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Tales of the Islanders
When Charlotte’s brother Branwell was given a set of 12 toy soldiers, an entire new imaginary world opened before them. The Twelves, or Young Men, became a constant source of inspiration for the Brontë children, spawning tales of swashbuckling adventure, darkest intrigue, doomed romance, and malevolent spirits. The four volumes of tales collected here make delightful reading, while offering a unique insight into Brontë family life and Charlotte’s development as a writer.
92 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1830
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About the author
Charlotte Brontë
2,136 books18.9k followersCharlotte Brontë was an English novelist, the eldest out of the three famous Brontë sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. See also Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë.
Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly "Patrick Brunty"), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria Branwell. In April 1820 the family moved a few miles to Haworth, a remote town on the Yorkshire moors, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate. This is where the Brontë children would spend most of their lives. Maria Branwell Brontë died from what was thought to be cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to the care of her spinster sister Elizabeth Branwell, who moved to Yorkshire to help the family.
In August 1824 Charlotte, along with her sisters Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, a new school for the daughters of poor clergyman (which she would describe as Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school was a horrific experience for the girls and conditions were appalling. They were regularly deprived of food, beaten by teachers and humiliated for the slightest error. The school was unheated and the pupils slept two to a bed for warmth. Seven pupils died in a typhus epidemic that swept the school and all four of the Brontë girls became very ill - Maria and Elizabeth dying of tuberculosis in 1825. Her experiences at the school deeply affected Brontë - her health never recovered and she immortalised the cruel and brutal treatment in her novel, Jane Eyre. Following the tragedy, their father withdrew his daughters from the school.
At home in Haworth Parsonage, Charlotte and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily, and Anne — continued their ad-hoc education. In 1826 her father returned home with a box of toy soldiers for Branwell. They would prove the catalyst for the sisters' extraordinary creative development as they immediately set to creating lives and characters for the soldiers, inventing a world for them which the siblings called 'Angria'. The siblings became addicted to writing, creating stories, poetry and plays. Brontë later said that the reason for this burst of creativity was that:
'We were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition.'
After her father began to suffer from a lung disorder, Charlotte was again sent to school to complete her education at Roe Head school in Mirfield from 1831 to 1832, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period (1833), she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf under the name of Wellesley. The school was extremely small with only ten pupils meaning the top floor was completely unused and believed to be supposedly haunted by the ghost of a young lady dressed in silk. This story fascinated Brontë and inspired the figure of Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre.
Brontë left the school after a few years, however she swiftly returned in 1835 to take up a position as a teacher, and used her wages to pay for Emily and Anne to be taught at the school. Teaching did not appeal to Brontë and in 1838 she left Roe Head to become a governess to the Sidgewick family -- partly from a sense of adventure and a desire to see the world, and partly from financial necessity.
Charlotte became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to biographer Elizabeth Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness." She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855.
Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly "Patrick Brunty"), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria Branwell. In April 1820 the family moved a few miles to Haworth, a remote town on the Yorkshire moors, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate. This is where the Brontë children would spend most of their lives. Maria Branwell Brontë died from what was thought to be cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to the care of her spinster sister Elizabeth Branwell, who moved to Yorkshire to help the family.
In August 1824 Charlotte, along with her sisters Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, a new school for the daughters of poor clergyman (which she would describe as Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school was a horrific experience for the girls and conditions were appalling. They were regularly deprived of food, beaten by teachers and humiliated for the slightest error. The school was unheated and the pupils slept two to a bed for warmth. Seven pupils died in a typhus epidemic that swept the school and all four of the Brontë girls became very ill - Maria and Elizabeth dying of tuberculosis in 1825. Her experiences at the school deeply affected Brontë - her health never recovered and she immortalised the cruel and brutal treatment in her novel, Jane Eyre. Following the tragedy, their father withdrew his daughters from the school.
At home in Haworth Parsonage, Charlotte and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily, and Anne — continued their ad-hoc education. In 1826 her father returned home with a box of toy soldiers for Branwell. They would prove the catalyst for the sisters' extraordinary creative development as they immediately set to creating lives and characters for the soldiers, inventing a world for them which the siblings called 'Angria'. The siblings became addicted to writing, creating stories, poetry and plays. Brontë later said that the reason for this burst of creativity was that:
'We were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition.'
