WorkCharlotte Brontë

Shirley: A Tale

Shirley: A Tale (1849) Inferred

InferredFuller asks about "another novel by author of Jane Eyre," identifying the author through her previous work rather than by name. Hudspeth identified this as Charlotte Brontë's *Shirley* (published 26 October 1849 under the pseudonym Currer Bell). Fuller identifies "the novel by the Author of Jane Eyre, now known as Miss Bronte," confirming she knows that Currer Bell is Charlotte Brontë and referring to her second novel published in October 1849.

Mentioned

Documented 1850

Letters

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

AttestedConfirmed reading1850Evidence ↓

Confirmed reading

Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had this work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.

Dated
1850ShirleyAttested
“next read I the novel by the Author of Jane Eyre, now known as Miss Bronte.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Florence, 15th March 1850 (letter dateline)
Explicit statement: 'next read I the novel by the Author of Jane Eyre'.

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist

V. New York

VI. Europe1record

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1850—

Letter to Emelyn Story

p61

mentioned2 selected passages

“Have you seen another novel by author of Jane Eyre, and is it good?”

The same sentence also names Jane Eyre. Counted as one engagement.

Hudspeth identified this as Charlotte Brontë's Shirley (published 26 October 1849 under the pseudonym Currer Bell).

“next read I the novel by the Author of Jane Eyre, now known as Miss Bronte.”

Inferred Fuller identifies "the novel by the Author of Jane Eyre, now known as Miss Bronte," confirming she knows that Currer Bell is Charlotte Brontë and referring to her second novel published in October 1849. Though Fuller does not write the title "Shirley," this was Brontë's only novel published since "Jane Eyre" (1847) and is unambiguously identifiable as her recent work.

Fuller identifies "the novel by the Author of Jane Eyre, now known as Miss Bronte," confirming she knows that Currer Bell is Charlotte Brontë and referring to her second novel published in October 1849.

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.