The Hand of the Arch-Sinner: Two Angrian Chronicles of Branwell Brontë. a Reader’’s Edition

For almost 150 years, the writings of Branwell Brontë, the tragically self-destructive brother of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, have remained largely inaccessible, scattered in incomplete manuscript form across the world’s libraries and private collections. This is the first publication of two of the longest of Branwell’s surviving manuscripts, The Life of...Northangerland and Real Life in Verdopolis. A prolific writer, Branwell’s work took the form of chronicles detailing the activities of his central character, Alexander Percy, revolutionary leader and ruthless statesman. These two Angrian Chronicles, newly transcribed, reconstructed, and annotated under the editorship of Robert G. Collins, reveal the dramatic world of the Brontës’ Angria, not from the more sentimentalized viewpoint of Charlotte, but focusing instead on the lawless and brutal society of Branwell’s robber-king, statesman and self-proclaimed Lucifer. The stories suggest a detailed psychological description of Branwell’s own tragic life, and indicate a significant influence on the work of his more celebrated sisters. Read for its own narrative interest, its biographical relevance, and for the many ways in which it reflects significant aspects of the novels his sisters later wrote, The Hand of the Arch-Sinner reveals an astonishing and neglected talent in the fourth Brontë.