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The Green Dwarf and Other Early Fiction: Annotated Edition
Inspired by a box of wooden toy soldiers given as a present to her elder brother Branwell in 1826, Charlotte Brontë created, together with her siblings, a series of tales set in the imaginary realm of Glass Town. In 'The Green Dwarf', against the backdrop of war, the arrogant aristocrat Colonel Percy and the enigmatic Mr Leslie are vying for the affections of the beautiful Lady Emily. Soon, with the rivals both on the front line, and with the scheming Percy hatching a plot that involves the mysterious Green Dwarf, Leslie finds himself facing danger on all sides…
Full of tragedy and passion, love and rivalry, the five sweeping tales contained in this volume display the precocious talent, lively imagination and flair for storytelling of the young Charlotte Brontë.
Full of tragedy and passion, love and rivalry, the five sweeping tales contained in this volume display the precocious talent, lively imagination and flair for storytelling of the young Charlotte Brontë.
- GenresClassics
384 pages, Paperback
Published March 26, 2019
7 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Charlotte Brontë
2,273 books19.3k followersCharlotte Brontë was an English novelist, the eldest out of the three famous Brontë sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. See also Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë.
Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly "Patrick Brunty"), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria Branwell. In April 1820 the family moved a few miles to Haworth, a remote town on the Yorkshire moors, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate. This is where the Brontë children would spend most of their lives. Maria Branwell Brontë died from what was thought to be cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to the care of her spinster sister Elizabeth Branwell, who moved to Yorkshire to help the family.
In August 1824 Charlotte, along with her sisters Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, a new school for the daughters of poor clergyman (which she would describe as Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school was a horrific experience for the girls and conditions were appalling. They were regularly deprived of food, beaten by teachers and humiliated for the slightest error. The school was unheated and the pupils slept two to a bed for warmth. Seven pupils died in a typhus epidemic that swept the school and all four of the Brontë girls became very ill - Maria and Elizabeth dying of tuberculosis in 1825. Her experiences at the school deeply affected Brontë - her health never recovered and she immortalised the cruel and brutal treatment in her novel, Jane Eyre. Following the tragedy, their father withdrew his daughters from the school.
At home in Haworth Parsonage, Charlotte and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily, and Anne — continued their ad-hoc education. In 1826 her father returned home with a box of toy soldiers for Branwell. They would prove the catalyst for the sisters' extraordinary creative development as they immediately set to creating lives and characters for the soldiers, inventing a world for them which the siblings called 'Angria'. The siblings became addicted to writing, creating stories, poetry and plays. Brontë later said that the reason for this burst of creativity was that:
'We were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition.'
After her father began to suffer from a lung disorder, Charlotte was again sent to school to complete her education at Roe Head school in Mirfield from 1831 to 1832, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period (1833), she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf under the name of Wellesley. The school was extremely small with only ten pupils meaning the top floor was completely unused and believed to be supposedly haunted by the ghost of a young lady dressed in silk. This story fascinated Brontë and inspired the figure of Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre.
Brontë left the school after a few years, however she swiftly returned in 1835 to take up a position as a teacher, and used her wages to pay for Emily and Anne to be taught at the school. Teaching did not appeal to Brontë and in 1838 she left Roe Head to become a governess to the Sidgewick family -- partly from a sense of adventure and a desire to see the world, and partly from financial necessity.
Charlotte became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to biographer Elizabeth Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness." She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855.
Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly "Patrick Brunty"), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria Branwell. In April 1820 the family moved a few miles to Haworth, a remote town on the Yorkshire moors, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate. This is where the Brontë children would spend most of their lives. Maria Branwell Brontë died from what was thought to be cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to the care of her spinster sister Elizabeth Branwell, who moved to Yorkshire to help the family.
In August 1824 Charlotte, along with her sisters Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, a new school for the daughters of poor clergyman (which she would describe as Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school was a horrific experience for the girls and conditions were appalling. They were regularly deprived of food, beaten by teachers and humiliated for the slightest error. The school was unheated and the pupils slept two to a bed for warmth. Seven pupils died in a typhus epidemic that swept the school and all four of the Brontë girls became very ill - Maria and Elizabeth dying of tuberculosis in 1825. Her experiences at the school deeply affected Brontë - her health never recovered and she immortalised the cruel and brutal treatment in her novel, Jane Eyre. Following the tragedy, their father withdrew his daughters from the school.
