Brontes by
Jane St. Clair

Update! Charlotte Bronte’s little book went home to Haworth — the charity running the Bronte homestead paid a cool $1.25 million to bring it back. How wonderful is that? For more information, go here.

The most interesting thing in this auction is a tiny book that Charlotte Bronte wrote when she was a little girl. It’s part of the wonderful Glass Town game the Bronte children played every day. Glasstown was every bit as complex as Game of Thrones. And, like kids today, the Bronte children were gaming addicts. They LIVED to play Glasstown.

These six brilliant children were growing up in a creepy stone mansion on the moors of England. The family did not own the Haworth House (sounds like Harry Potter, doesn’t it?) but lived there rent-free — a perk of their father’s job as local minister.

As you can see from the above picture, the Brontes’ house connected to a church. A gloomy graveyard loomed in front of these buildings. Behind them was a rocky wilderness known as the moors. Horrific storms would rise up on the moors, which always iced over in winter.

Rev. Bronte, an aloof intellectual, kept the door of his study locked all day. He was always doing something important such as writing religious books or studying great theologians.

For years the Bronte children’s mother was too sick to leave her room. When she finally died, Dad tried to remarry, or as he called it, “fulfill his domestic duty.” He proposed to ex-girlfriends, but none signed up to marry him. An old maid aunt moved in with the family to help. While she did her best, she was not good with children.

The Brontes were always broke. Since Rev. Bronte knew his children would have to make their own living some day, he sent the four older girls away to a school for the daughters of poor ministers. Charlotte later wrote about how horrible this place was in “Jane Eyre.” The oldest two Bronte girls got sick there and died, but Charlotte and Anne managed to recover.

The four remaining Bronte children grew up isolated in that creepy environment. Since Papa did not want them to mix with the children of their village, they were left on their own after their morning lessons.

One day their father came back from a business trip with a set of wooden soldiers. They became the basis of Glass Town.

The children gave each soldier a name and personality, and invented a kingdom of islands where their characters lived. For years they’d spend all day making up this elaborate game of strategy. Branwell, the only boy, adored battle plans and armies. He owned the Napoleon and Lord Wellington soldiers.

Charlotte became editor-in-chief of a tiny magazine, tiny enough for a wooden soldier to hold in his hands. She wrote her stories and editorials in such tiny handwriting that you need a magnifying glass. Branwell wrote for her magazine, but after a fight with his sister, he made up his own Glass Town newspaper named The Intelligencer.

As the years went by, the game grew more and more complex. Charlotte’s soldiers ruled the Island of Agria. Anne had Gondal, but there were other kingdoms as well. The Brontes wrote elaborate stories about their solders’ adventures, and allowed them to constantly morph into different personalities. The children became the Four Genii, or immortal geniuses, with super-powers over the mortal soldiers.

I can just picture these brilliant, amazing creative children in that awful parsonage. Since Dad was afraid of fire, he never put up curtains but kept buckets of water everywhere. That just added to the gloom. Although the children could run wild on the moors, but the moors were creepy too.

As adults, the Brontes tried to work as tutors and governesses. But, as Charlotte wrote, they hated how their snobby employers treated them as inferior servants. None of the families showed interest in their “excellence inside,” as Charlotte put it.

The brilliant Branwell did not last long as a tutor. He got fired after having an affair with the wife of the house, came back to Haworth and died a drunk.

Branwell, Emily, and Anne died within eight months of each other. All were only about 30 years old. Only Charlotte survived to marry, but she died at age 38 in childbirth.

Yet the amazing Brontes became among the greats of English literature. Their horrendous childhood was only part of their legacy.They also left us “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights.” But to me their legacy of Glasstown is just as beautiful as their novels.

For a really cool video about Haworth, go here