eights_
(very much praised by those who look first for unconventionality and
force), by Emily, who followed it with _The Tenant of Wildfell Hall_;
and _Agnes Grey_, by Anne. But Charlotte could not get _The Professor_
published--indeed it is anything but a good book--and set to work at the
famous _Jane Eyre_, which after being freely refused by publishers, was
accepted by Messrs. Smith and Elder and published in 1847, with the
result of violent attacks and very considerable popularity. Death the
next year and the year after robbed her of both her sisters and of her
brother Patrick, a ne'er-do-weel, who, on the strength of his
Bohemianism and his sisters, is sometimes supposed to have had genius.
_Shirley_ appeared in 1849, and _Villette_ in 1852. In 1854 Charlotte
married her father's curate, Mr. Nicholls, but died next year, on 31st
March 1855.

Perhaps the most interesting way of looking at Charlotte Bronte, who, as
has been said, has been violently attacked, and who has also been
extravagantly praised (though not so extravagantly as her sister Emily),
is to look at her in the light of a precursor or transition-novelist,
representing the time when the followers of Scott had wearied the public
with second-rate romances, when Thackeray had not arisen, or had only
just arisen, and when the modern domestic novel in its various kinds,
from the religious to the problematic, was for the most part in embryo,
or in very early stages. This latter novel she in fact anticipated in
many of its kinds, and partly to the fact of this anticipation, partly
to the vividness which her representation of personal experiences gave
to her work, may the popularity which it at first had, and such of it as
has survived, be assigned. In this latter point, however, lay danger as
well as safety. It seems very improbable that if Charlotte Bronte had
lived, and if she had continued to write, her stock of experiences would
have sufficed her; and it would not appear that she had much else. She
is indeed credited with inventing the "ugly hero" in the Mr. Rochester
of _Jane Eyre_, but in the long-run ugliness palls almost as much as
beauty, perhaps sooner. Except in touches probably due to suggestions
from Emily, the "weirdness" of the younger sister was not exhibited by
the elder. The more melodramatic parts of the book would not have borne
repetition, and its main appeal now lies in the Lowood scenes and the
character of Jane herself, which are both a