Tales of Angria

Description

First time in Penguin Classics In 1834, Charlotte Bronte and her brother Branwell created the imaginary kingdom of Angria in a series of tiny handmade books. Continuing their saga some years later, the five 'novelettes' in this volume were written by Charlotte when she was in her early twenties, and depict a aristocratic beau monde in witty, racy and ironic language. She creates an exotic, scandalous atmosphere of intrigue and destructive passions, with a cast ranging from the ageing rake Northangerland and his Byronic son-in-law Zamorna, King of Angria, to Mary Percy, Zamorna's lovesick wife, and Charles Townshend, the cynical, gossipy narrator. Together the tales provide a fascinating glimpse into the mind and creative processes of the young writer who was to become one of the world's great novelists.

Charlotte Bronte (1816 - 1855), sister of Anne Bronte and Emily Bronte. Charlotte's best-known book, Jane Eyre, appeared in 1847 and was soon seen as a work of genius. Jane Eyre was followed by Shirley (1848) and Villette (1853). The Professor was posthumously published in 1857. Heather Glen is a Fellow of New Hall, Cambridge, and Reader in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Cambridge. She is editor of the Penguin Classics edition of Charlotte Bronte's The Professor and of The Cambridge Companion to the Brontes. Her most recent book is Charlotte Bronte- the Imagination in History (CUP, 2002).