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Primary sourceBookreproduced 1857, original earlier

The Secret Manuscript Facsimile

Charlotte Brontë · reproduced 1857, original earlier

A facsimile of one of Charlotte Brontë's tiny childhood manuscripts, reproduced by her biographer Elizabeth Gaskell in 1857.

This facsimile shows Charlotte's own minute childhood handwriting, reproduced in her biography to reveal her early creative world.

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Facsimile of a handwritten manuscript page titled 'THE SECRET, CHAPTER THE 1st' in dense, cramped cursive script with some crossed-out words and marginal corrections.
Charlotte Brontë, manuscript facsimile, reproduced in Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 1857.

About this source

What it is

This is a facsimile of a minute handwritten manuscript by Charlotte Brontë, reproduced in Volume 1 of The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1857. The page, titled 'The Secret', is written in dense, cramped script with corrections.

Why it matters

Gaskell included this facsimile to show readers the imaginative 'world below' that Charlotte and her siblings created as children, writing tiny stories in tiny handwriting. It reveals how early and intensely Brontë practiced storytelling, long before her published novels.

Look closer

  • Why do you think the handwriting is so small and dense?
  • What does the existence of crossed-out words and corrections tell you about how Brontë wrote?
  • Why might Gaskell have chosen to reproduce this page for her biography's readers?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Charlotte Brontë on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Charlotte Brontë · 1847

Pencil and chalk portrait on a pale tan paper of a woman with her hair pulled back in smooth bands, wearing a high-collared dress with a frilled lace collar and a tied bow at the neck. She gazes to one side with a slight smile. Handwritten inscription in the lower left corner.Painting

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Charlotte Brontë (chalk portrait by George Richmond)

George Richmond · 1850

Painted group portrait of three young women against a dark background with a pale green-yellow vertical light band. The woman on the left wears a grey collar and dark dress, the one in the centre wears a green dress and has curly hair, and the one on the right wears a dark brown dress with a grey collar. A wooden table edge is in the foreground.Painting

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The Brontë Sisters

Branwell Brontë · c. 1834

Title page of the 1857 London first edition of The Life of Charlotte Brontë by E. C. Gaskell, in two volumes, Vol. I, published by Smith, Elder & Co., Cornhill. Includes an Aurora Leigh quotation.Book

Secondary source

The Life of Charlotte Brontë

Elizabeth Gaskell · 1857

Title page of the 1853 first edition of Villette, reading 'VILLETTE.' followed by 'By Currer Bell, author of Jane Eyre, Shirley, etc.', 'In Three Volumes, Vol. I', and publisher lines for Smith, Elder & Co., London, and Smith, Taylor & Co., Bombay, dated 1853.Book

Primary source

Villette

Charlotte Brontë · 1853

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