Austen and Bronte - Publishing First Novels

Austen and Brontë – Publishing First Novels

With PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre currently featuring the novels of Jane Austen (and one of them being Northanger Abbey), it raised for me the issue that is often discussed with regard to Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor and that is simply: Should a literary work an author was unable to have published during their lifetime be published after their death?

Many arguments can be presented for both points of view with two of the most often heard being: The author’s readers have a “right” to the works of a revered writer and they were not published because they were not critically on a par with other works. There is much to be said for both arguments but what I find interesting is the similarities that occur with regard to Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë.

In both instances the novels in question, Northanger Abbey and The Professor” were the first novels of each author to be completed (although with Miss Austen she had worked on three other novels earlier: Lady Susan unfinished, Eleanor and Marianne, revised and rewritten as Sense and Sensibility and First Impressions revised and rewritten as Pride and Prejudice. Northanger Abbey was published in 1818 a year after Austen’s death and The Professor was published two years after the death of Charlotte Brontë.

From all accounts, Northanger Abbey was the first novel that Jane Austen attempted to have published and while she received 10 pounds for it, the publisher, Crosby and Sons, held it for ten years, never published, and sold the rights back to Austen’s family after she died. The Professor, on the other hand was the first novel written and completed by Charlotte Brontë but resoundly rejected by the publisher, Thomas Cautley Newby, as the third novel in a three volume set to be issued as authored by the “Bell brothers”, when accepting the other two volumes, being the novels of sisters Emily (Wuthering Heights) and Anne (Agnes Grey).

So here we have two novels written by two unknown authors, who will achieve a degree of recognition and success during their lifetimes, with novels they never saw in print. Should their families arrange to have the novels printed even though the authors themselves seemed to have abandoned them and moved on to other projects? It is always a tricky problem.

The argument that is often used relates to the wishes of the authors themselves. If they wanted them published then they would have insisted on it during their lifetimes. Especially once they achieved a degree of literary success and finally became the masters of their own fate and had leverage within the publishing world. So the answer would be that the authors did not want them published; that they thought the works to be inferior in some way and therefore decided to let them go. I’m not so sure that is a valid approach.

In both cases the authors themselves desired to have the works published and, it could be fairly argued they believed them to be worthy of being read by others. After all, they had the opportunity to read, review and edit them prior to submitting them for publication. This is, of course, quite different from the publishing of an unfinished work where the author has not had the opportunity to properly revise, edit and rewrite and thereby put their own proper stamp of individuality upon it. In recent times, I’m reminded of the publishing of True at First Light, Ernest Hemingway’s unfinished novel that came out in 1999 to underwhelming critical acclaim, although certainly financial success.

With regard to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, she most certainly wanted the novel published but leverage with one’s publisher, especially being a woman writing novels in the late 18^th and early 19^th century, was considerably limited (there are those scribbling away today that would agree that things have not changed very much – although they most certainly have).

As far Charlotte Brontë and The Professor is concerned, one could easily use the same argument. However, there is probably a case to be made that it was the story line of The Professor that haunted her (having the strongly autobiographical element) and that her final completed novel, Villette, was actually a revision and full rewrite of The Professor.

Arguments like this one are what keeps the writing of Austen and Brontë alive and studied for more than two centuries.

Good stories, written well, by interesting people.