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Romanticism `indescribably fine writing' (Gaskell, 479), the text remains undeciphered; aptly, the tale is entitled `The Secret'. For subsequent scholars, Gaskell's propensity to mythologise and conceal (driven, in part, by her need to re-define Charlotte according to patriarchal expectations) is problematised further by issues of reliability and authenticity; as Carol Bock notes, the `publication history of the Brontë juvenilia is itself a story filled with scandal and betrayal', as the early editor T. Wise `dismembered, mis-collated, misidentified and dispersed' the writings, forcing a damaging dependence `on unreliable editions of the early work and limited access to the original juvenile manuscripts' (and indeed, Anne and Emily's Gondalian prose has seemingly not survived).5 Consequently, critics have maintained that `it is impossible to present a clear, consecutive picture of the early writings of the Brontës', whilst also questioning their literary merit and value.6 Tom Winnifrith is perhaps the most derogatory of all, regarding it as a misfortune that `recent Brontë scholarship has largely been directed into the not very profitable fields of Gondal and Angria'.7 It is against this complex and divided backdrop that Christine Alexander has produced the first edition of juvenilia to include the writings of all four siblings
Romanticism – Edinburgh University Press
Published: Apr 1, 2014
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