1779. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 262–264.
[London]
Thursday. Dec. 5. 1844.
Yes, my dearest friend! But I doubt of the expediency of all Dumas—indeed I almost more than doubt. Cousin’s philosophy is probably too dry for Mr Lovejoy’s library. Paul Courier he probably has,—that wittiest of pamphleteer’s. [1] To go back to the romances, ‘Outre Mer’ by De Queille, which I recommended to you, [2] is scarcely fit (is it?) for a country library. Jules Janin wd not please you, I believe, in the ‘Confession’,—it has eloquence & beauty here & there, but is a nightmare of the imagination altogether. Read his tales nevertheless, [3] because he is a fine rhapsodist & throws out beautiful things when he is well mesmerized– If I make a mistake about ‘Outre Mer,’ which I read long ago, before I was “acclimated,” you may blame an imperfect recollection for it. It is more than possible that I am quite wrong. St Hilaire I do not know at all. [4] Of all romances by M. De Bonnechose I bid you beware,—though he has written ecclesiastical histories of some account. [5] Thank you much for the list. Alas! I am afraid that I know nearly all Balzac—except ‘Modeste Mignon’ & one or two .. ‘La femme superieure’ for instance which the tiresome people wont send me, and ‘David Séchard’ which I shall dun them for. Beatrix is abominable certainly, but not, I think, the worst atrocity of its author. Such books could not & ought not to do in England, where a woman’s purity is inseparable from the idea of her. The first good husband & father who opened the leaves of them, wd throw them into the fire. There is one brief atrocity which has its scene in Italy, bound up with the Princesse Parisienne,—and then look at the ‘Treize’! [6] —and then again at the ‘V[i]eille Fille’!– I confess to you that I am obliged to abstract myself from my womanhood in my admiration for Balzac,—but his power of imagination & exquisite art in composition seem to justify the abstraction. He is a wonderful writer. Have you read any more of the Juif Errant?—because I have not! The list of Mdme Reybaud contains many works of which I know nothing—& in fact, I am not very well read in her. Tell me whether you know ‘La Salamandre’ by Eugene Sue? [7] & whether it is worth making a great fuss to get at it? The ‘Nœud Gordien’ by Ch. De Bernard which you may see in some catalogues, consists of a collection of his short tales, such as the ‘Femme de quarante ans’ & one or two at most, new ones. Have you read Jeanne by G Sand? and is it in one or two volumes? [8]
Poor Miss Martineau! The extract from the medical Gazette in the Morning Chronicle, with its medical references to points peculiarly feminine, would have distressed & abashed me if I were under the same circumstances—and I can only hope that she may have strength of mind enough to cast it below her thoughts. [9] Of the Lancet, I have heard only through yourself—but I hear of opinions (call them abuses!) floating in society, of a cruel cast,—some persons calling her plainly “a hypocrite”, and others in their charity suggesting, ‘only mad’. She has great strength of mind, & she knows the worth of the world .. in the superficial social sense; .. nevertheless I cannot help fearing that her body may not be sufficiently restored to do justice to the mind, & bear up against such cruel strictures & suspicions. For my own part I believe I shd prefer being ill, to a recovery so associated! but then, I am a coward, & dont hold myself up for a pattern. Certainly, if she believed that her sufferings were in any way connected with the conditions of her womanhood, she was not a coward, but on the contrary very brave indeed, in drawing her case into the daylight—perhaps even, .. too brave. The Medical Gazette is however probably wrong in its way of viewing the case. Cancer & polypus nobody has believed it to be of late—and a tumour it might have been—tumours having been known to be absorbed gradually without suppuration, as in the case of Lady Harriet Cocks, quite a young girl. [10]
I wrote a letter “without an end” [11] to you the other day, all in the dark, so that perhaps you could not read it, just as I cd not look it over for the stops’ sake.
Mr Kenyon tells me that Mr Chorley is writing another review of my poems, to add to my obligation on account of the first Athenæum notice. [12] He is very kind & good indeed.
Dear Mr Boyd is better, I am thankful to say.
May God bless you, my ever dearest Miss Mitford. Write to me as much & often as you can,—& think of coming to see me. How is your Jane & her deafness—& her clairvoyance? Tell me.
Your most affectionate
EBB–
Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 29–31.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Victor Cousin (1792–1867) was the author of Le Cours d’Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne (1841–46). Paul Louis Courier de Méré (1772–1825) is well known for the pamphlets he wrote against the oppression of peasants.
3. La Confession (1830), Contes fantastiques et contes littéraires (1832) and Contes nouveaux (1833).
4. Émile Marcode de St. Hilaire (1796–1887) was a page to Napoleon and wrote about the Empire. His works contributed to the Napoleonic legend, e.g., Souvenirs de la vie privée de Napoléon (1838) and Histoire populaire de Napoléon et de la grande armée (1842).
5. François Paul Émile Boisnormand de Paul de Bonnechose (1801–75) was the author of Rosemonde (1826), Histoire sacrée, ou Précis historique de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament (1839), and Abrégé de l’histoire sainte, à l’usage des écoles primaires et des premiers cours élémentaires dans les familles et dans les collèges (1841).
6. Balzac’s trilogy, L’Histoire des Treize (1834–35), comprises Ferragus (1833), La Duchesse de Langeais (1833), and La fille aux yeux d’or (1834).
7. Apparently, EBB had not received Miss Mitford’s letter (no. 1778).
8. Published in 1844 in three volumes.
9. The Morning Chronicle for 3 December 1844 contained an extract from The Medical Gazette, as well as an excerpt from Miss Martineau’s article in The Athenæum from the previous Saturday.
11. Cf. Isaiah 45:17.
12. Chorley’s other review appeared in the January 1845 issue of The New Quarterly Review (pp. 77–97).
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