Latest news with #CharlotteBrontë
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India.com
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- India.com
6 Books You Should Read If You Are A Classics Lover - From Metamorphosis To Time Machine
photoDetails english 2906657 Updated:May 26, 2025, 10:03 PM IST Metamorphosis 1 / 7 Franz Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' shows the transformation of a man into an insect and how his family deals with it. The book explores themes of isolation and new identity. Jane Eyre 2 / 7 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Brontë is a story of a woman who seeks love, independence, and a sense of belonging. To Kill A Mockingbird 3 / 7 Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is the story of a young girl with adventures sprinkled in. Wuthering Heights 4 / 7 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Brontë is a story about love and anger, and is set in the windy countryside. Time Machine 5 / 7 HG Wells' 'The Time Machine' is an adventure tale where a scientist travels to the future, discovering new worlds and exploring the consequences of his travel. Diary Of A Young Girl 6 / 7 'The Diary of a Young Girl' by Anne Frank is a saga of a Jewish girl's life while hiding from the Nazis. Credits 7 / 7 (Photo Credit: Representational Image/ Freepik)
Observer
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Observer
At 13, Charlotte Brontë Already Knew How Good a Writer She Would Be
Few teenagers would want the world to read their poems, but at 13, Charlotte Brontë was an exception. In 1829, she collected her verse in a humble anthology that hinted at her ambition to become an author at a time when few women wrote for a public audience. The poems in Brontë's 'Book of Rhymes' were handwritten in tiny script on scraps of paper, no larger than playing cards, and stitched together with a meticulously crafted contents page. The author of 'Jane Eyre' likely never intended to publish this juvenile work, inscribing on the cover 'Sold By Nobody and Printed By Herself.' Years later, the anthology will be available to the public for the first time. To celebrate the 209th anniversary of her birth, the Brontë Parsonage Museum in England has published a collection of 10 poems alongside images of the original ink-smudged pages. The anthology features a long poem on the beauty of nature, an epic attempt, and a piece intriguingly titled 'A Thing of Fourteen Lines — Commonly Called a [Sonnet?]'. Brontë's manuscript reveals her editing process, illustrating her as an aspiring author already grappling with character and perspective. Ann Dinsdale, the museum's principal curator, notes, 'They chart her development as a writer.' The original manuscript, lost for over a century, will also be exhibited at the museum in Haworth, northern England. The existence of these poems came to light through Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Brontë, published in 1857. Gaskell mentioned a catalog of 22 works created by Brontë, starting at age 10. 'A Book of Rhymes' and similar juvenile pieces became treasured collectibles. Records indicate the anthology was auctioned in New York in 1916 but later vanished. It resurfaced in 2022 as the highlight of the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. Sold by an anonymous private collector, the anthology fetched $1.25 million during an auction held on the 206th anniversary of Brontë's birth. Friends of the National Libraries, a British nonprofit, raised the funds through donations from nine contributors, including the Garfield Weston Foundation and the estate of T.S. Eliot, to prevent it from disappearing into private hands again. The anthology was then donated to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, where the Brontë family lived and wrote in the 19th century. From their home in Haworth, Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and their brother Branwell produced tiny magazines filled with elaborate worlds. Their imagined readers were toy soldiers, and they crafted stories on scraps of paper, hiding their creations from adult scrutiny. Dinsdale notes they wrote to scale for the toy soldiers, using small text to keep their adventures private. In 'A Book Of Rhymes,' Brontë adopted the voices of two toy soldiers—Marquis of Duro and Lord Charles Wellesley—as they embarked on an expedition through a Canadian forest or an exiled journey through biblical Babylon. The young Brontës' works reflected their reading influences, and their father, Patrick Brontë, a priest and bird watcher, encouraged their explorations of nature during long walks over the moors. This connection with the landscape became a hallmark of Charlotte's writings. Long before her characters traversed the landscapes of her novels, the teenage Brontë captured nature in poems like 'Autumn, a Song' and 'Spring, a Song.' In 'A Bit of a Rhyme,' she describes, 'Meantime the rushing stream which roars along / its black waves foaming in high majesty.' Despite acknowledging the imperfections in her writing, Brontë introduced her anthology by stating, 'The following are attempts at rhyming of an inferior nature, it must be acknowledged, but they are nevertheless my best.' The Brontë Parsonage Museum collaborated with a local publisher to have musician and poet Patti Smith write the foreword. She reflects on how Brontë's writing transported her to her own childhood and emphasizes that the poems embody a determined ambition. 'It is not simply a handful of juvenile verses,' Smith writes, 'but the manifestation of an ambitious dreamer.' —NYT
