Frederika MacDonald

The Secret of Charlotte Bronte Frederika MacDonald

"[...]writers she is the representative 'Romantic' who counts with George Sand; but differs from her, as an English cret of Charlotte Bronte by Frederika Macdonald.and not a French exponent of the sentiment of romantic love. Judged both as a distinguished personality and as a writer of genius from the standpoint of the impression that Villette is an autobiographical story, Charlotte Bronte suffers injustice, both as a woman of fine character, and as an imaginative painter of emotions rather than an observer of events, or a critic of manners. Accepted as a realistic picture of her own adventures in Brussels, the book does not testify to her accuracy or skill in portraiture, from the purely literary point of view. And from the moral and personal standpoint, she remains convicted (if she be held to be telling her own story) of the baseness of a half-confession;-and of a dishonourable and a successful, not a romantic and tragical, love[...].""