Incredibly valuable

The Austin-American Statesman publishes the following inquiry from a reader:

Q: I have a second-edition copy of "Jane Eyre" that is signed by the author under her pen name Currer Bell. It is also stamped in the front as being presented to William Makepeace Thackeray. How can I find out if it is authentic, and what its worth would be? (W.W.)

The answer, of course, is obvious:

If the tome is a second edition signed by Charlotte Brontë inscribed to Thackeray, the book is incredibly valuable, says Luke Bilberry, owner of 12th St. Books, 827 W. 12th St. Have an appraiser and a Brontë expert verify the authenticity of the autograph. Visit the Web site of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, www.rbms.info/yob.shtml for details and references. (Jane Greig)

The 1848 second edition of Jane Eyre was indeed dedicated to W.M. Thackeray (‘an intellect profounder and more unique than his contemporaries have yet recognised,’ and ‘the first social regenerator of the day’) and the misunderstandings that the dedication generated are well-known. Quoting from the Cliff Notes to Jane Eyre:

William Thackeray, a successful and socially prominent novelist, wrote Charlotte a letter praising her book, and in gratitude she dedicated the second edition to him. Charlotte may have been the only literary person in England who didn’t know that Thackeray, like Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, had a wife who was insane. To make matters worse, Thackeray had just published a novel about a scheming governess who tries to seduce her employer. Gossips put two and two together and decided that the author of Jane Eyre had been having an affair with Thackeray!

The John O'Groat Journal discovers a new Brontëite (or sort of), Chris Tarrant:

Chris Tarrant, who presents the TV quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, said that his favourite book when he was a boy was one of Enid Blyton's Famous Five stories. He wrote: "And then as a teenager, I read Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, and thought I was just like Heathcliff – very grumpy and rude to girls."

The weird Brontë reference of the day comes from this Cincinnati Post review about an art exhibition called Baroque Biology. Apparently this painting by Alexis Rockman (the one on the right) reminds the reviewer Wuthering Heights.

Finally some blogosphere reviews. Madoguna posts about Wuthering Heights, in Spanish. Voci comments Franco Zeffirelli's Jane Eyre 1996(in Italian) and Lothlórien reviews, in Spanish, Jasper Fforde's The Jane Eyre Affair.

Categories: Brontëana, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights