Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/39

Rh work bears affinity to Jane Eyre. ' He left out the pseudonyms of the sisters, Ellis and Acton Bell. Naturally they took umbrage at Haworth, though Newby published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. One of the oddest criticisms of the time was by Douglas Jerrold: 'We strongly recommend all our readers to get this story. We promise them they never read anything like it before.' The Atlas said: 'It reminds us of The Newlands, by Banim. It is a colossal performance.' Britannia said: 'The author is a Salvator Rosa with his pen,' and the Star complacently remarked: 'It is not often that two such talented novels as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are published in the same season.' But the critics unanimously objected to the subject. The Spectator said of Wuthering Heights: 'The success is not equal to the abilities of the writer, chiefly because the incidents and persons are too coarse and disagreeable to be attractive. . . with an immoral taint about them, and the villainy not leading to results sufficient to justify the elaborate pains taken in depicting it!' The first authoritative recognition came from Sydney Dobell, who wrote a paper in a short-lived periodical called the Palladium, full of just, eloquent, and