The Brontë Parsonage Museum is aiming to raise funds to bring the book to the UK. The book, written in 1830, includes three handwritten stories and has been in private hands since the author dies. The Brontë museum owns all the other surviving miniature manuscripts written by Charlotte.
A number of celebrities are backing the campaign, including Dame Judi Dench who is the honorary president of the Brontë Society.
The book includes a story in which the murderer’s own anguish causes his bed curtains to catch on fire. The Bronte museum said this scene was a “clear precursor” of a scene between Bertha and Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre, which Brontë would publish 17 years later. “We want to be able to look after it, learn from it and use it to inspire future generations how and why Charlotte started writing, and would hate to see it shut away in a private collection”.
Sources: The Guardian, Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Updated: Campaign successful. Book sold for over £500,000 and will return to Haworth.