Short Fiction · Chapter
Josephine de Montmorenci explained
Editor Mr.
What happens
Editor Mr. Brown receives a letter from a mysterious aspiring novelist, Josephine de Montmorenci, who submits her manuscript 'Not So Black as He's Painted.' Despite initial misgivings, he reads it, finds merit, and arranges a meeting. The author is revealed to be Maryanne Puffle, who used a pseudonym. After a humorous confrontation, Mr. Brown agrees to help her publish the novel, which eventually achieves success.
Themes in this chapter
Gender Roles and Women's Agency
Josephine de Montmorenci (Maryanne Puffle) asserts her literary ambitions and negotiates with the editor, challenging conventional modesty expected of women.
Morality and Hypocrisy
Mr. Brown's initial attraction to the mystery and his later discomfort with the pseudonym highlight tensions between professional ethics and personal bias.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Brown
The editor who corresponds with and eventually meets the aspiring novelist, showing a mix of professional skepticism and personal curiosity.
- Bessy Pryor
Not present in this chapter; included as placeholder due to canonical list requirement.
Key passages
“I think that literature needs no introduction, and, judging of you by the character which you have made for yourself in its paths, I do not doubt but you will feel as I do.”
The writer assumes that her literary merit is self-evident and that the editor will share her confidence.
Opening of Josephine de Montmorenci's letter to Mr. Brown, establishing her assertive tone.
“I am a lady not possessing that modesty which should make me hold a low opinion of my own talents, and equally free from that feeling of self-belittlement which induces so many to speak humbly while they think proudly of their own acquirements.”
She claims to be neither falsely modest nor secretly arrogant, but straightforward about her abilities.
Josephine's self-description, challenging Victorian feminine ideals of humility.
“I send my treasure, and, remember, I will have it back in a week if you do not intend to keep it. I have not £5 left in the world, and I owe my milliner ever so much, and money at the stables where I get a horse. And I am determined to go to Dieppe in July. All must come out of my novel.”
She demands a quick decision on her manuscript, citing financial desperation and her need for the novel's success to fund her summer plans.
Josephine's second letter reveals her precarious finances and urgency.
“But Maryanne Puffle would be quite unendurable on a title page.”
The author explains that her real name is too plain for publication, justifying her use of a grand pseudonym.
Revelation of the author's true identity and her rationale for the alias.