【英文原著类】Two Short Pieces(两个短篇).pdf

Two Short Pieces
Two Short Pieces
Charlotte Bronte
1
Two Short Pieces
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF
ELLIS AND ACTON BELL
IT has been thought that all the works published under the names of
Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell were, in reality, the production of one person.
This mistake I endeavoured to rectify by a few words of disclaimer
prefixed to the third edition of 'Jane Eyre.' These, too, it appears, failed to
gain general credence, and now, on the occasion of a reprint of 'Wuthering
Heights' and 'Agnes Grey,' I am advised distinctly to state how the case
really stands.
Indeed, I feel myself that it is time the obscurity attending those two
names - Ellis and Acton - was done away. The little mystery, which
formerly yielded some harmless pleasure, has lost its interest;
circumstances are changed. It es, then, my duty to explain briefly
the origin and authorship of the books written by Currer, Ellis, and Acton
Bell.
About five years ago, my two sisters and myself, after a somewhat
prolonged period of separation, found ourselves reunited, and at home.
Resident in a remote district, where education had made little progress,
and where, consequently, there was no inducement to seek social
intercourse beyond our own domestic circle, we were wholly dependent
on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and
occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure
we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary
composition; formerly we used to show each other what we wrote, but of
late years this habit munication and consultation had been
discontinued; hence it ensued, that we were mutually ignorant of the
progress we might respectively have made.
One day, in the autumn of 1845, I accidentally lighted on a MS.
volume of verse in my sister Emily's handwriting. Of course, I was not
surprised, knowing that she could and did write verse: I looked it over, and
something more than surpri