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Friday, May 26, 2006

More on the 'Missing Jane Eyre'

This article claims the hunt is on for the revised manuscript of Jane Eyre supposedly written to appease Rev. Carus Wilson, but never published. Thankfully there is one voice of sanity- Alan Bentley from the Bronte Parsonage Museum is also not convinced:

But Alan Bentley from the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth said anyone finding the missing manuscript should not pin their hopes too high on getting a fortune for it.
"We're not entirely convinced. We think the story in the letters has got a bit confused.
"As far as we know there was never any correspondence between Charlotte and the Reverend.
"It's more likely to do with Mrs Gaskell."


The many doubts surrounding the story of Charlotte's revision of Jane Eyre to avoid libel are not bothering the dealers who are placing a £30,000 price on the manuscript.

A correction to my last post on this story: the letters which provide the only evidence for this story of revision were not written by Rev. Carus Wilson but by his grandson in 1912.

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