Read on
The Young Men's Magazine manuscript is certainly
the big star in the upcoming Sotheby's auction (December 15th)
But it is not the only item to be auctioned.
In this series of posts Bronte Blog
tries to give details of all the Brontë lots.
Charlotte's first burst of creativity, of which the magazine is a representative example, came in early adolescence. Its wellspring was the intense community she formed with her three siblings. Brontë juvenilia is of unusual importance as their childhood empires of the imagination loom so large in our understanding and appreciation of their mature works: generations of readers have been moved by the thought of these four extraordinarily gifted children conjuring up wonderful worlds together in their lonely Yorkshire parsonage. In their father's words: "As they had few opportunities of being in learned and polished society, in their retired country situation, they formed a little society amongst themselves – with which they seem'd content and happy." (Rev. Patrick Bronte to Mrs Gaskell, 20 June 1855).
"[A]n immense amount of manuscript, in an inconceivably small space" was Mrs Gaskell's comment when she saw Charlotte's juvenilia. Its minute size is the most extraordinary physical feature of this manuscript, as it is of the other early works by Charlotte and her siblings. The manuscript offered here contains more than 4000 words crammed on to 19 pages (including the title page and half title) each of which is no more than 35 x 61mm. It must have been extraordinarily laborious work, especially as Charlotte's desire to replicate a printed magazine went so far as carefully printing out each individual letter. The tiny scale of the manuscript reflects the miniature nature of its subject, since Glass Town was originally populated by characters based on Branwell's toy soldiers, as well as its intimate nature – it was produced to be shared only among the four Brontë children. This imaginary world was intensely private and the miniature scale of these works ensured that they were easily hidden and indeed could only be read without a magnifying glass by the sharp eyes of a child.
Read more on bronteblog/sothebys-auction
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