Charlotte Brontë, Badass.
It has been too many years since my last rereading of Jane Eyre. So in downloading whatever copy that was available to me on Kindle, I started to read the prefaces that Charlotte (at that time under the penname Currer Bell) included in subsequent editions. In her address to those that look harshly upon the novel, her statement of "certain simple truths" really hit me.
Below is a snippet from the preface to the 2nd edition of Jane Eyre dated December 21st, 1847.
"Having thus acknowledged what I owe those who have aided and approved me, I turn to another class; a small one, so far as I know, but not, therefore, to be overlooked. I mean the timorous or carping few who doubt the tendency of such books as “Jane Eyre:” in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong; whose ears detect in each protest against bigotry—that parent of crime—an insult to piety, that regent of God on earth. I would suggest to such doubters certain obvious distinctions; I would remind them of certain simple truths. Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last." - Charlotte Brontë
170 years later and people still need constant reminders of such truths.
