You are not to suppose any of the characters in Shirley intended as literal portraits…We only suffer reality to suggest, never to dictate.


letter to Ellen Nussey, 16 November 1849, in Elizabeth Gaskell The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) ch. 18

Charlotte Brontë Quotes

You are not to suppose any of the characters in Shirley intended as literal portraits…We only suffer reality to suggest, never to dictate.

You are not to suppose any of the characters in Shirley intended as literal portraits…We only suffer reality to suggest, never to dictate.

You are not to suppose any of the characters in Shirley intended as literal portraits…We only suffer reality to suggest, never to dictate.

You are not to suppose any of the characters in Shirley intended as literal portraits…We only suffer reality to suggest, never to dictate.