Glass Town: Isabel Greenberg

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Simon Armitage, a creative partner of the Bronte Parsonage Museum, wrote that Branwell "was driving the whole show. She becomes increasingly attracted to Zamorna, her brother-in-law, legal guardian, and also her mother’s gaoler. Twice married, firstly to Lord George Vernon (sometimes known as Lord Dance), and secondly to the uncle of Charles and Zamorna, Richard, Marquis of Wellesley.

In this generous selection the writings of Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell are presented together for the first time.After his first wife is poisoned he marries Maria Henrietta Wharton and lives happily, seemingly a reformed character until her death from consumption. Although seemingly killed at the Battle of Velino, he appears to be resurrected by S’death in an early example of literary retcon. Admired for his military victories and leadership qualities, he is eventually superseded in the Glass Town narratives by his sons, who continue to dominate the tales until the final Angrian stories. Written in dozens of miniature books, these manuscripts – with curious, secretive titles such as A Peep into a Picture Book, The Spell, A Leaf from an Unopened Volume – are not only an astonishing example of craftsmanship, but contain extraordinary, uncensored content".

In the earlier narratives, Lofty is a member of the Verdopolitan government and leader of the Republican Rebellion. In Isabel Greenberg's 2020 graphic novel Glass Town, parts of the Brontë juvenilia are retold and intersected with the lives of four Brontë children.The book in question is Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg, a title which promises to introduce readers to the Brontës’ worlds of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal, as well as providing the biographical background which led to the creation of these worlds and characters such as Zamorna, Mary Percy, the Earl of Northangerland, and Glass Town gossip and celebrated author, Charles Wellesley. Zamorna later keeps Percy’s mistress Louisa Vernon, a prisoner and becomes guardian to Louisa and Percy’s daughter, Caroline, who harbours a passion for the King. My debut novel, A Tale of Two Glass Towns, is available in paperback, as an ebook, and on Kindle Unlimited.

If you asked any diehard comics fan to pick a title sporting all of these things, they likely wouldn’t first point to a work by 1800’s English poet and novelist Charlotte Brontë. This is a deep question that this book addresses, but I will leave you to discover the answer for yourself. Florence Marian Hume – The second wife of Zamorna in the earlier narratives and the mother of his son, Arthur Julius Wellesley.A rich banker, he travels through Glass Town with Lord Charles Wellesley and the Marquis of Douro and his adventures are documented in Branwell Brontë’s Letters from an Englishman (1830-32). We’re never actually reading about the Glass Town characters, instead just reading about Charlotte reminiscing about the characters and their stories. An exquisitely crafted weaving of the real and imagined lives of the Brontës, Greenberg digs deep into Brontë juvenilia to fully submerge the reader in the chaotic and confusing world of Glass Town. The experience of this made-up world is so real, it brings us closer to the family themselves, and you feel like you understand what it was to be a Bronte sibling - gifted, isolated, tragic, and loved. The two play out an intense love-hate relationship throughout the Glass Town and Angrian stories with Zamorna using his wife Mary, daughter of Percy, as a pawn.