Correspondence

1885.  EBB to Mary Russell Mitford

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 158–161.

[London]

Monday– [14] April. 1845. [1]

My dearest friend, I agree with you that ‘Le beau Pere’ is not equal to the ‘Homme serieux’, which is admirable & the writer an artist. But this M. Charles Bernard, man or woman, [2] (& I lean with you to the pantaloons) is a surface writer, a painter of manners,—& I class him far below George Sand & Balzac who go deeper. It is pure comedy as you say, but it is not full humanity. And then, if he is not gross in his tendencies, he is highly immoral to my mind all the same,—not so much on the ground of chastity as on other grounds. His men & women with whom he wd most favorably impress you, lie & cheat all round, as if they did it in pure innocence. He is a very worldly writer, to my mind; & really I like George Sand’s wickedness better,—it is of a higher order. Bernard’s most magnificent idea of virtue is what you & I shd call expediency—now is’nt it? Though I was delighted with ‘Un homme Serieux,’—& also with ‘Le paravent,’ [3]  .. the [‘]‘Aventure d’un magistrat,” for instance, is in the latter, to illustrate my opinion. Did you ever read a more disgusting series of small cheateries? It almost spoilt my pleasure in the power. I had a reaction & grew ‘moral’, .. as dear Mr Kenyon wd say,—the “stink in one’s nostrils” [4] of all that falsehood & depravity, was so immense. And not much better in its effect on me, was the story of the ‘Rose blanche’ [5] (though the pretty hoyden captivated me) where no man of honour could have acted as the hero does,—by an intense impossibility. You admired the ‘Aventure d’un magistrat’, & with reason, as far as the comic power goes,—but do agree with me that it is repulsive in many ways. I prefer George Sand’s & Balzac’s criminals to Bernard’s traitors,—& cannot help it,—& will not choose to help it.

And now I must beg you to order & read ‘Le rouge et le noir’ by a M. de Stendhal .. a ‘nom de guerre’ I fancy. [6] I wish I knew the names of any other books written by him. This, which I shd not dare to name to a person in the world except you, so dark & deep is the colouring, is very striking & powerful & full of deep significance. I beg you to read it as soon as possible. Balzac could scarcely put out a stronger hand. It is, as to simple power, a first-class book according to my impression,—though painful & noxious in many ways. But it is a book for you to read at all risks—you must certainly read it for the power’s sake. It has ridden me like an incubus for several days.

Yes, my dearest friend—we shall find no where on the earth, I believe, the climate of Paradise;—not even at Hyères. In Mdme Charles Reybeaud’s ‘Deux á deux,’ [7] which interested me more than any book of hers I have read since, .. (I withdraw my praise of her,—she is a weak commonplace writer, I think,—) there was some good praise of Hyères & the orange trees. But the skies are fair in no place always, except in books—& muskitoes & simooms are disagreeable things. The truth of the matter lies in this nutshell, .. that a perfect climate is to be found no where—& a climate better than the English, everywhere! By the way, I have just heard of my uncle Hedley’s having taken apartments in Paris for four years from this summer. But he comes to England in May or June with all his family for a few months, & is to set down the children at Brighton to be properly baked, while the elders of the house come to London or go elsewhere.

Oh, your pedlar poetess!—that is a curious variety of the species, to be sure!—and “as your fellow-poetess”! [8] —oh the modesty of one’s fellow-creatures! The asking for five shillings was nothing to the adjuration!– Talking of poetesses I had the kindest of notes this morning from Mrs Sigourney on the subject of my poems,—quite spontaneous & unexpected—! and also a letter from Mr Lowell of Massachusetts, the poet, who is married, he says, [‘]‘after a betrothal of five years” & is very sentimental in consequence. [9] He seems to have married a supernatural woman without a fault in the world. As to Mr Browning, I forgot to tell you when I wrote last, that I do not believe a word of the “silver forkism” [10] you attribute to him. He has too much genius for it. Men of high imagination never subject themselves to the conventions of society,—though men of high reason often do. He lives in the world, but loathes it, he says. [11] Then, with all his darknesses, & charades of light, he is a very masculine writer & thinker, & as remote as possible from Balzac’s type of the femmelette, Lucien de Rubempré. [12]

And did you ever meet Mrs Coleridge—the poet’s daughter? I have had a little correspondence with her lately. [13]

And what do you think of the Athenæum, quoad Harriet Martineau? Is not Mr Dilke’s discourtesy past any enduring whatever? She is very indignant, & with reason. [14]

Yes—Mr Chorley wrote to me on the subject of his work, [15] which will be full of interest, but as large as the Heavens themselves ‘I calculate,’ seeing that the poetical chiefs of the world have most generally ‘risen from the ranks.’ It will be a universal biography—if he begins with the beginnings of his men—& so I ventured to tell him. Were you able to furnish him with suggestions & material? He found me as dry as the ground—I cd think of nothing that was’nt too obvious.

Flush was washed (for the first time for months) the other day,—& ever since, he has been in a right reverend curl all over. Never was anything so pretty! I lose my hand in his neck when I lay it there—it looks as if a bishop or a judge had given him the wig of lordship, to make a tippet of. In fact, although people are impertinent enough to call him fat, he appears to me just now at his prime of prettiness. Certainly I never saw him so pretty before. And that makes me sigh—because you are not here to see him.

But you will come. And I hope you received the oysters—& I am going to send you some shaddocks as a chaperon to Mr Horne’s little book. May God bless you always! Do write–

In true affection

Your EBB.

Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 99–102.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Dated by letter 1883 which contains Miss Martineau’s reaction to the article by Dilke in The Athenæum of the same day.

2. See letter 1836 which indicates EBB’s uncertainty regarding de Bernard’s gender. Miss Mitford had recommended Un homme sérieux in no. 1796, and in no. 1833 EBB said she was sending for it “for the ninety ninth time of asking,” as well as “a new & unheard of (by me) work of Ch. de Bernard, published last year & called ‘Le beau pere’.”

3. Bernard’s Le Paravent (1839) and Une Aventure de magistrat.

4. Job 4:10.

5. Sand’s novel was published in 1831.

6. Stendhal was the pseudonym for Marie Henri Beyle (1783–1842), the author of Le rouge et le noir (1831).

7. Mme. Reybaud’s novel was published in 1837.

8. i.e., the “wandering poetess” in letter 1882.

9. EBB also shared these letters with Kenyon (see letter 1884). Lowell married Maria White (1821–53) on 26 December 1844 after an engagement that began on 4 November 1840.

10. “A school of novelists about 1830 distinguished by an affectation of gentility” (OED).

11. See letter 1862.

12. See letter 1797.

13. See letter 1867.

14. The series of articles dealing with Miss Martineau’s cure through mesmerism ended in the issue for 12 April 1845.

15. We have been unable to identify the work referred to by EBB. However, perhaps it was to be something similar to his Authors of England (1838); see letter 1804 for EBB’s comments to Chorley regarding English poetesses.

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