The score(s) next to each publication’s review and the average rating is an interpretation of the reviews by Literature’s Pretty Long History.
Critics:
“The present work seems to us to hold a middle place between Jane Eyre and Wurthering Heights. It is inferior to the first, and greatly superior to the second. It is a simple, straight-forward tale of courtships and marriage; told generally with power and point, though sometimes sinking into prolixity.”
“Several novels have lately appeared before the public, purporting to be written by three brothers, Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Of these works, Jane Eyre, by Currer Bell, is the best known, and deservedly the most popular. We say deservedly, for though it has great faults, it has still greater merits.”
“Wuthering Heights was an extravaganza, a Walpurgis night, a dance of devils and witches on the Brocken. The incidents were improbable, the characters, without exception, detestable or contemptible. Still, it was no common place affair. The author drew everything with the magic pencil of genius. True, his picture was revolting. So was Dante’s Inferno; but still it was attractive.”
“This work, is in style, altogether different and more pleasing that which characterized “Wuthering Heights.” It is a finely-written fiction, and will take rank with Currer Bell’s interesting novel—”Jane Eyre.””
“It is published in the same neat style as “Wuthering Heights.””
Supplemental Notice(s)
“INTERESTING NEW WORKS.” — The Home Journal (May 20, 1848)
“ANOTHER new work by the author of “Jane Eyre,” has been announced in London.” — The Home Journal (June 17, 1848)
“The writing of this author are too original and peculiar to be slurred over, or pronounced upon without a careful reading. Wuthering Heights is a shaking sort of book; but it is the production of a man of genius.”
“This is a unique and tersely written fiction, bearing some resemblance in its features to “Wuthering Heights,” but less repulsive in aspect. It is, in our opinion, a better work, artistically and morally.”
“That simple announcement, will give a wide circulation to “Wuthering Heights”—and, from the hasty glance which we think it entitled to the popularity which its predecessor has created for it. The book is printed in the Harpers’ correct style, and makes a neat appearance.” — Charter Oak (April 27, 1848)
“It looks interesting, and is apparently less objectionable than Wuthering Heights.”
“Messrs. Redding & Co. have received this new book which is entitled Wuthering Heights. It is handsomely printed in two volumes, and published by the Messrs. Harpers.” — Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser (April 22, 1848)
““Wildfell Hall” turns out to be a much more interesting book than “Wuthering Heights,” and “Grantby Manor” is one of the very best of the recent novels.” — Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser (August 23, 1848)
“The last production is a peculiar work, so much so, that to form an opinion is most difficult. That it is interesting can hardly be denied. As to the effect produced by its perusal, whether good, bad or none at all, it is most difficult to decide.”
““Wuthering Heights,” the second novel of the author, is a work of entirely different character, but it no less certainly chains the attention of the reader.”
“The volumes before us appear to have all the attractive qualities of the authors former works and are superior to them in its plot and machinery.”
“The scene is laid in England.” — Brooklyn Eagle (April 22, 1848)
“Wuthering Heights provoked more conflicting opinions than perhaps any similar production of the times; none, however, deny to the author the attribute of a high order of genius.”
Reprinted by New York Morning Express (July 27, 1848)
“Our notice of this extraordinary work has been unintentionallo delayed. It is an extraordinary work in several respects. First, it is written with great power–the reader feels that the pen is in the hand of a master. Secondly, it presents a group of most impossible characters, and a tissue of most improbable events–yet, thirdly, it possesses an interest, which almost amounts to fascination; and the reader is oompelled to proceed, while his whole uature revolts against the details of the narrative as they are successively presented.”
“We acknowledge the receipt of a parcel of Books from L. A. HOPKINS, among which we find the very highly spoken of novel of Wuthering Heights by the author of Jane Eyre, a novel that erected a great sensation; also the Convict, the last novel of the prolific James.”
“This is a thorough racy English novel—as pure a specimen of domestic life in this country as “Jane Eyre;” as vivid and as telling in this country as “Jane Eyre;” as vivid and as telling in its portraiture of character as “Wuthering Heights.””
“If the title-page tells the truth, the author of “Jane Eyre” is wonderfully versatile, for no two books are more dissimilar in style and sentiment. There seems to be as much mystery about the author as there was about the Great Unknown. But, man or woman, Currer Bell or Harriet Martineau, he or she is the novelist of the hour.”
“The author or authors of “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights” seen determined to keep up the mystery surrounding them. The present book partakes of the style and character of both the former ones, but is far beyond the latter in every respect.” — Godey’s Lady’s Book (October 1848)
“How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery.”
“To be sure the present novel is not so bad as Wurthuring Heights in the matter of animal ferocity and impish diabolism ; but still most of the characters, to use a quaint illustration of an eccentric divine, “are engaged in laying up for themselves considerable grants of land in the bottomless pit,” and brutality, blasphemy and cruelty constitute their stock in trade.” — Graham’s Magazine (October 1848)
“It contains many forcible arguments against the writing or reading of such novels; but it scarcely does full justice to “Wuthering Heights,” as a work of art.”
“We have not looked into it beyond the scope of a few pages; which peep was sufficient to convince us that it is from the same brain that gave birth to that bundle of singularities known to the world by the name of Jane Eyre.” — Vicksburg Daily Whig (May 27, 1848)
“Of ‘Wuthering Heights’—its compeer—I say nothing—save that heaven save us from such another book of horrors.”
“But none can dispute the genius and dramatic power apparent on every page of Wuthering Heights and which render the book as a whole no less a work of art, because its characters are debased, than in sculpture is the renowned group of the Centaurs and Lapithae.”
“Wildfell Hall not only sustains, but enhances the reputation of its author, uniting all the good qualities of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, without their exceptionable features.” — Newark Daily Advertiser (September 14, 1848)
“Shirley is unexceptionably a moral tale; free from whatever was questionable in Jane Eyre, or revolting in Wuthering Heights, and quite equal to either in its delineations of character; while it surpasses both in descriptive beauty, healthy sentiment, and sound philosophy.” — Newark Daily Advertiser (December 2, 1849)
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