added: "The child 'Jane
Eyre' is your father in petticoats, and Mrs. Reed is the wicked uncle
by the Boyne."

The cloud passed from Hugh Bronte's brow, and the apologetic tone from
his voice. He started up as if he had received new life, wrung Mr.
McKee's hand, and hurried away comforted, to comfort others. Mr. McKee
had said the novel was "_gran_" and that was enough for the Irish
Brontes.

There was joy in the Bronte house when Hugh returned and reported to
his brothers and sisters what Mr. McKee had said. They needed no
further commendation, for they knew no higher court on such a matter.
They had all been alarmed lest Charlotte had done something to be
ashamed of; but on Mr. McKee's approval, pride and elation of spirit
succeeded depression and sinking of heart.

Mr. McKee's opinion did not long remain unconfirmed. Reviews from the
English magazines were quoted in the Newry paper, probably by Mr.
McKee, and found their way quickly into the uncles' and aunts' hands.

The publication of the book created a profound impression generally.
It was felt in literary circles that a strong nature had broken
through conventional restraints, that a fresh voice had delivered a
new message. Men and women paused in the perusal of the pretty, the
artificial, the inane, to listen to the wild story that had come to
them with the breeze of the moorland and the bloom of the heather. And
so exquisite was the gift of thought blended with the art of artless
expression, that only the facts appeared in the transparent
narrative.

"The Times" declared: "Freshness and originality, truth and passion,
singular felicity in the description of natural scenery, and in the
analyzation of human thought, enable this tale to stand boldly out
from the mass."

"The Edinburgh Review" said: "For many years there has been no work of
such power, piquancy, and originality."

"Blackwood's Magazine" spoke thus: "'Jane Eyre' is an episode in this
work-a-day world; most interesting, and touched at once by a daring
and delicate hand."

In "Frazer's Magazine" Mr. G. H. Lewes said: "Reality--deep,
significant reality--is the characteristic of the book. It is
autobiography, not perhaps in the naked facts and circumstances, but
in the actual suffering and experience."

"Tait's Magazine," "The Examiner," the "Athenaeum," and the "Literary
Gazette," followed in the same strain; while the "Daily News" spoke
with qualified praise, and only the "Spectator," acc