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A Book of Ryhmes was produced by Charlotte when she was just 13 years old.
The original, handwritten work is smaller than a playing card, with a brown paper cover, and is dated December, 1829.
It was the last Charlotte Brontë miniature manuscript book known to be in private hands before it was bought by the Friends of the National Libraries in 2022, at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.
The book was then donated to the Brontë Society’s parsonage museum at Haworth, where it was originally written when the building was the family home of the literary siblings.
Now the work has been carefully transcribed and published as a hardback anthology of 10 poems, including The Beauty of Nature and On Seeing the Ruins of the Tower of Babel.
It also features images of Charlotte’s original manuscript and essays by Barbara Heritage – associate director of the Rare Book School – and bookseller Henry Wessells, who worked on the acquisition in 2022.
A foreword has been written by Patti Smith – a singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author and photographer.
She says: "Though written nearly 200 years ago, the book has maintained the freshness of youth. It is not simply a handful of juvenile verses, but the manifestation of an ambitious dreamer."
The Brontë Society partnered with independent Yorkshire publisher Tartarus Press on the project.
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, says: "When Charlotte created the original collection of these poems, she inscribed it as being ‘Sold by Nobody, and Printed by Herself’. How thrilled she would be – as we are – that so many years later, it has been published and is now available so anyone can have their own copy; it has been a very special way for us to mark the 209th anniversary of Charlotte’s birth." [...]
The original A Book of Ryhmes is on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. (Alistair Shand)
She sits writing at the kitchen table as the surrounding countryside is assaulted with heavy wind and rain. Beyond her home, a bleak parsonage is the overcrowded village of Haworth, close neighbour of the industrial sprawl of Keighley. The unsanitary village is a place of suffering and disease, where life expectancy is low, and half the children die before the age of six.
Yet on 26 October 1829, 13-year-old Charlotte Brontë wrote nothing of this. Nothing of the horrendous odours. Nothing of the empty cupboards, the endless chores. Nothing of the deaths of her elder sisters and mother. Nothing of the fear of losing her father, who had agonised for months with a lung ailment. Instead, on tiny, precious scraps of paper, she composed a contemplative hymn to beauty. Seeking to define it, despite cruel circumstances, she takes a mental stroll in a welcoming forest where the elements blossom in perfect harmony. Then as the revelation of nature’s beauty dissipates, she resorts to the burgeoning terrain of her own imagination.
Charlotte channels the reflections of one of her own characters, striding through a Canadian forest. Through him, she portrays with mysterious accuracy, the majesty of the great trees that rise like the masts of tall ships. In late November she unpredictably re-imagines the time of Babel, expanding the Genesis tale. Wrestling with an unbridled passion for words she evokes the atmosphere and those doomed souls attempting to pierce the whereabouts of God with the construction of a forbidden tower.
Her description, mixing the unexpected with the prosaic, suggests panels of the Babel tower painted by Bruegel. Suddenly she drops down to Earth and offers a quiet, lucid little piece, 14 lines that she identifies as a sonnet. She heralds the magnificence of nature yet reminds us of the jewels of the seemingly commonplace. “Lovely is the bright rainbow but lovelier still the swan’s neck of snow.” Simplicity so acutely articulated, it brought me to tears.
I was privileged to personally view this tiny miracle, Charlotte’s chapbook, on her birthday. Though written nearly 200 years ago, it has maintained the freshness of youth. It is not simply a handful of juvenile verses, but the manifestation of an ambitious dreamer. The sight of it spun me into the realm of my own childhood.
Like Charlotte, I was the oldest and could often be found scribbling little stories to amuse my younger siblings. I could access that feeling, when solitude surges into a thousand visions, coupled with the unspoken desire to one day create books read by others. Though I had neither her vocabulary nor precocious literary skills, I recognised the energy, the concentration, the power of invention that a young writer wields as a benevolent weapon.
The Brontë siblings created worlds filled with heroes and produced strange maps of new lands known only to them. Collectively and feverishly the four sat at the wooden kitchen table, constructing their own Game of Thrones. But in 1829, from October to December, Charlotte was compelled to create her solitary effort.
Again, I picture her sitting, the parsonage bleak, the night ominous, warmed by her own creative impulse. In the last precious scraps, she returns to the rich tapestry of her boundless imagination. In the centre of December, with frost obscuring the view, and the wild wind causing the heart to tremble she writes of dead winter mystically transformed. But Charlotte, as if rudely awakened from her own spell, produces her last words in “Autumn Song”, stunned by the reality of the harshness of decay, nature’s waning day.
How amazing the scope of the mind of this adolescent girl who would later pen the classic Jane Eyre and the masterpiece Villette at that same wood kitchen table. She possessed the rare ability to open herself to the darker elements and transform them. For through all loss and hardship, she forever harboured the secret knowledge of her own powers, that at 13 she laboured to nourish and express in the tiny Book of Ryhmes, Charlotte’s young season.
Today, almost two centuries after it was written by then 13-year-old Charlotte Brontë, ‘A
Book of Ryhmes’ will be published for the first time. The hardback anthology of 10 poems has been carefully transcribed and is accompanied by a foreword by legendary singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author and photographer, Patti Smith. The original book is on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the new publication is available to buy from
www.bronteshop.org.uk
The Brontës by Anita Rani: Sisters of Disruption will look at the influence of Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë on readers over the years - including Anita Rani herself.
The programme is partly autobiographical, tracing Rani's relationship with the Brontës as she returns to her hometown of Bradford.
She recalls her first encounter with the sisters at school and her experience of growing up with the landscape of Haworth and the moors on her doorstep.
Rani also meets fellow Brontë fans and literary experts to discuss how and why these sisters became ground-breaking 'literary disruptors' (in the words of a spokesperson), whose work still feels relevant and influential today.
Executive producer Mark Robinson said: "The legacy of the astounding work of Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë continues to reverberate around the world - they were challenging the patriarchy two hundred years ago.
"The worlds the sisters created have influenced culture across the centuries - from Kate Bush to Taylor Swift, Game of Thrones to Saltburn.
"As well as looking at how they inspired her, Anita will also discover just what made them so subversive – and very different to the timid image so frequently associated with them."
Rani said: "These strong, unearthly sisters fed into my psyche and made me think anything was possible.
"I related to the darkness and tragedy in the Brontës’ lives...they had as much impact on me as Neneh Cherry, The Smiths, and Goldie.
"In this film I’m going to explore how these women - so full of rage - changed my life, and the world.
"Growing up, romance wasn’t on the cards.
"Bollywood felt distant.
"But Heathcliff...well, he could have been Indian - dark hair, dark features...why would he not be?"
Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and Sky Arts have announced a free screening of the programme on May 7 as part of the Creative Cities Convention.
This will be followed by a panel discussion with Rani and Shanaz Gulzar, creative director of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.
The programme will then be available to watch on Sky Arts, Freeview, and streaming platform NOW from May 20.
The free screening event begins at 7pm, with a 6.30pm arrival time. (Will Abbott)
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