After her father began to suffer from a lung disorder, Charlotte was again sent to school to complete her education at Roe Head school in Mirfield from 1831 to 1832, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period (1833), she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf under the name of Wellesley. The school was extremely small with only ten pupils meaning the top floor was completely unused and believed to be supposedly haunted by the ghost of a young lady dressed in silk. This story fascinated Brontë and inspired the figure of Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre.
Brontë left the school after a few years, however she swiftly returned in 1835 to take up a position as a teacher, and used her wages to pay for Emily and Anne to be taught at the school. Teaching did not appeal to Brontë and in 1838 she left Roe Head to become a governess to the Sidgewick family -- partly from a sense of adventure and a desire to see the world, and partly from financial necessity.
Charlotte became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to biographer Elizabeth Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness." She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855.
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October 12, 2019Earlier this year I read Stancliffe's Hotel and so spotting another slim volume of Bronte juvenilia I grabbed thinking it would be fun, and indeed it is. It is an even more juvenile work than the tales of Angria, the tales of the Islanders was written when Charlotte was thirteen - this young people is why we say phones are bad, because in the olden days young people wrote mini books rather than playing on their phones creating political collages like Cold war Steve .
I feel there that one can see here the writer than she would come to be in Villette and Jane Eyre - at least in terms of the some of the themes, equally there are strong similarities with the later Stancliffe's Hotel, so I am get a sense of where she started from, her direction of travel the turn in to a cul de sac that she took with Angria, and her change of direction into realism with a Gothic subconscious as opposed to the childhood Gothic with Romantic landscapes.
Equally you see here plainly the prejudices that she would cherish throughout her life - anti-Catholicism, violent fantasies , Toryism, hero worship - I am wondering if Mr Rochester and Paul Emanuel are merely substitutes for her one true love - the duke of Wellington, victor over Tipu Sultan and Napoleon, and Prime Minister. For do they not share his commanding authority, aloof nature, and tendency to hang people for looting ?
Anyway I have rambled on far too long, for a thirteen year old the work is strikingly sustained, it is also a curious mixture - some Arabian Nights, fairy stories, young man escaping the clutches of Catholicism and converting his family to the TRUE FAITH of the Church of England (pp 34-6) - purely on the basis of reading the Bible - a narrative that I can't help but suspect owes something to her County Down born father (pp 32-33). At moments Charlotte writes directly to her readers - telling us about the newspaper arriving - her father ripping the cover off and the family anxious to learn about the fate of the Catholic Emancipation Act (pp 21-22) - I am curious given the general anti-Catholicism why they were supporters of this, equally I am curious about the violent fantasies that she is given too (is this rage following on from the death of her elder sisters at school?), but curiosity leads only to further reading .
So I have reached the end of the review and written virtually nothing about the book on account of digressing from my digressions, any road as I was saying back in the olden days young people didn't have any mobile phones so the Brontë children were at a loose end before bedtime (seven PM), rather than wait for Instagram to be invented they each choose an island and a leading man to govern it. This Charlotte fleshes out in this little book, her island will be governed by the Duke of Wellington (as a side job from being Prime Minster), the island has a school hold 1,000 pupils designed in the Arabian nights style, complete with prison facility for Cockney children . There are various 'adventures', sometimes fairies visit and tell stories as nested narratives or the Brontës visit , all the children escape the school, divide into four groups each armed with two cannon - a rebellion requiring the personal intervention of the Iron Duke and blood hounds, there are several incidents involving the Duke's two sons which require displays of manly emotion and devotion. I can't say it is a strange mix, as it is a perfectly normal mix of childhood materials (fairy tales, the Arabian Nights) and more adult reading (newspapers) for a creative teenager.
