Harriet Dark: Branwell Brontë's lost novel

by Barbara Rees

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is, of course, an ongoing fascination with the works of the Brontë sisters and their genesis, a fascination not restricted to the sisters themselves. Their brother, Branwell, apparently described to his friends a novel he had written but of which no trace was found in his papers after he died. This book is Barbara Rees’s construction of that novel. How much she had to go on, the form Branwell’s effort actually took, is not elaborated on in the surrounding blurb so the reader must just take what is presented to her/him as an example of a Victorian novel.
It consists of the reminiscences of a young girl taken home from Steepleton Horse Fair by Mr Robert Ogilvy to be brought up as a servant in his house, Thirleby Hall. He named her Harriet Dark. In this first-person account “Harriet” refers to herself as a foundling, but since she was four – or five, or six – years old at the time (and could speak well enough) that description is not entirely accurate. Orphan is more so. That such a child would not really remember her mother, nor realise till much later in the book that her mother had died is one of the factors which stretch credulity a little.
Under the unbending gaze and strictures of the cook, Mrs Duckham, Harriet develops a hatred for the household and of Mr Ogilvy but she eventually forms a friendship of sorts with the housekeeper, Mrs Minim, and in the fullness of time as she grows into adolescence, a yen for Mr Ogilvy himself. She finds more acceptance in the family of the local clergyman, Mr Ponsonby, whose wife helps her to read.
The later incursion of Nina Sanctuary, Mr Ogilvy’s intended, into Harriet’s life darkens her outlook. Sanctuary treats her harshly and, in a touch of Gothic, she conceives the thought of herself as in league with the devil against the world; going so far as to believe her wishes directly contribute to Sanctuary’s death in a riding accident, after which Ogilvy falls into what the Victorians called melancholy.
The book displays some of the infelicities of an inexperienced novelist. Whether this is intentional on the part of Rees in trying to replicate what Branwell Brontë might actually have written, or are her own, is impossible to determine. They do, though, lend an air of verisimilitude to proceedings.
Despite Ogilvy’s continuing indifference to Harriet Rees contrives, on Branwell Brontë’s behalf, a happy ending of sorts.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give this book 2-1/2 stars on its own terms and might consider knocking up to three but for the utter chutzpah of the author in billing it as Branwell Brontë's reconstructed "lost novel." A little background: some of Branwell's friends claimed that he had actually written Wuthering Heights, based on their assertions that he had read some of the opening chapters to them as his work. This author assumes from that story that he actually was working on a novel with some surface similarities to WH, and claims to have figured out on that extremely thin supposition what type of book he would have written.

So, like WH,, this book starts with a dirty, ragged child being found in an urban area and taken into his country house by a kindly gentleman. This child, however, is a girl, and while Mr. Ogilvy, the gentleman in question, has a kindly regard for her when he remembers her, he rarely does, and she grows up as a servant. Through grit and determination she betters herself until she has become the de facto housekeeper, and determines that she is going to marry Mr. Ogilvy. The best laid plans and all that, however...

At any rate, as I have said, while it is entertaining enough on its own, I could never imagine anything as tame as this being written by any of the Brontës, not even Branwell. It is also extremely short (barely 150 pages), so there is very little depth of plot or characterization.