Glass Town: Isabel Greenberg

Product Information

Following the siblings - with a focus on Charlotte - from childhood to adulthood, Greenberg perfectly depicts the impact what started as a childhood pastime has across their whole lives. As explained in the history, it even has a labyrinthine network of caves beneath, harbouring criminals and low life".

We have updated our Privacy Policy, effective June 29, 2020, to clarify how we collect and process your personal data. Sneaky is the ruler of Sneaky’s Land and the father of the Duke of Fidena, General Thornton, Princess Edith, and Princess Maria. This is barely a snapshot of an epic saga, but hopefully, it’s a good place to start for readers wanting to become more familiar with these worlds. The writings of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal are youthful experiments in imitation and parody, wild romance and realistic recording; they demonstrate the playful literary world that provided a 'myth kitty' for their early - and later - work. First of all, if you would like information to the background and stories which form the Brontë juvenilia canon then you can find many posts right here on Brontë Babe Blog covering these aspects.Sometimes they seem poised to burst forth from the page, defying physics in tribute to the seething spirits that gave us Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. In the Glass Town stories, she marries Edward Sydney, however, she later becomes Julia Thornton, wife of General Thornton. In the Glass Town texts he is King of Wellingtonsland and leader of the four Kings of the Glass Town Federation. Duke of Wellington – Based on the historical Duke of Wellington, he is Charlotte Brontë’s chief man in The Young Men’s Play. It was only during December 1827 that the world really took shape, when Charlotte suggested that everyone own and manage their own island, which they named after heroic leaders: Charlotte had Wellington, Branwell had Sneaky, Emily had Parry, and Anne had Ross.

Disowned by his father at birth due to his aversion to male children, he has a frosty relationship with his father and siblings, particularly William. Greenberg contrasts the tropical sky of Glass Town with the wind and rain of the moors, dim English interiors with pungent reds and yellows, picturing epic mountains and seas, lakes of ink and giant quills.The early writings of Glass Town (1829–34) adopted and reimagined historical and contemporary people, place names and events. I also loved how Greenberg captures the essence of the Brontës’ fantasy worlds, the madcap nature of it, the magic, and the obsession. She becomes increasingly attracted to Zamorna, her brother-in-law, legal guardian, and also her mother’s gaoler.

This is a deep question that this book addresses, but I will leave you to discover the answer for yourself. The earliest incarnation of the, by then, four Brontë siblings’ creative world was Glass Town, which later expanded into the world of Angria. Early characters were "literal transmogrifications of Wellington and Napoleon", however, the Brontës eventually "focused on developing two of their own characters [.

In texts such as High Life in Verdopolis (1834) it is hinted that her death was the result of a broken heart aged just seventeen due to her husband’s infidelities. Sadly most of Emily and Anne’s writings have been lost to time and what remains is difficult to piece together and make sense of. What is interesting are the parts of the Brontës’ lives that are included in the story, and those that are not. In “Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës,” Isabelle Greenburg explores the world of Glass Town through the eyes of Charlotte Brontë, following her life and its connection to the fantastic world she and her siblings created. Photograph: Courtesy of Isabel Greenberg / Jonathan Cape View image in fullscreen The Brontë ’s house at Haworth in Glass Town.