It is much less fun than the extravagant and camp Tales of Angria, but I feel oddly lucky to see Charlotte's creativity at such an early age and some of the preoccupations that she will rework in her adult novels - I have the supernatural in mind particularly, she is already very interested in landscape and descriptions of landscape such as:"The Sun had just set, the snails were crawling forth from the hedge-side to enjoy that refreshing dampness which immediately precedes dusk..." (p.61)
I feel there that one can see here the writer than she would come to be in Villette and Jane Eyre - at least in terms of the some of the themes, equally there are strong similarities with the later Stancliffe's Hotel, so I am get a sense of where she started from, her direction of travel the turn in to a cul de sac that she took with Angria, and her change of direction into realism with a Gothic subconscious as opposed to the childhood Gothic with Romantic landscapes.
Equally you see here plainly the prejudices that she would cherish throughout her life - anti-Catholicism, violent fantasies , Toryism, hero worship - I am wondering if Mr Rochester and Paul Emanuel are merely substitutes for her one true love - the duke of Wellington, victor over Tipu Sultan and Napoleon, and Prime Minister. For do they not share his commanding authority, aloof nature, and tendency to hang people for looting ?
Anyway I have rambled on far too long, for a thirteen year old the work is strikingly sustained, it is also a curious mixture - some Arabian Nights, fairy stories, young man escaping the clutches of Catholicism and converting his family to the TRUE FAITH of the Church of England (pp 34-6) - purely on the basis of reading the Bible - a narrative that I can't help but suspect owes something to her County Down born father (pp 32-33). At moments Charlotte writes directly to her readers - telling us about the newspaper arriving - her father ripping the cover off and the family anxious to learn about the fate of the Catholic Emancipation Act (pp 21-22) - I am curious given the general anti-Catholicism why they were supporters of this, equally I am curious about the violent fantasies that she is given too (is this rage following on from the death of her elder sisters at school?), but curiosity leads only to further reading .
So I have reached the end of the review and written virtually nothing about the book on account of digressing from my digressions, any road as I was saying back in the olden days young people didn't have any mobile phones so the Brontë children were at a loose end before bedtime (seven PM), rather than wait for Instagram to be invented they each choose an island and a leading man to govern it. This Charlotte fleshes out in this little book, her island will be governed by the Duke of Wellington (as a side job from being Prime Minster), the island has a school hold 1,000 pupils designed in the Arabian nights style, complete with prison facility for Cockney children . There are various 'adventures', sometimes fairies visit and tell stories as nested narratives or the Brontës visit , all the children escape the school, divide into four groups each armed with two cannon - a rebellion requiring the personal intervention of the Iron Duke and blood hounds, there are several incidents involving the Duke's two sons which require displays of manly emotion and devotion. I can't say it is a strange mix, as it is a perfectly normal mix of childhood materials (fairy tales, the Arabian Nights) and more adult reading (newspapers) for a creative teenager.
It is much less fun than the extravagant and camp Tales of Angria, but I feel oddly lucky to see Charlotte's creativity at such an early age and some of the preoccupations that she will rework in her adult novels - I have the supernatural in mind particularly, she is already very interested in landscape and descriptions of landscape such as:"The Sun had just set, the snails were crawling forth from the hedge-side to enjoy that refreshing dampness which immediately precedes dusk..." (p.61)
July 20, 2012
"That is Emily's, Branwell's, Anne's and my land
And now I bid a kind and glad goodbye
To those who o'er my book cast an indulgent eye."
So ends Tales of the islanders - several small books (now gathered into one collection) that were written by Charlotte Brontë as a teenager. These are the stories she and her siblings imagined for their magic island kingdom. The stories are charmingly written in a very fairytale-esque style. They are written by a child and therefore are sometimes hard to follow when the stories make big turns, which force the reader to read them slowly and devour each sentence. But in the end that was one of the things that I loved about these little quirky stories.
And now I bid a kind and glad goodbye
To those who o'er my book cast an indulgent eye."
So ends Tales of the islanders - several small books (now gathered into one collection) that were written by Charlotte Brontë as a teenager. These are the stories she and her siblings imagined for their magic island kingdom. The stories are charmingly written in a very fairytale-esque style. They are written by a child and therefore are sometimes hard to follow when the stories make big turns, which force the reader to read them slowly and devour each sentence. But in the end that was one of the things that I loved about these little quirky stories.
