Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I AUTHORS, READERS, AND PUBLISHERS
- PART II WRITING VICTORIA’s ENGLAND
- PART III MODES OF WRITING
- PART IV MATTERS OF DEBATE
- 15 Education
- 16 Spirituality
- 17 Material
- 18 Economics and finance
- 19 History
- 20 Sexuality
- 21 Aesthetics
- 22 Science and literature
- 23 Subjectivity, psychology, and the imagination
- 24 Cityscapes
- 25 The rural scene: Victorian literature and the natural world
- 26 ‘The annihilation of space and time’: literature and technology
- PART V SPACES OF WRITING
- PART VI VICTORIAN AFTERLIVES
- Select bibliography
- Index
23 - Subjectivity, psychology, and the imagination
from PART IV - MATTERS OF DEBATE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I AUTHORS, READERS, AND PUBLISHERS
- PART II WRITING VICTORIA’s ENGLAND
- PART III MODES OF WRITING
- PART IV MATTERS OF DEBATE
- 15 Education
- 16 Spirituality
- 17 Material
- 18 Economics and finance
- 19 History
- 20 Sexuality
- 21 Aesthetics
- 22 Science and literature
- 23 Subjectivity, psychology, and the imagination
- 24 Cityscapes
- 25 The rural scene: Victorian literature and the natural world
- 26 ‘The annihilation of space and time’: literature and technology
- PART V SPACES OF WRITING
- PART VI VICTORIAN AFTERLIVES
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
… let me ask myself one question – Which is better? – To have surrendered to temptation; listened to passion; made no painful effort – no struggle; – but to have sunk down in the silken snare; fallen asleep on the flowers covering it; wakened in a southern clime, amongst the luxuries of a pleasure-villa: to have been now living in France, Mr Rochester’s mistress; delirious with his love half my time – for he would – oh, yes, he would have loved me well for a while. He did love me – no one will ever love me so again. I shall never more know the sweet homage given to beauty, youth, and grace – for never to any one else shall I seem to possess these charms. He was fond and proud of me – it is what no man besides will ever be. – But where am I wandering, and what am I saying, and above all, feeling? Whether is it better, I ask, to be a slave in a fool’s paradise at Marseilles – fevered with delusive bliss one hour – suffocating with the bitterest tears of remorse and shame the next – or to be a village-schoolmistress, free and honest, in a breezy mountain nook in the healthy heart of England?
Yes; I feel now that I was right when I adhered to principle and law, and scorned and crushed the insane promptings of a frenzied moment. God directed me to a correct choice: I thank His providence for the guidance!
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Victorian Literature , pp. 487 - 509Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012