Page:The Professor (1857 Volume 2).djvu/275

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UNIFORM EDITION OF THE WORKS OF CURRER BELL.
7

agility which it may not yet spend in the heavens. In this thought let the critic take up the book; lay it down in what thought he will, there are some things in it he can lay down no more. Not a subordinate place or person in this novel but bears more or less the stamp of high genius. There are passages in this book of 'Wuthering Heights' of which any novelist, past or present, might be proud. We cannot praise too warmly the brave simplicity, the unaffected air of intense belief, the admirable combination of extreme likelihood with the rarest originality, the nice provision of the possible even in the highest effects of the supernatural, the easy strength and instinct of keeping with which the accessory circumstances are grouped, the exquisite but unconscious art with which the chiaro-scuro of the whole is managed; and the ungenial frigidity of time, place, weather, and persons, is made to heighten the unspeakable pathos of one ungovernable outburst. It has been said of Shakspeare that he drew cases which the physician might study; Ellis Bell has done no less."—Palladium.

"To estimate this work aright, the reader must have all the scenic accompaniment before him. He must not fancy himself in a London mansion, but in an old north-country manor-house, situated in the 'dreary, dreamy moorland,' far from the haunts of civilised men. There is, at all events, keeping in the book: the groups of figures and the scenery are in harmony with each other. There is a touch of Salvator Rosa in all."—Atlas.

"'Wuthering Heights' bears the stamp of a profoundly individual, strong, and passionate mind. The memoir is one of the most touching chapters in literary biography."—Non-conformist.


5.

POEMS. By Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.

Fcap. 8vo, 4s. cloth.

"A volume of poems which will not detract from the fame of the authors. The poems bearing the signature of Currer Bell exhibit the impress of a matured intellect and masterly hand."—Morning Herald.