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Napoleon and the Spectre
Charlotte Brontë (21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was a British novelist, the eldest of the three famous Brontë sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. Charlotte Brontë, who used the pen name Currer Bell, is best known for Jane Eyre, one of the most famous of English novels. - Wikipedia
4 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 9, 2009
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About the author
Charlotte Brontë
2,160 books19k 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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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 12, 2019
Claro, en realidad es un relato demasiado corto que no permite opinar mucho sobre todo de la intención del escrito. No sé si esté incompleto, sin embargo, el estilo y la forma de contarlo está en un buen nivel como siempre en la autora.
Me ha sorprendido sí desde luego enterarme que Charlotte Bronte escribió algo referente a Napoleón y quisiera saber si sobre algo más francés, aunque en sus obras siempre hay alguna referencia en francés por su paso por Bruselas.
Ella nos cuenta de una pequeña aventura extraña de Napoleón y nos encontramos con personajes de su entorno como Pichegru y otras particularidades.
Me ha sorprendido sí desde luego enterarme que Charlotte Bronte escribió algo referente a Napoleón y quisiera saber si sobre algo más francés, aunque en sus obras siempre hay alguna referencia en francés por su paso por Bruselas.
Ella nos cuenta de una pequeña aventura extraña de Napoleón y nos encontramos con personajes de su entorno como Pichegru y otras particularidades.
January 24, 2021
Este relato es una crítica a Napoleón.
October 9, 2023
2.5. Interesting but confusing. Maybe it’s unfinished?
April 10, 2020
Charlotte Brontë is one of my favourite authors, and this little gem only solidified it!
September 18, 2024
"Rise, lifter of the Eagle Standard! Awake, swayer of the Lily Sceptre! Follow me, Napoleon, and thou shalt see more.”
This short story was taken from the manuscript of Charlotte Brontë's novella The Green Dwarf: a tale of the perfect tense. In the original context this tale is overheard being told by “a little dapper man” to a group of Frenchmen at an inn. This excerpt is found in the copy published by Hesperus Press, 2014, (Chapter 1 p. 17-20) This short story has appeared in Brontë’s juvenilia and in various short story anthologies. In the novella the story ends when the little man finishes his tale, Napoleon himself having entered the inn and hearing this tale arrests the little man for having recounted such a “scandalous anecdote”. The little man is then dragged off by gendarmes to the Bastille without further notices or compassion. (Chapter 1 p. 21)
December 12, 2025
Spotify audiobook
It was a relief that when I read the other reviews they too were confused. It made me feel better! Gripping tiny story (9 minutes long) that was 3 stars worth for sure, because it made me eagerly what was about to happen next. Also it made me ponder about my own previous, yet rare, sleep walkings and altered states of consciousnesses. I've also worked with people who have dementia and brain injuries, so this reminded me of how scary it can be for them being disoriented. Actually, let's made that 4 stars, this one really left me pondering!
It was a relief that when I read the other reviews they too were confused. It made me feel better! Gripping tiny story (9 minutes long) that was 3 stars worth for sure, because it made me eagerly what was about to happen next. Also it made me ponder about my own previous, yet rare, sleep walkings and altered states of consciousnesses. I've also worked with people who have dementia and brain injuries, so this reminded me of how scary it can be for them being disoriented. Actually, let's made that 4 stars, this one really left me pondering!
January 22, 2023
I read it twice and I am still a little uncertain about what this little adventure was about. The ghost appears and takes Napoleon on a sleep walking adventure to another room? While scaring him out of his wits? I must be missing something because the story doesn't totally add up for me
October 10, 2025
Audiobook
https://librivox.org/horror-story-col...
The story is an excerpt from The Green Dwarf. Napoleon has either a nightmare or a ghostly visitation and sleepwalks into Empress Josephine's room, which scares the bejeezus out of him.
https://librivox.org/horror-story-col...
The story is an excerpt from The Green Dwarf. Napoleon has either a nightmare or a ghostly visitation and sleepwalks into Empress Josephine's room, which scares the bejeezus out of him.
May 30, 2018
This book didn't really do it for me at all. I'm sure it was pretty insightful and/or hair-raising for its intended audience, but wasn't up to the Bronte mark for me.
September 20, 2020
This was actually both pretty spooky and funny, which is a hard balance to pull off. For a short story, it was really well done.
October 14, 2020
Basically a short fan fiction from Charlotte about Napoleon with a creepy twist of humor. Quite amusing, but totally dispensable.
September 17, 2021
The spectre is teaching Napoleon an important lesson in this story. Depicts French aristocratic and political circles at the turn of the 19th century.
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December 7, 2021Club Siniestras
Sesión # 35
https://www.facebook.com/events/97100...
Sesión # 35
https://www.facebook.com/events/97100...
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January 6, 2022Leído en el Club de Lectura Siniestras
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February 10, 2024
Too short to really give a review, seems unfinished.
December 15, 2023
com certeza não é um dos melhores da charlotte brontë, mas gostei de ser apresentada ao humor macabro dela
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews