It was Branwell, however, who took a pride in systematizing their private world and maintaining a consistent political structure, features typical of paracosmic play. When Branwell exuberantly kills off important characters in his manuscripts, Charlotte comes to the rescue and, in effect, resurrects them for the next stories and when Branwell becomes bored with his inventions, such as the Glass Town magazine he edits, Charlotte takes over his initiative and keeps the publication going for several more years. Christine Alexander, a Brontë juvenilia historian the University of New South Wales, wrote 'Both Charlotte and Branwell ensured the consistency of their imaginary world. These writings impress by their virtuosity and scope, but are also repetitive when compared to Charlotte's contributions. Branwell's particular interest in these paracosms were their politics and wars, including the destructive rivalry between their heroes, Charlotte's Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Zamorna, and his Alexander Percy, Earl of Northangerland. From 1834, he both collaborated and competed with his sister Charlotte to describe another imaginary world, Angria. The plays evolved into an intricate saga based in West Africa about the fictitious Glass Town confederacy.

He took leadership role with Charlotte in a series of fantasy role-playing games which the siblings wrote and performed about the 'Young Men', characters based on a set of wooden soldiers. Įven as a young boy Brontë read extensively, and was especially fond of the ' Noctes Ambrosianae', literary dialogues published in Blackwood's Magazine.

Brontë's friends advised him to send his son to school but, remembering both the strength of will of his own youth and his mode of employing it, he believed that Branwell was better at home, and that he himself could teach him well, as he had told others before.' His two eldest sisters died just before his eighth birthday in 1825, and their loss affected him deeply. Elizabeth Gaskell, biographer of his sister, Charlotte Brontë, says of Branwell's schooling 'Mr.

While four of his five sisters were sent to Cowan Bridge boarding school, Branwell was educated at home by his father, who gave him a classical education. He was born in Thornton, near Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, and moved with his family to Haworth when his father was appointed to the perpetual curacy in 1821. 1830–31 īranwell Brontë was the fourth of six children and the only son of Patrick Brontë (1777–1861) and his wife, Maria Branwell Brontë (1783–1821). Map of the Glass Town Federation and surrounding lands in The History of the Young Men from their First Settlement to the Present Time by Branwell Brontë, c.

The Brontës by Juliet Barker