{"product_id":"2940014486040","title":"Jane Eyre","description":"A PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION of Jane Eyre being unnecessary,\u003cbr\u003eI gave none: this second edition demands a few words\u003cbr\u003eboth of acknowledgment and miscellaneous remark.\u003cbr\u003eMy thanks are due in three quarters.\u003cbr\u003eTo the Public, for the indulgent ear it has inclined to a plain\u003cbr\u003etale with few pretensions.\u003cbr\u003eTo the Press, for the fair field its honest suffrage has opened\u003cbr\u003eto an obscure aspirant.\u003cbr\u003eTo my Publishers, for the aid their tact, their energy, their\u003cbr\u003epractical sense and frank liberality have afforded an unknown\u003cbr\u003eand unrecommended Author.\u003cbr\u003eThe Press and the Public are but vague personifications for\u003cbr\u003eme, and I must thank them in vague terms; but my Publishers\u003cbr\u003eare definite: so are certain generous critics who have encouraged\u003cbr\u003eme as only large-hearted and high-minded men know\u003cbr\u003ehow to encourage a struggling stranger; to them, i.e., to my\u003cbr\u003ePublishers and the select Reviewers, I say cordially, Gentlemen,\u003cbr\u003eI thank you from my heart.\u003cbr\u003eHaving thus acknowledged what I owe those who have aided\u003cbr\u003eand approved me, I turn to another class; a small one, so far as\u003cbr\u003eI know, but not, therefore, to be overlooked. I mean the timorous\u003cbr\u003eor carping few who doubt the tendency of such books as\u003cbr\u003e“Jane Eyre:” in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong; whose\u003cbr\u003eears detect in each protest against bigotry—that parent of\u003cbr\u003ecrime—an insult to piety, that regent of God on earth. I would\u003cbr\u003esuggest to such doubters certain obvious distinctions; I would\u003cbr\u003eremind them of certain simple truths.\u003cbr\u003eConventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not\u003cbr\u003ereligion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck\u003cbr\u003ethe mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious\u003cbr\u003ehand to the Crown of Thorns.\u003cbr\u003eThese things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are\u003cbr\u003eas distinct as is vice from virtue. Men too often confound\u003cbr\u003ethem: they should not be confounded: appearance should not\u003cbr\u003ebe mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only\u003cbr\u003etend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for\u003cbr\u003ethe world-redeeming creed of Christ. There is—I repeat it—\u003cbr\u003ea difference; and it is a good, and not a bad action to mark\u003cbr\u003ebroadly and clearly the line of separation between them.\u003cbr\u003eThe world may not like to see these ideas dissevered, for it\u003cbr\u003ehas been accustomed to blend them; finding it convenient to\u003cbr\u003emake external show pass for sterling worth—to let whitewashed\u003cbr\u003ewalls vouch for clean shrines. It may hate him who\u003cbr\u003edares to scrutinise and expose—to rase the gilding, and show\u003cbr\u003ebase metal under it—to penetrate the sepulchre, and reveal\u003cbr\u003echarnel relics: but hate as it will, it is indebted to him.\u003cbr\u003eAhab did not like Micaiah, because he never prophesied\u003cbr\u003egood concerning him, but evil; probably he liked the sycophant\u003cbr\u003eson of Chenaannah better; yet might Ahab have escaped\u003cbr\u003ea bloody death, had he but stopped his ears to flattery,\u003cbr\u003eand opened them to faithful counsel.\u003cbr\u003eThere is a man in our own days whose words are not framed\u003cbr\u003eto tickle delicate ears: who, to my thinking, comes before the\u003cbr\u003egreat ones of society, much as the son of Imlah came before\u003cbr\u003ethe throned Kings of Judah and Israel; and who speaks truth\u003cbr\u003eas deep, with a power as prophet-like and as vital—a mien as\u003cbr\u003edauntless and as daring. Is the satirist of Vanity Fair admired\u003cbr\u003ein high places? I cannot tell; but I think if some of those\u003cbr\u003eamongst whom he hurls the Greek fire of his sarcasm, and\u003cbr\u003eover whom he flashes the levin-brand of his denunciation,\u003cbr\u003ewere to take his warnings in time—they or their seed might\u003cbr\u003eyet escape a fatal Rimoth-Gilead.\u003cbr\u003eWhy have I alluded to this man? I have alluded to him,\u003cbr\u003eReader, because I think I see in him an intellect profounder\u003cbr\u003eand more unique than his contemporaries have yet recognised;\u003cbr\u003ebecause I regard him as the first social regenerator of the day—\u003cbr\u003eas the very master of that working corps who would restore\u003cbr\u003eto rectitude the warped system of things; because I think no\u003cbr\u003ecommentator on his writings has yet found the comparison\u003cbr\u003ethat suits him, the terms which rightly characterise his talent.\u003cbr\u003eThey say he is like Fielding: they talk of his wit, humour,\u003cbr\u003ecomic powers. He resembles Fielding as an eagle does a vulture:\u003cbr\u003eFielding could stoop on carrion, but Thackeray never\u003cbr\u003edoes. His wit is bright, his humour attractive, but both bear\u003cbr\u003ethe same relation to his serious genius that the mere lambent ...","brand":"All classic book warehouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070652825840,"sku":"2940014486040","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014486040_p0.jpg?v=1763609721","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014486040","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}