Page "Charlotte Brontë" Paragraph 11

Charlotte believed that art was most convincing when based on personal experience ; in Jane Eyre she transformed this experience into a novel with universal appeal.

Commercially it was an instant success, and initially received favourable reviews.

The critic G. H. Lewes wrote that it was " an utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit ", declaring it to be " suspiria de profundis!

" ( sighs from the depths ).

The book's style was innovative, combining naturalism with gothic melodrama, and broke new ground in being written from an intensely first-person female perspective.

There was speculation about the identity of Currer Bell and whether the author was male or female and it heightened on the publication of novels by Charlotte's sisters: Emily's Wuthering Heights by " Ellis Bell " and Anne's Agnes Grey by " Acton Bell ".

Accompanying the speculation was a change in the critical reaction to Charlotte's work and accusations were made that the writing was " coarse ", a judgment more readily made once it was suspected that " Currer Bell " was a woman.

However sales of Jane Eyre continued to be strong, and may have increased as a result of the novel developing a reputation as an ' improper ' book.