A book containing unpublished works by author Charlotte Brontë, and one of her mother's few possessions that managed to survive after losing her property in a shipwreck, has been returned to the family home in Haworth, east of Yorkshire.
Original owner of the book
The book was a copy of Robert Southey's copy, The Remains of Henry Kirke White, and originally was owned by Maria Brandwey, who in 1812 married the priest Patrick Brontë. Maria had made various annotations throughout the book and was among the belongings that were sent home to Cornwall when she decided to stay in Yorkshire after meeting and falling in love with her future husband, Patrick Brontë.
However, the ship where his belongings were found wrecked off the Devon coast and her belongings were lost, except for a few items including this book, which became a treasured inheritance for the Brontë family. Maria died in 1821, when her son was still very young. The book with the annotations was sold at auction in Haworth after Patrick Brontë's death in 1861 and has been lost for most of the last century in the United States to its location a year ago.
Location after loss
En 2015, the book was located by a private collector from California. The Brontë Society (in Spanish, The Brontë Society), whose headquarters are in the sisters' old house in Haworth, bought it for 170000 pounds after receiving funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. Heritage Memorial), the “V&A Purchase Grant Fund” and “Friends of the National Libraries”.
This book contains an inscription written in Latin by Patrick Brontë himself it says that it is ”the book of my dear wife and she was saved from the waves. So it will be preserved forever "
Family valuables
Over several years, some of the family members added their own annotations in the copy and some sketches as well as letters, one of them written by Arthur Bell Nicholls, Charlotte's husband, written shortly after his death in 1855. In this book was also found a poem and a piece of prose written by Charlotte Brontë herself, who wrote it on separate sheets of paper inserted inside the book.
This poem is believed to have been written by Charlotte when she was very young, but they comment that the prose in this short story is "very unusual", according to Rebecca Yorke of the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Expert feedback
Now that the sale has been made, the book has finally returned to Haworth where will eventually be shown to the public. Ann Dinsdale, the museum's collections director, commented as follows:
“Mrs. Brontë's book is one of the most significant elements of Brontë that has come to light in many years. It was clear that it was well used and that had great sentimental value for children, who lost their mother when they were very young "
Furthermore, the unpublished writings of Charlotte Brontë offer new opportunities for research, which is really exciting. This acquisition has been a wonderful addition to our Charlotte Brontë bicentennial celebrations. "
Juliet Barker, historian and author of "The Brontës" added the following:
The book is only a valuable acquisition due to its rare association with Mrs. Brontë prior to her marriage to Patrick, but its importance is greatly increased by the unpublished manuscripts that are listed in it. There could be no better place to keep it in the future than the Brontë Parsonage museum ”
The book is currently available for viewing as part of “Treasures Tours” organized by the museum and will go on display at the Brontë Parsonage museum in 2017.