Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

a long retrospective narrative of the early events of Northangerland’s life, written by Branwell in 1834–5, and incomplete. Born to a father as brutal and untrustworthy as himself, Percy’s early promise and talents (including transcendent genius as a pianist) are soon corrupted. When he marries Augusta di Segovia against his father’s wishes he is kidnapped away on his orders to the Philosopher’s Island, where he founds an atheistical society and through intensive study becomes Senior Wrangler. Back in Wellington’s Town he resumes his marriage and his war with his father, and conspires with his wife (in terms reminiscent of Macbeth ) to kill his father. When not only his father but also his wife are murdered by his creditors, using the malevolent hit-man Robert Sdeath, he is desolate for a time, but is briefly rescued by a marriage to the saintly Mary Henrietta Wharton. Here the manuscript becomes fragmentary. The chronicle seems an attempt to rid Glasstown of the fanciful and supernatural elements which it had had in its early years. Percy’s history becomes a political and social exemplum which, in spite of longueurs, is lively, entertaining, and a considerable achievement for an 18-year-old. It is one of the rare longer manuscripts of the juvenilia to concentrate on one figure and his history. Victor Neufeldt’s edition of this and the rest of Branwell’s literary production is ... log in or subscribe to read full text