Smith, Elder & Co. of London were the publishers of _Jane
Eyre_ and they also issued the first collected edition of
Charlotte Brontë's works. This firm still publishes the
standard English edition, the Haworth edition, with admirable
introductions by Mrs. Humphrey Ward and with many
illustrations from photographs of the places and people made
memorable in Charlotte's novels. A good American edition is
the Shirley edition, with excellent illustrations, many of
them reproductions of rare daguerreotypes.
The standard life of Charlotte Brontë until fifteen years ago
was Mrs. Gaskell's, one of the most appealing stories in all
literature. Clement K. Shorter's _Charlotte Brontë and Her
Circle_ is now indispensable because of the mass of facts that
the author has gathered in regard to the life of the sisters
in the lonely parsonage and their remarkable literary
development. Augustine Birrell has written a good short life
of Charlotte, while A.M.F. Robinson (Mme. Duclaux) has a
volume on Emily Brontë in the Famous Women series.
T. Wemyss Reid was the first writer to make original research
among the Brontë material and his book, _Charlotte Brontë--A
Monograph_, paved the way for the exhaustive study of this
strange family of genius by Clement Shorter. Other books that
give much original material are _The Brontës in Ireland_, by
Rev. Dr. William Wright, and _Charlotte Brontë and Her
Sisters_, by Clement Shorter. Mr. Shorter also in _The
Brontës--Life and Letters_ gives all of Charlotte's letters in
the order of their dates.