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Emma Brown

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Wikipedia article




'Emma' is the title of a manuscript by Charlotte Bront, left incomplete when she died in 1855.Saverio Tomaiuolo Victorian Unfinished Novels: The Imperfect Page - 2012 Page 9 "'Emma' is composed of only two chapters. The first of these Brontan completions, published in 1980, was entitled Emma and was written by 'Charlotte Bront and Another Lady'. At first, the novel was attributed to Elizabeth Goudge, but its .Robert Bernard The Accents of Persuasion: Charlotte Bront's Novels 2013 "What might have succeeded had Miss Bronte not died in her thirty-ninth year, we can hardly guess (certainly, the fragment of a novel called Emma is no indication), but Villette remains as the ..."

A pastiche of it was written by Clare Boylan and published as 'Emma Brown' in 2003.

Original manuscript



Bront began work on 'Emma' in 1853. Her marriage in 1854 and the lukewarm enthusiasm of her husband for the project may have contributed to her slow progress towards completion. The manuscript was left unfinished at her death in 1855.

The original twenty-page manuscript consists of two chapters describing the arrival of an apparently wealthy young girl, "Matilda Fitzgibbon", at an expensive private school. It transpires that her identity is fake, and that her school fees will not be paid. The child is unable to answer any questions as to her true identity.

Savery's completion



Constance Savery published a completion in 1980.

Boylan's completion



Boylan "steeped herself in letters and writings" and acknowledged the assistance of several notable Bront scholars in her afterword to the novel.

Boylan developed the story as a mystery novel, using two characters from Bront's original chapters who work together to solve the puzzle of the eponymous girl's identity: Mrs. Chalfont, a widow introduced as a narrator in the manuscript, and Mr. Ellin, a lawyer who accepts the challenge the girl represents.

Reception



Boylan's version was favourably reviewed but was not regarded as a faithful continuation of the style and voice of Bront. Boylan's 'Telegraph' obituary concluded that she "conveyed little of the deep moral and theological framework that underpinned Charlotte Bront's writing."

References




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