This precious book is one of six written by Charlotte Bronte when she was just 14 years-old.
Charlotte was the eldest sister in a remarkable literary family that produced the famous novels Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and the Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
The budding writer penned these tiny editions of ‘The Young Men’s Magazine’ as reading material for the toys that inhabited her imaginary world of Glass Town.
Ann Dinsdale is the curator of the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England.
“She produced six tiny books, four of them are in the collection at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, one is missing and the sixth is due to come up for auction in November, in Paris and we dearly want to bring it back to Haworth and reunite it with the other ones in the series.”
The Bronte Society is urgently seeking public support because the item is expected to fetch upward of $830,000. “Is it worth it?”
When something is dear to the heart, its price is hard to measure. You might recognize that idea from the parable of the pearl in Matthew 13. The merchant recognized the value of one thing, and he let no price stand in the way of acquiring it. The parable is a picture of howGod values people, and howwealsovalue the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus.
Bronte fans have weighed the question, “Is the tiny book worth it?” For them, the answer is “yes.”
Renee Dawkins, from Wasilla, Alaska, agrees. “If you’re a Bronte fan then you know about these miniature books and so I think it would be a shame to not have that here in this museum.”
Visiting from France, Emmanuelle Vial says, “Yes I think it should be back here. It’s a beautiful, small book and I think the opportunity to get it would be really good,”
According to Ann Dinsdale, “The Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth was where the Brontes lived for virtually all their lives.It’s where they wrote their little books and where they went on to write all their great novels. We get visitors from all over the world from South Korea, from America, from Japan, and we’ve got the largest collection of Bronte material in the world. So it seems fitting that the little book should come back here where it can be enjoyed by the 80,000 visitors a year that come here.”
Nearly a million dollars is a hefty price. But Bronte fans have recognized something that they value greatly. And that might just tip the scales in the museum’s favor when Charlotte Bronte’s tiny book is held up by an auctioneer next week.