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
At 13, Charlotte Brontë Already Knew How Good a Writer She Would Be
Few teenagers would want the world to read their poems. At 13, Charlotte Brontë collected her verse in a humble anthology that already hinted at her ambition to become an author at a time when few women wrote for a public audience. Written in the winter of 1829, the poems in Brontë's 'Book of Rhymes' were written in tiny script to fit on scraps of paper no larger than playing cards that were hand-stitched together with a carefully written contents page. The writer of 'Jane Eyre' probably didn't intend to publish her juvenile poetry, writing in the inner cover 'Sold By Nobody and Printed By Herself.' Now, about 200 years later, the anthology will be available to the public for the first time. This week, in time to celebrate the 209th anniversary of her birth, the Brontë Parsonage Museum in England published the collection of 10 poems, transcribed alongside images of their original ink-smudged pages. The anthology contains a long-form poem on the beauty of the natural world, an attempt at an epic, and a verse called 'A Thing of Fourteen Lines — Commonly Called a [Sonnet?]' The anthology shows Brontë's deletions and rearranged stanzas, showing lines crossed out and rewritten. In preserving her ink-stained edits, the little manuscript also shows an aspiring author already grappling with character and perspective. 'They chart her development as a writer,' said Ann Dinsdale, the Brontë Parsonage Museum's principal curator. The original manuscript, which was lost for at least a century, will also go on display at the museum, in Haworth, in northern England. The existence of the poems was known thanks to a biography of Brontë, written by the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell and published in 1857. Gaskell wrote of a catalog of early poems and stories by Brontë, first written at age 10 and numbering 22 titles by the time she was 14. These juvenile works, including 'A Book of Rhymes,' were later treasured by collectors. Records show that 'A Book of Rhymes' came up for auction in New York in 1916 — but then it vanished. It reappeared in 2022, where it was the headline item at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. Sold by an anonymous private collector, the anthology fetched $1.25 million at an auction that year, held on the 206th anniversary of Brontë's birth. Friends of the National Libraries, a British nonprofit, raised that amount with donations from nine donors, including the Garfield Weston Foundation and the estate of T.S. Eliot, to stop the book from again disappearing into another private collection. It was then donated to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, which is based in the parsonage where the Brontë family lived and wrote in the 19th century. From their home in Haworth, the Brontë siblings — Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell — produced tiny magazines that contained elaborate worlds: Their imagined readers were a set of toy soldiers that they played with, making up adventures. The children gathered any scrap of paper they could find, writing on sugar bags and bounding their books in scraps of wallpaper, Dinsdale, the museum curator, said. They wrote to scale for the toy soldiers, but by making the text so small, they also kept the prying eyes of adults from looking into their little world. Brontë wrote 'A Book Of Rhymes' in the voice of two of the toy soldiers, the Marquis of Duro and Lord Charles Wellesley, and imagined them setting off on an expedition through a Canadian forest where 'branches mingle over head / casting a solemn shade / oe'r the lone pathway which I tread' or on an exiled journey through the biblical Babylon. The young Brontës' early work reflects what they were reading at the time, Dinsdale said. She added that they were encouraged by their father, Patrick Brontë, a priest who also studied bird life, who would take the children on long walks over the moors around their home. He encouraged Charlotte to observe the natural landscape, which became a signature of her writing, Dinsdale said. Long before her characters would muddy their skirts in the bucolic landscapes of her novels, teenage Charlotte Brontë captured the natural environment in her poems 'Autumn, a Song' and 'Spring, a Song.' 'Meantime the rushing stream which roars along / its black waves foaming in high majesty' she writes in a poem called 'A Bit of a Rhyme.' The verse is imperfect, but an already reflective Brontë knew this, writing in the introduction: 'The following are attempts at rhyming of an inferior nature, it must be acknowledged, but they are nevertheless my best.' The Brontë Parsonage Museum partnered with a local publisher and asked the musician, author and poet Patti Smith to write the foreword. In it, she writes that Brontë's teenage writing transported her back to her own childhood, when imagination offered her an escape from reality. The poems show a cleareyed writer determined to wield invention 'as a benevolent weapon,' Smith writes. 'It is not simply a handful of juvenile verses,' she adds, 'but the manifestation of an ambitious dreamer.'
