BRONTË, Charlotte (1816-1855). Autograph letter signed (‘C Brontë’) to D[avid] Waldie, Gloucester Terrace, London, 19 January [1853].

BRONTË, Charlotte (1816-1855). Autograph letter signed (‘C Brontë’) to D[avid] Waldie, Gloucester Terrace, London, 19 January [1853].

1½ pages, 176 x 113mm, bifolium.

On the joys of authorship: a rare letter in which she discusses her most famous work, Jane Eyre, and the pleasure she derives from the compliments of her reader. Charlotte opens her letter with pretty lines of thanks for her correspondent – ‘I have received your kind letter, and beg to thank you for it, as well as for the little books you mention, which have not yet reached me, but are no doubt awaiting me at home – before getting to the heart of the matter: ‘The sincere expression of a reader’s gratification is – I scarcely need say – one of the most acceptable forms in which an author can be repaid for his labour. I shall be glad if any future work of mine gives you equal pleasure to that you speak of having found in “Jane Eyre”'.

Charlotte had abandoned her ‘Currer Bell’ nom-de-plume two years earlier, in 1851, emerging into the light as the writer of Jane Eyre, the novel whose mysterious authorship had so captured the interest of literary society and prompted many to criticise the book’s supposed ‘impropriety’ following speculation that its creator was a woman. Here, writing to the Scottish pharmacist David Waldie (1813-1889; discoverer of chloroform) from the London address of her publisher George Smith, Charlotte Brontë offers striking insight into her motivation as a writer: the very capacity to engage with her readership that she was largely denied during the four years that followed the publication of her first, most important work. Letters from Charlotte Brontë in which she mentions Jane Eyre are very rare at auction: according to our research, none has appeared in almost three decades.