Heroes and hero-worship in charlotte Brontë's Shirley

Nineteenth-Century Literature

Volumn 54, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 285-307

  Morris, Pam ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 60949959027     PISSN: 08919356     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2903142     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. G. H. Lewes, unsigned review of Shirley: A Tale, by Charlotte Bronte, Edinburgh Review, 91 (1850), 159-60
2. Modern critics who have agreed with Lewes include Norman Sherry, Charlotte and Emily Bronte (London: Evans Brothers, 1969), p. 84
3. and Tom Winnifrith, The Brontes (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1977), p. 124
4. however, Helen Taylor, "Class and Gender in Charlotte Bronte's represents Charlotte Brontē's most ambitious undertaking (p. 84); Shirley," Feminist Review, 1 (1979), claims that "in terms of subject matter and the weight of research, it represents Charlotte Brontē's most ambitious undertaking" (p. 84)
5. and Andrew Hook and Judith Hook vigorously defend the novel against Andrew and Judith Hook [Harmondsworth: Penguin,). charges of disunity (see their introduction to Shirley, ed. Andrew and Judith Hook [Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974], pp. 7-32)
6. Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës, 2d ed. (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1988), p. 52
7. See Nancy Armstrong, Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1987), pp. 213-24
8. See, for example, Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837 (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1992)
9. and Dror Wahrman, Imagining the Middle Class: The Political Britain Representation of Class in Britain, c. 1780-1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995)
10. George Croly, rev. of Memoirs of Viscountess Sundon, by Mrs. Thompson, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 62 (1847), 445
11. W. E. Aytoun, "A Review of the Last Session," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 64 (1848), 290
12. Other articles concerned with heroes and leadership include Archibald Edinburgh Magazine Alison, "Eugene, Marlborough, Frederick, N'apoleon, and Wellington," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 61 (1847), 34-49
13. George Croly, rev. of History of the Captivity of Napoleon at St Helena, by General Count Montholon, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 62 (1847), 178-96
14. and W. E. Aytoun, "Conservative Union," Blackwood's Edinburgh 1848, p. 5. Magazine, 64 (1848), 632-40. The Times also carried an article on national leadership on 16 February 1848, p. 5
15. Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, ed. Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press,. Further references to this work are given in the text as Heroes. Michael K. Goldberg, Joel J. Brattin, and Mark Engel (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 1993), p. 20. Further references to this work are given in the text as Heroes
16. Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, ed. Herbert Rosengarten and Margaret Smith Further references are to this edition and are given in the text (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), p. 46. Further references are to this edition and are given in the text
17. H. Longueville Jones, "Feudalism in the Nineteenth Century," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 65 (1849), 714
18. The association of virile leadership with empire and patriotism predates 1715-1785 with empire and patriotism predates the nineteenth century; a series of British military and naval overseas losses to the old enemy, France, in the mid eighteenth century were popularly blamed upon aristocratic effeminacy. for example the nineteenth century; a series of British military and naval overseas losses to the old enemy, France, in the mid eighteenth century were popularly blamed upon aristocratic effeminacy. See, for example, Kathleen Wilson, The Sense of the People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England, 1715-1785 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 185-205
19. Gerald Newman, The Rise of English Nationalism: A Cultural History, that British ascendancy was being betrayed by a creeping spirit of effeminacy among the nobility (see pp.). 1740-1830 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987), also documents widespread accusations that British ascendancy was being betrayed by a creeping spirit of effeminacy among the nobility (see pp. 80-84)
20. Unattributed rev. of History of the Middle and Working Classes; with a Popular Exposition of the Economical and Political Principles which have influenced the past and present Conditions of the Industrious Orders Popular Exposition of the Economical and Political Principles which have influenced the past and present Conditions of the Industrious Orders, by J. Wade, Westminster Review, 19 (1833), 461