At home in Haworth Parsonage, Charlotte and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily, and Anne — continued their ad-hoc education. In 1826 her father returned home with a box of toy soldiers for Branwell. They would prove the catalyst for the sisters' extraordinary creative development as they immediately set to creating lives and characters for the soldiers, inventing a world for them which the siblings called 'Angria'. The siblings became addicted to writing, creating stories, poetry and plays. Brontë later said that the reason for this burst of creativity was that:
'We were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition.'
After her father began to suffer from a lung disorder, Charlotte was again sent to school to complete her education at Roe Head school in Mirfield from 1831 to 1832, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period (1833), she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf under the name of Wellesley. The school was extremely small with only ten pupils meaning the top floor was completely unused and believed to be supposedly haunted by the ghost of a young lady dressed in silk. This story fascinated Brontë and inspired the figure of Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre.
Brontë left the school after a few years, however she swiftly returned in 1835 to take up a position as a teacher, and used her wages to pay for Emily and Anne to be taught at the school. Teaching did not appeal to Brontë and in 1838 she left Roe Head to become a governess to the Sidgewick family -- partly from a sense of adventure and a desire to see the world, and partly from financial necessity.
Charlotte became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to biographer Elizabeth Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness." She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 25, 2023
3.4 stars.
It is a charming big book; some stories are much better than others. I appreciated the historical notes on Charlotte Brontë's life better than the tales of the islanders.
It is a charming big book; some stories are much better than others. I appreciated the historical notes on Charlotte Brontë's life better than the tales of the islanders.
November 8, 2025
I love reading anything written by the Brontë sisters, especially Charlotte. So it was with immense excitement that, in Edinburgh, I found an anthology of short stories based on a set of toy soldiers that her father bought for her and her siblings.
While the fictional place of Verdopolis based in Africa is filled with interesting characters, the stories, however, are quite bland. Also, there's no evidence that Charlotte Brontë ever visited Africa so her interpretation of the land is probably based on what she's heard from others or read in newspapers. This would make sense as to why her perspective of the African continent is from a very parochial point of view and all the narratives are very sympathetic towards the British colonialists. The same characters are repeatedly featured throughout, but because there are so many with multiple names and titles, it's difficult to remember who is who. The stories all deal with a different plot, some of which are interesting like The Foundling, about a brilliant young man raised by a benefactor without ever knowing his parents and finding love and happiness in Verdopolis. However, others were pretty boring, like The Spell, about two men who hid the fact they were twins and just went along alternating between each other's lives making one of their wives believe that her husband was having an affair. I still don't understand why they'd do that.
There's also a little appendix from Charlotte Brontë relating what her and her siblings' school would look like if they ever got around to it, written in a play format. I skipped it. It's unfortunate that these short stories weren't as great in depth and substance as Jane Eyre or Shirley. However, it does prove that if Charlotte Brontë was alive today, she'd make a truly remarkable Romantesy writer: she creates a fictional world with nuance, narrates plots and characters that are so absurd that they could only be found in fantasy (such as a four year old whose linguistic skill is that of a University under-grad) and writes love as something in your life that will never go wrong as long you found the person you want and wants you too.
While the fictional place of Verdopolis based in Africa is filled with interesting characters, the stories, however, are quite bland. Also, there's no evidence that Charlotte Brontë ever visited Africa so her interpretation of the land is probably based on what she's heard from others or read in newspapers. This would make sense as to why her perspective of the African continent is from a very parochial point of view and all the narratives are very sympathetic towards the British colonialists. The same characters are repeatedly featured throughout, but because there are so many with multiple names and titles, it's difficult to remember who is who. The stories all deal with a different plot, some of which are interesting like The Foundling, about a brilliant young man raised by a benefactor without ever knowing his parents and finding love and happiness in Verdopolis. However, others were pretty boring, like The Spell, about two men who hid the fact they were twins and just went along alternating between each other's lives making one of their wives believe that her husband was having an affair. I still don't understand why they'd do that.
There's also a little appendix from Charlotte Brontë relating what her and her siblings' school would look like if they ever got around to it, written in a play format. I skipped it. It's unfortunate that these short stories weren't as great in depth and substance as Jane Eyre or Shirley. However, it does prove that if Charlotte Brontë was alive today, she'd make a truly remarkable Romantesy writer: she creates a fictional world with nuance, narrates plots and characters that are so absurd that they could only be found in fantasy (such as a four year old whose linguistic skill is that of a University under-grad) and writes love as something in your life that will never go wrong as long you found the person you want and wants you too.
October 12, 2019
The first couple stories were pretty interesting and entertaining, but I kind of got tired of the whole premise after that. It's Charlotte Bronte, so of course they were creative and well-written, but I wasn't a huge fan of this.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews