 thought to prefer
the real; on trial the idea will
be often found fallacious: a
passionate preference for the
wild, wonderful, and thrilling--the
strange, startling, and harrowing--agitates
divers souls that show a calm
and sober surface.
Such being 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 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."
CURRER BELL.
The foregoing
preface was written by my wife
with a view to the
publication of "The Professor," shortly
after the appearance of "Shirley." Being
dissuaded from her intention,
the authoress made some use of
the materials in a subsequent
work--"Villette," As, however,
these two stories are in most
respects unlike, it has been
represented to me that I ought
not to withhold "The Professor" from
the public. I have therefore
consented to its publication.
A. B. NICHOLLS
Haworth Parsonage, September
22nd, 1856. |