The Independent
22-04-2025
- General
- The Independent
Patti Smith: How a 200-year-old book by Charlotte Brontë instantly took me back to my childhood
She sits writing at the kitchen table as the surrounding countryside is assaulted with heavy wind and rain. Beyond her home, a bleak parsonage, is the overcrowded village of Haworth, close neighbor of the industrial sprawl of Keighley. The unsanitary village is a place of suffering and disease, where life expectancy is low and half the children die before the age of six. Yet on 26 October 1829, 13-year-old Charlotte Brontë wrote nothing of this. Nothing of the horrendous odors. Nothing of the empty cupboards, the endless chores. Nothing of the deaths of her elder sisters and mother. Nothing of the fear of losing her father who had agonized for months with a lung ailment. Instead, on tiny precious scraps of paper, she composed a contemplative hymn to beauty. Seeking to define it, despite cruel circumstance, she takes a mental stroll in a welcoming forest where the elements blossom in perfect harmony. Then as the revelation of nature's beauty dissipates, she resorts to the burgeoning terrain of her own imagination. Charlotte channels the reflections of one of her own characters, striding a Canadian forest. Through him she portrays with mysterious accuracy the majesty of the great trees that rise like the masts of tall ships. In late November she unpredictably re-imagines the time of Babel, expanding the Genesis tale. Wrestling with an unbridled passion for words she evokes the atmosphere and those doomed souls attempting to pierce the whereabouts of God with the construction of a forbidden tower. Her description, mixing the unexpected with the prosaic, suggests panels of the Babel tower painted by Bruegel. Suddenly she drops down to earth and offers a quiet lucid little piece, fourteen lines that she identifies as a sonnet. She heralds the magnificence of nature yet reminds us of the jewels of the seemingly commonplace. Lovely is the bright rainbow but lovelier still the swan's neck of snow. Simplicity so acutely articulated, it brought me to tears. I was privileged to personally view this tiny miracle, Charlotte's chapbook, on her birthday. Though written nearly 200 years ago, it has maintained the freshness of youth. It is not simply a handful of juvenile verses, but the manifestation of an ambitious dreamer. The sight of it spun me into the realm of my own childhood. Like Charlotte, I was the oldest and could often be found scribbling little stories to amuse my younger siblings. I could access that feeling, when solitude surges into a thousand visions, coupled with the unspoken desire to one day create books read by others. Though I had neither her vocabulary nor precocious literary skills, I recognized the energy, the concentration, the power of invention that a young writer wields as a benevolent weapon. The Brontë siblings created worlds filled with heroes and produced strange maps of new lands known only to them. Collectively and feverishly the four sat at the wooden kitchen table, constructing their own game of thrones. But in 1829, from October to December, Charlotte was compelled to create her solitary effort. Again, I picture her sitting, the parsonage bleak, the night ominous, warmed by her own creative impulse. In the last precious scraps, she returns to the rich tapestry of her boundless imagination. In the center of December, with frost obscuring the view, and the wild wind causing the heart to tremble she writes of dead winter mystically transformed. But Charlotte, as if rudely awakened from her own spell, produces her last words in Autumn Song, stunned by the reality of the harshness of decay, nature's waning day. How amazing the scope of the mind of this adolescent girl who would later pen the classic Jane Eyre and the masterpiece Villette at that same wood kitchen table. She possessed the rare ability to open herself to the darker elements and transform them. For through all loss and hardship, she forever harbored the secret knowledge of her own powers, that at thirteen she labored to nourish and express in the tiny Book of Ryhmes, Charlotte's young season. Today, almost two centuries after it was written by then 13-year-old Charlotte Brontë, A Book of Ryhmes will be published for the first time. The hardback anthology of ten poems has been carefully transcribed and is accompanied by a foreword by legendary singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author and photographer, Patti Smith. The original book is on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the new publication is available to buy from
