The Juvenilia of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte (Penguin Classics)

By Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë

Book Overview

Their most striking similarity was that both produced a considerable body of juvenilia. For both authors this was a period in which to experiment and to develop character and style. Their work moved... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140432671
• ISBN13: 9780140432671
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Penguin Group USA
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.8" x 4.5"

Customer Reviews

Bad news for Jane Austen fans

Jane Austen is pretty surely damaged by this comparison : much as English novels are by comparison with French. It would appear that Charlotte Brontë exceeds Jane Austen both in ability and sensibilities even from an early age. The comparison of style in not in Austen's favor.Charlotte's poetry is as superior as her imagination and characterizations. She makes Austen's results appear more comical than realistic: cut out characterizations. The emotional and lyrical expression of Brontë themes show a great depth of feeling and understanding of human nature lacking in Austen.

Six of wonderful, half a dozen of dull

The two parts of this book differ greatly in reader appeal. While packaging the juvenilia of two loved women authors together seems like a good idea, I think the actual works are not particularly compatible. Jane Austen fans will love the sprightly, unrestrained wit of her juvenilia; 'Love and Freindship' in particular is a delightful romp, wickedly satirising the 'novels of sensibility' popular at the time. In contrast, the Bronte stories, which all form part of a series set in a fantasy world created by Charlotte together with her brother Branwell, are obscure and turgid. No doubt this peek at her early writing would be invaluable to a Bronte scholar, but the average reader is likely to lose interest. Particularly in contrast to Austen's lightness and ease of touch, the Bronte works seem clumsy and confusing. Still, the volume is worth buying only for the section on Austen, which is as far as I can tell fairly complete and an absolute must-read for any Austen fan.