21. Patriotic claims for nonaristocratic national leadership also go back to the eighteenth century, to mercantilist arguments identifying British greatness with expansion of colonial trade and commerce. See Wilson, pp. 155-65
22. James Vernon, Politics and the People: A Study in English Political figures Culture, c. 1815-1867 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993), pp. 251-91, offers an account of popular heroic figures
23. London Times, 10 April 1848,p. 4
24. Charlotte Brontë, letter to W. S. Williams, 16 April 1849, in The Alexander Symington, 4 vols., vols. 12-15 of The Shakespeare Head Brontë (Oxford: Shakespeare Head Press,. Further references to this work are given in the text as Correspondence. Brontës: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence in Four Volumes, ed. Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington, 4 vols., vols. 12-15 of The Shakespeare Head Brontë (Oxford: Shakespeare Head Press, 1931-38), II, 326. Further references to this work are given in the text as Correspondence
25. The language is reminiscent of Bronte's admission in her 1848 letter to Margaret Wooler of her own youthful excitement at the thought of physical combat, which makes her pulse beat fast. Margaret Wooler of her own youthful excitement at the thought of physical combat, which makes her "pulse beat fast."
26. In addition to Eagleton, Myths of Power, pp. 45-49
27. Penny Boumelha, Charlotte Brontë (London: Harvester Wheatshcaf, 1990), pp. 93-99
28. and Rosemarie Bodenheimer, The Politics of Story in Victorian Social Fiction (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1988), pp. 43-47
29. What none of Brontē's critics has acknowledged is that there was a genuine problem of leadership; even a working-class radical like Samuel Bamford admitted that there was too much of the 'sounding brass and tinkling cymbal,' . . . and formal self-displaying orations, New York: Oxford Univ. Press,). genuine problem of leadership; even a working-class radical like Samuel Bamford admitted that "there was too much of the 'sounding brass and tinkling cymbal,' . . . and formal self-displaying orations" (Passages in the Life of a Radical [New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1984], p. 199)
30. Left-wing historians have made similar judgments on the problems of and abysmally led Chartists Chartist leadership: E.J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962), writes of the "divided, ill-organized, and abysmally led Chartists" (p. 123)
31. and E. P.Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York: Pantheon, 1963), has a section on "Problems of Leadership" (see pp. 607-30)
32. See Reflections on the Revolution in France, ed. J.G.A. Pollock (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1987), pp. 68, 75-76
33. Tim Dolin, "Fictional Territory and a Woman's Place: Regional and in Shirley Sexual Difference in Shirley," ELH, 62 (1995), 197-215
34. also discusses the novel in terms of a woman writer's affirmation of a politics but ignores his republicanism. radicalizing provincial perspective; and Susan Belasco Smith, "'A Yorkshire Burr': language in Shirley," Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 27 (1987), 637-45, gives Hiram Yorke a prominent position in the novel's regional and class politics but ignores his republicanism
35. Considerations on Representative Government, ed. Currin V. Shields (New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1958), p. 130
36. See Physics and Politics, or Thoughts on the Application of the "Natural Selection" and "Inheritance" to Political Society Principles of "Natural Selection" and "Inheritance" to Political Society (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948), pp. 199-200
37. Elliot Vanskike, "Consistent Inconsistencies: The Transvestite Charlotte Brontē's the protagonist, Shirley, to Louis Moore, criticism that, Vanskike argues, fails to recognize that Brontē's representation is satirical Actress Madame Vestris and Charlotte Brontē's Shirley," Nineleenth-Century Literature, 50 (1996), 464-88, offers a detailed account of negative criticism of the capitulation of the protagonist, Shirley, to Louis Moore - criticism that, Vanskike argues, fails to recognize that Brontē's representation is satirical
38. Sally ShuttlewortH, Charlotte Brontë and Victorian Psychology novel's pervasive concern with nervous illness and breakdown (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996), offers a scholarly account of the novel's pervasive concern with nervous illness and breakdown (see pp. 203-18)
39. For an interesting reading of Shirley that links novel writing as Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Univ. of Birmingham,. production to gender insubordination based on reproduction, see Rachel Harrison, "Shirley: Relations of Reproduction and the Ideology of Romance," in Women Take Issue: Aspects of Women's Subordination, ed. Women's Studies Group (London: Hutchinson, in association with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Univ. of Birmingham, 1978), pp. 176-95