Product Description

This is the only single-volume edition available of an unjustly neglected novella by the author of Jane Eyre. An ingenious and highly imaginative early novella, Charlotte Bronte's The Spell is a remarkable tale of love and jealousy, rivalry and thwarted ambition, and a testimony to Bronte's craft as a writer. When the infant Marquis of Almeida is pronounced dead, the kingdoms of Wellingtonsland and Angria are deprived of their heir. Anxious to secure the nations' future security, King Zamorna's advisers entreat him to name his successor - and when Zamorna himself succumbs to a mysterious and life-threatening sickness, the need becomes more crucial still. Yet Zamorna remains strangely unperturbed. Confusion turns to political intrigue as those closest to him wonder exactly what it is he knows, and who, precisely, are the mysterious characters that surround him. 'This book was ...never truly intended for 'Readers' per se. It was only ever meant for friends. And so you should find it as a friend and treat it just as indulgently and just as fondly.' - from the Foreword by Nicola Barker

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #265156 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From the Publisher
Only single-volume edition available, with a foreword by Nicola Barker.

From the Author
This is a flirtatious enterprise. This is Charlotte Bronte utterly without restraint. Her stays are loosed. She is kicking up her heels. Sometimes (and Mrs Gaskell would've rued the day) she even gnashes. This isn't the Charlotte Bronte of legend; the girl and then the woman who worked so hard and cared so deeply and sacrificed so much. This is not the strongly-disciplined, stooped-over Charlotte we've all grown up loving, with her care-worn dress and terrible eyesight. This is not the creature who 'always showed physical feebleness in everything,' who preferred to stand in the shade and eschewed the sun.

The Spell is the writer before the writing. This is The Artist before The Life began to impinge on her Art, before necessity tapped her, chipped her and nudged her into all kinds of improbable positions, before it taught her the lessons which we've all dutifully learned - from the great poise and wisdom of her pen - in her stead.

This book is more Theatre than Writing, more sadistic than loving, more cruel than gentle. And above all else, what it shows us (and it's an essential thing), is how alike those two astonishing sisters were, not how different; how Charlotte was Emily (pugnacious, roving, excessive, untamed) before the pressures of life shaped her into the Guard, the Protector, the Wife and the Mother.

From the Inside Flap
When the infant Marquis of Almeida is pronounced dead, the kingdoms of Wellingtonsland and Angria are deprived of their heir. Anxious to secure the nations’ future security, King Zamorna’s advisers entreat him to name his successor – and when Zamorna himself succumbs to a mysterious and life-threatening sickness, the need becomes more crucial still. Yet Zamorna remains strangely unperturbed and resigns himself to his fate. Confusion turns to political intrigue as those closest to him – and none more so than his devoted and grief-stricken Queen – wonder exactly what it is he knows, and who, precisely, are the mysterious characters who so strongly bear the King’s resemblance.

An ingenious and highly imaginative early novella, Charlotte Brontë’s The Spell is a remarkable tale of love and jealousy, brotherly rivalry and supernatural powers, and a testimony to Brontë’s developing craft as a writer.

Customer Reviews

A little glimpse into the development of a creative genius
As Nicola Barker writes in her introduction to this edition, this story is one that Bronte didn't intend to be read by anyone but her brothers and sisters. It forms part of a series of stories set in the imaginary worlds of Angria and Verdopolis that she and her siblings dreamt up in their adolescent years.
As such, the story is not accessible in the way that her novels are, and there really is the sense of having entered a closed world where the characters are familiar friends to a select few, not a wide audience. This can make reading a little difficult as you have to struggle to familiarise yourself with a character list and setting that have no prelude.
However, for those who are familiar with Bronte's work, this very early tale has many familiar resonances. The dual identity and problems of self-defintion that dog the main character, Zamorna, are clearly developed in the heroines of many of her novels, while the notion of a curse that controls characters' destinies drives the plots of both 'Jane Eyre' and 'Villette'. The rich imagination canvassed here reflects Bronte's precocious intellect and storytelling ability even at such an early age, and even though it lacks some polish in its execution, this little flight of fancy is charming in its insight and originality.

A little glimpse into the development of a creative genius
As Nicola Barker writes in her introduction to this edition, this story is one that Bronte didn't intend to be read by anyone but her brothers and sisters. It forms part of a series of stories set in the imaginary worlds of Angria and Verdopolis that she and her siblings dreamt up in their adolescent years.
As such, the story is not accessible in the way that her novels are, and there really is the sense of having entered a closed world where the characters are familiar friends to a select few, not a wide audience. This can make reading a little difficult as you have to struggle to familiarise yourself with a character list and setting that have no prelude.
However, for those who are familiar with Bronte's work, this very early tale has many familiar resonances. The dual identity and problems of self-defintion that dog the main character, Zamorna, are clearly developed in the heroines of many of her novels, while the notion of a curse that controls characters' destinies drives the plots of both 'Jane Eyre' and 'Villette'. The rich imagination canvassed here reflects Bronte's precocious intellect and storytelling ability even at such an early age, and even though it lacks some polish in its execution, this little flight of fancy is charming in its insight and originality.