October 6, 2020
This juvenilia work from Charlotte Bronte was weird and mostly meh—lots of gore and magic deus ex machina with the Duke of Wellington playing the part of Superman...had a very #fanfiction feel.
...but it works for #victober and #octreadsbingo so I‘m not complaining!
...but it works for #victober and #octreadsbingo so I‘m not complaining!
October 23, 2017
Unexpectedly well written and entertaining (mind you, Charlotte was about 13 when she wrote it). It is clearly the hand of a child, but Charlotte’s imagination and gothic descriptions are vivid and remarkable, and her knowledge of history and political figures back then is surprising.
“The glorious sun was rising in the east and making the rain which had fallen the preceding night, and which still remained on the balmy heath, sparkle like fine diamonds.”
“Huge massive pillars rose to the vaulted roof: their capitals were ornamented with human skulls and crossbones, their shafts were in the form of grisly skeletons and their bases were shaped like tombstones.”
“With these words Mirza was committed to the flames and the tortures he endured were hard and indescribable, for, as the fire seized his feet and legs, he felt all the sinews crack the calcined bones started through his blackened cindery flesh; by degrees his extremities crumbled to ashes and he felt prostrate amid their ruins. A short time now sufficied to extinguish his insupportable agony. The rising smoke presently suffocated him and he died amid shouts and cries of gladness from his sacrifiers.”
Damn.
“The glorious sun was rising in the east and making the rain which had fallen the preceding night, and which still remained on the balmy heath, sparkle like fine diamonds.”
“Huge massive pillars rose to the vaulted roof: their capitals were ornamented with human skulls and crossbones, their shafts were in the form of grisly skeletons and their bases were shaped like tombstones.”
“With these words Mirza was committed to the flames and the tortures he endured were hard and indescribable, for, as the fire seized his feet and legs, he felt all the sinews crack the calcined bones started through his blackened cindery flesh; by degrees his extremities crumbled to ashes and he felt prostrate amid their ruins. A short time now sufficied to extinguish his insupportable agony. The rising smoke presently suffocated him and he died amid shouts and cries of gladness from his sacrifiers.”
Damn.
July 25, 2017
This was a fun little read!
October 7, 2023
Charlotte Bronte's "Tales of the Islanders" is many disjointed short stories concerning Marquis of Douro & Lord Wellesly, the Lord of Wellington. A lot of missing stories but what stories there are different than later Angria stories that I enjoyed because they were not mythical and fantasy, they were more adult oriented, war and society. Arthur and Charles are brothers here but not in these stories, interesting to read.
From Delphi of Bronte works -
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 37838
When Charlotte’s brother Branwell was given a set of twelve toy soldiers, an entire new imaginary world opened before them. The Twelves, or Young Men, became a constant source of inspiration for the Brontë children, spawning tales of swashbuckling adventures, darkest intrigue, doomed romance and spiteful spirits. The tales collected here make delightful reading, offering a unique insight into Brontë
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 37840
family life and Charlotte’s development as a writer. This collection is exceptional in that it is the only surviving example of a complete set of stories written by one of the Brontë children. The four volumes of Tales of the Islanders, written in tiny hand-made books by Charlotte over a period of a year, comprise the entire output. They are therefore of particular interest as they form an entity. The four volumes reveal the significant development in Charlotte’s storytelling powers. The first volume is
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 37864
JUNE 31 1829
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
*** Duke of Wellington came to the Island when Arthur was ill at school on the island ad stopped the revolt by the threat of blood hounds.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 38171
which shone in the glowing light like fine opals set in gold. we had been here for a short time when the sky blackned the winds rose the waves of the ocean began to roar all beautiful things vanished & were suceeded by tall dark cypress & fir trees which swayed to & fro in the wind with a mournful sound like the moans of dying mortals a huge black rock appeared before us
*** Arthur and Charles had gone hunting but a vision of harm had the Brontes looking for them... finding a Giant with them, and taking all and flying them home.
