INDEX.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL KEY INDEX.

I stated in a letter to The Academy, August 1st, 1908, that "were it possible by application of a cipher code to discover the words 'Emily Brontë' in every sentence of Wuthering Heights, I could not even then say any one wrote the book but Charlotte Brontë." If people write before they think, then importance can be attached to clerical testimony and external associations to the disadvantage of internal and literal evidence. But inspiration, thought, and fact denote in questions of authorship, and therefore that is author of a work whose thoughts and words are expressed and inmost life revealed therein. Wuthering Heights, we now see, is Charlotte Brontë, and it matters not what amanuensis dealt with the relation—what sequence of complications resulted from her first day of handing over the work to her sister, and of conspiring to conceal her authorship.

Had not my own two sisters died, I might have been tempted to make them novelists: out of my bottom drawer I could have provided them with a novel each and one for a "follow-on," and yet have left myself some maturer works in hand. But my sisters would have had to copy out the manuscripts for the printers from my first drafts, and in every way possible to merit and to establish association with the books as authors. And how indignant we would have been—nay, alarmed, had there been a "Newby arrangement," at some daring critic, like Lady Eastlake and Sydney Dobell, imputing they were the work of one mind! Would we not have appealed to clerical testimony? With a more practised hand Charlotte Brontë in her days of fame corrected and edited Wuthering Heights. Emily was dead. Well might Charlotte say the labour left her "prostrate and entombed." What memories had it recalled!—what a history! It is obvious to all who consider carefully the letter Charlotte Brontë penned Wordsworth, to which I refer in the footnote on page 17 of The Key to the Brontë Works, that she wrote her books rapidly; and a review of the fact that the Brontë school project was renounced in favour of literary projects suggests Currer Bell in 1845-46 revealed to her sisters the advantages of having a bottom drawer. Let any reader use what I have termed the Key Index to the works of Charlotte Brontë, and it will be perceived quite easily that Wuthering Heights is irrefutably at one with Currer Bell and all her other books—that the works of Charlotte Brontë are all related to each other, to Charlotte Brontë, and to the facts and people of her life as seen and known by herself. The reader of a given Brontë work will glance down the list in the Key Index under the heading of the particular book in hand to find these very important and intensely interesting connections, now first shown to exist:—

THE KEY INDEX

to the Life and Works of Charlotte Brontë.

Wuthering Heights.Jane Eyre.
Its relation to Charlotte Brontë's life, [vii.-xi.][105], [16-19], [32-3], [37-53], [55-7], [69], [78-9], [83], [85-103], [106], [108-112], [114-8], [120-1], [126-9], [130-155], [156-8], [160-1], [168]Its relation to Charlotte Brontë's life, [vii.], [viii.], [x.][105], [15], [18], [21-2], [30], [37-56], [69-119], [121-154], [157], [168]
In relation to Branwell Brontë, [x.], [18], [37-40], [52-3], [78-9], [93-5], [139]In relation to Branwell Brontë, [x.], [xi.], [18], [37-40], [52-3], [78-9], [93-5], [106], [139]
—— Tabby Aykroyd, [x.], [38], [40-1], [43-53], [77], [94-5], [147-8], [160], [168]—— Tabby Aykroyd, [x.], [40], [43-53], [77-8], [94-5], [105], [128], [168]
—— M. Héger, [viii.], [xi.], [16], [17], [34], [56], [87], [89], [91-3], [96-103], [106], [111], [120-1], [128-9], [134-154], [157]—— M. Héger, [x.], [14], [82-9], [92-3], [96-107], [111], [120], [126-9], [136-146], [148-154]
—— Madame Héger, [106-7], [117]—— Madame Héger, [106-7], [112], [117]
—— Taylor of Hunsworth, [83-9]—— Taylor of Hunsworth, [83-9]
—— Rev. Patrick Brontë, [49], [147]; the younger Cathy's father, [161]—— Rev. Patrick Brontë, [xi.], [70-2], [74-7], [81-2], [128], [136]
—— Maria Brontë, [37]—— Maria Brontë, [xi.], [24], [70-1], [80-1], [106], [108-110]
—— Anne Brontë, [xi.], [70-4], [77-8], [81-2]; Elizabeth Brontë, [xi.], [72], [81], [106-7]
—— Emily Brontë, [viii.], [17], [18], [40], [138], [146], [153], [156], [169]—— Emily Brontë, [xi.], [70-4], [78], [81]
—— Aunt Branwell, [xi.], [70-3], [77-81]
—— Cousin Eliza Branwell, [xi.], [69], [70-2], [79-81]
—— M. Sue, [ix.], [103-4], [106-112], [114], [121], [128], [132-142]—— M. Sue, [ix.], [x.], [82-3], [103-121], [126-9], [135]
—— Charlotte Brontë's Poems, [56], [97], [128], [132-7], [139], [140-5], [150-1], [157-8]—— Charlotte Brontë's Poems, [97], [128], [135-8], [140-5], [150-1], [157-8]
—— Montagu, [x.], [17], [20-35], [55], [57-68], [71], [141-5]—— Montagu, [x.], [20-36], [60-8], [71-2], [140-5]
—— Jane Eyre, [vii.], [viii.], [x.], [18], [20], [22-56], [58-68], [71-2], [79], [83], [85-103], [106], [108-112], [114-119], [121], [128-9], [134-146], [151-4], [157], [168]—— Wuthering Heights, same as opposite
—— Shirley, [ix.], [18-9], [41], [43], [55-6], [83], [85-9], [136], [146-153], [160-1]—— Shirley, [81], [83-9], [136], [147-153]
—— The Professor, [ix.], [x.], [53-6], [78-9], [84-9], [121], [127-9], [138-9], [145], [151]—— The Professor, [79], [83-9], [111], [127-9], [139-142], [145], [151]
—— Villette, [ix.], [92], [96-7], [103], [111], [121], [128-9], [136-8], [143-5], [148-154], [161]—— Villette, [42], [86], [89], [92], [103], [118-9], [126], [128-9], [132-154]
—— Charlotte Brontë's Method I., [viii.-x.], [23-4], [25-31], [38], [40], [47], [97-103]—— Charlotte Brontë's Method I., [x.], [23-4], [25-31], [97-103], [105]
—— —— Method II., [viii.], [25-31], [38-9], [48-51], [53], [55]—— —— Method II., [25-31], [45], [48-51], [72], [74]