Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës (Hardcover)
NPR Best Book of 2020
A graphic novel about the Brontë siblings, and the strange and marvelous imaginary worlds they invented during their childhood
Glass Town is an original graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg that encompasses the eccentric childhoods of the four Brontë children—Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The story begins in 1825, with the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth, the eldest siblings. It is in response to this loss that the four remaining Bront. children set pen to paper and created the fictional world that became known as Glass Town. This world and its cast of characters would come to be the Brontës’ escape from the realities of their lives. Within Glass Town the siblings experienced love, friendship, war, triumph, and heartbreak. Through a combination of quotes from the stories originally penned by the Brontës, biographical information about them, and Greenberg's vivid comic book illustrations, readers will find themselves enraptured by this fascinating imaginary world.
A graphic novel about the Brontë siblings, and the strange and marvelous imaginary worlds they invented during their childhood
Glass Town is an original graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg that encompasses the eccentric childhoods of the four Brontë children—Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The story begins in 1825, with the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth, the eldest siblings. It is in response to this loss that the four remaining Bront. children set pen to paper and created the fictional world that became known as Glass Town. This world and its cast of characters would come to be the Brontës’ escape from the realities of their lives. Within Glass Town the siblings experienced love, friendship, war, triumph, and heartbreak. Through a combination of quotes from the stories originally penned by the Brontës, biographical information about them, and Greenberg's vivid comic book illustrations, readers will find themselves enraptured by this fascinating imaginary world.
Isabel Greenberg is an award-winning illustrator, comic artist, and writer. She illustrated the picture book A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars, which won the Mathical Book Prize, was named a Boston Globe Horn Book Award honor, and “best of the year” by Amazon, Space.com, and the Planetary Society, and has over 60,000 copies in print, along with Power Up and The Ocean in Your Bathtub. Her graphic novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, have received starred reviews, won the Best Book Award at the British Comic Awards, and won the Jonathan Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize, among other praise. Greenberg has worked with a variety of clients, including the Guardian, Nobrow Press, The National Trust, and the New York Times. She lives in London and enjoys illustrating all things historical. This is her first author-illustrated picture book.
“Engrossing for both adults and teens attracted to alt-history fantasy or the Brontës.”
— Library Journal - STARRED review
"Greenberg breathes life into the Brontës’ unpublished early writings...Those who appreciate historical fiction and classic literature will be engrossed by this reimagining of the childhoods of these literary luminaries."
— School Library Journal
"Greenberg pulls Glass Town and its characters directly from the Brontës’ juvenilia, giving readers a look into the early creativity of an iconic literary family with a playful visual style that captures the Brontës’ enthusiasm as they discover what fiction can do.”
— The A.V. Club
“Drawn with a cheery and expansive sweep that belies its sometimes somber subject, “Glass Town” is a testament to the (usually) redemptive powers of imagination.”
— The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Her drawings are harsh and deliberately untidy, channeling the frantic, awkward passion of a precocious child. Sometimes they seem poised to burst forth from the page, defying physics in tribute to the seething spirits that gave us Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights."
— Etelka Lehoczky
— Library Journal - STARRED review
"Greenberg breathes life into the Brontës’ unpublished early writings...Those who appreciate historical fiction and classic literature will be engrossed by this reimagining of the childhoods of these literary luminaries."
— School Library Journal
"Greenberg pulls Glass Town and its characters directly from the Brontës’ juvenilia, giving readers a look into the early creativity of an iconic literary family with a playful visual style that captures the Brontës’ enthusiasm as they discover what fiction can do.”
— The A.V. Club
“Drawn with a cheery and expansive sweep that belies its sometimes somber subject, “Glass Town” is a testament to the (usually) redemptive powers of imagination.”
— The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Her drawings are harsh and deliberately untidy, channeling the frantic, awkward passion of a precocious child. Sometimes they seem poised to burst forth from the page, defying physics in tribute to the seething spirits that gave us Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights."
— Etelka Lehoczky
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