*** Charles and Arthur want to her their father's stories which he told of two islands that was destroyed by bigotry of Roman religion and a warrior returned the island to normal with a spear with justice.
*** Several fairies long to go to the valley disguised as humans. A genleman's struggles with his faith.
*** The Duke of Wellington receives a message from a fairy which has him rushing to where his sons are staying. He finds Charles who is upset to hear his brother Arthur in danger. He goes with his father to help save Arthur's life.
Marquis of Douro & Lord Wellesly the
*** It is strange that intese earlier stories the Duke of Wellington's sons Arthur and Charles are brothers but in later works they are brother in-laws.
From Delphi of Bronte works -
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 37838
When Charlotte’s brother Branwell was given a set of twelve toy soldiers, an entire new imaginary world opened before them. The Twelves, or Young Men, became a constant source of inspiration for the Brontë children, spawning tales of swashbuckling adventures, darkest intrigue, doomed romance and spiteful spirits. The tales collected here make delightful reading, offering a unique insight into Brontë
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 37840
family life and Charlotte’s development as a writer. This collection is exceptional in that it is the only surviving example of a complete set of stories written by one of the Brontë children. The four volumes of Tales of the Islanders, written in tiny hand-made books by Charlotte over a period of a year, comprise the entire output. They are therefore of particular interest as they form an entity. The four volumes reveal the significant development in Charlotte’s storytelling powers. The first volume is
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 37864
JUNE 31 1829
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
*** Duke of Wellington came to the Island when Arthur was ill at school on the island ad stopped the revolt by the threat of blood hounds.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 38171
which shone in the glowing light like fine opals set in gold. we had been here for a short time when the sky blackned the winds rose the waves of the ocean began to roar all beautiful things vanished & were suceeded by tall dark cypress & fir trees which swayed to & fro in the wind with a mournful sound like the moans of dying mortals a huge black rock appeared before us
*** Arthur and Charles had gone hunting but a vision of harm had the Brontes looking for them... finding a Giant with them, and taking all and flying them home.
*** Charles and Arthur want to her their father's stories which he told of two islands that was destroyed by bigotry of Roman religion and a warrior returned the island to normal with a spear with justice.
*** Several fairies long to go to the valley disguised as humans. A genleman's struggles with his faith.
*** The Duke of Wellington receives a message from a fairy which has him rushing to where his sons are staying. He finds Charles who is upset to hear his brother Arthur in danger. He goes with his father to help save Arthur's life.
Marquis of Douro & Lord Wellesly the
*** It is strange that intese earlier stories the Duke of Wellington's sons Arthur and Charles are brothers but in later works they are brother in-laws.
April 5, 2016
It's hardly fair to criticize a work of this nature, considering the author was not writing for the public, plus these loosely-connected tales were written when Charlotte Brontë was thirteen and fourteen.
None of this is to my taste but I still found it interesting to see how this future genius began her road to success. She certainly had imagination, which is a vital ingredient for fiction writers.
If you're a Brontë fan wanting to read everything the famous sisters ever wrote, check this
out with no high expectations.
None of this is to my taste but I still found it interesting to see how this future genius began her road to success. She certainly had imagination, which is a vital ingredient for fiction writers.
If you're a Brontë fan wanting to read everything the famous sisters ever wrote, check this
out with no high expectations.
May 21, 2016
While interesting as a historical artifact, Charlotte Brontë's Tales of the Islanders is just not my cup of tea. She was 13 years old when she wrote it, and it is remarkably well composed for that age, but it is still full of characters who appear and vanish without explanation, plot twists that make no sense, and MANY instances of awkward wording. The subject matter just did not command any of my attention; I fell asleep several times while reading these island tales.
November 29, 2015
There is beautiful imagery at times, but the episodic nature of the stories makes it hard to follow the characters and what was happening.
August 28, 2016
For Brontë fanatics only. I mean, of course I love the fact that the Brontë sibs were writing Mary Sue fan fiction about the Duke of Wellington at age 13, but that doesn't mean one has to read it.
January 16, 2012
Kids then were better at stuff than kids now.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews