Manuscript By Teenage Charlotte Bronte To Be Sold

LONDON -- Sotheby's says an unpublished work by the teenage Charlotte Bronte could sell for 300,000 pounds ($482,000) at an auction next month

The auction house says "The Young Men's Magazine, Number 2" is dated August 1830, when the writer was 14.

The mini-magazine, measuring 1.4 inches by 2.4 inches (35mm by 61mm), contains a tale of murder and madness set in the imaginary world of Glass Town.

Sotheby's book specialist Gabriel Heaton said it "provides a rare and intimate insight into one of history's great literary minds."

He said it includes a foretaste of a famous scene in Bronte's "Jane Eyre" – "when Bertha, Mr. Rochester's insane wife, seeks revenge by setting fire to the bed curtains in her husband's chamber."

The manuscript will be sold Dec. 15 in London.

Comments

[Carla Rae H]

11:12 PM on 11/10/2011

Wow this is interesting. What a treasure.

[Colleen Boyle]

10:37 PM on 11/10/2011

How exciting! This better be published! I want to read it! For those of you that are Jane Eyre fans, you should check out (if you haven't already) Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

[sutt202]

01:33 PM on 11/10/2011

BORING, Just like Jane Eyre. BORING. Hundreds of pages of perfect English. Could have been done in a 5 page magazine short story. Maybe ten pages for Moby Dick.

[wllharrington]

01:09 PM on 11/10/2011

This is a great find but what good will it do to have it but not be able to read it because schools do not want to teach cursive anymore.

[jacmed]

10:08 AM on 11/10/2011

What a find! Actually, I think it belongs in the Bronte Museum but I do hope that it's also published. "Jane Eyre" is a classic, written when Charlotte Bronte was 31 years old. It's marvelous to be able to get some idea of what she felt and thought at age 14.

[ESerafina42]

09:20 PM on 11/09/2011

Well, thanks for the spoiler, for those who haven't read Jane Eyre. (I have, but I found out what happened in the course of reading the book, which is the best way.)

[Nicole Key]

05:58 PM on 11/09/2011

Aaak! This is the best news I've heard all day!

[susou]

06:05 PM on 11/09/2011

HAHA!!! ME TOO!!

[icyrebel]

02:58 PM on 11/09/2011

it seems all a woman has to do is write a tale of killing her husband for her to be considerd a great author..

[icyrebel]

02:59 PM on 11/09/2011

i was joking people, calm down now..

[Colleen Boyle]

10:36 PM on 11/10/2011

the character in Jane Eyre only TRIED to kill her husband, haha

[speedydan79]

02:18 PM on 11/09/2011

A rare literary treasure. The character of Jane Eyre is one of the first literary portraits of an independent, strong minded woman.

[jhnatsgc]

02:12 PM on 11/09/2011

I have a story I wrote when in the 5th grade. I will start the bidding at $100.
Don't laugh, you could be the proud owner of a short story written by me over 47 years ago. I promise, there are no other manuscipts written by me. It's a once in a lifetime offer.

[jonathanfar]

01:20 PM on 11/09/2011

I am a fan of the Bronte sisters. It is really fortunate that the original manuscript was found. Cheers to good literature!

[hman570]

12:40 PM on 11/09/2011

If there is a Society to buy the manuscripts that would be great rather then have a person buying it and you will not be able to view it. A teen writer back then was unheard of.

[ESerafina42]

09:24 PM on 11/09/2011

Not really. Quite a few authors (Jane Austen among them) wrote juvenilia, though I don't know of any cases where it was published. The Brontës' writings weren't, either. They made up their own "magazines."

[helenwiells]

11:59 AM on 11/09/2011

I have read "The Brontes: A Life in Letters" three times (so far) and love Charlotte, her sisters and her brother. If I ever feel MY life is difficult, I think of them...today's life is pure Paradise compared to those days for the Bronte family.

[patrickbgawne]

04:46 PM on 11/09/2011

So true. Growing up in a cemetery. Yikes.

[tkizzycat]

11:30 AM on 11/09/2011

cool stuff

[fpwillson]

11:00 AM on 11/09/2011

Perhaps the biggest news of the day?