Jane Eyre facsimile manuscript to be published for 'Brontë bibliophiles'

The collector’s edition of the classic novel will also feature etchings by Edmund Garrett from an edition published in 1897

A facsimile of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 manuscript of Jane Eyre, written in the author’s flowing hand, will be published for the first time in December.

This edition of the earliest surviving copy of Brontë’s classic joins a roster of facsimiles published by the French press Éditions des Saints Pères, including Madame Bovary, Les fleurs du mal and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The reproduction is accompanied with etchings by Edmund Garrett from an edition published in 1897. According to the publisher, the fair copy is “neat, with most notable revisions and corrections centred around her portrayal of Jane’s encounters with Mr Rochester”.

Brontë had received a letter from the publisher Smith and Elder in August 1847, rejecting her first novel, The Professor, but suggesting that “a work in three volumes would [be met] with careful attention”. She replied with the 824-page manuscript of Jane Eyre, which they published that October. Written under Brontë’s pen name of Currer Bell, the manuscript is held by the British Library and is the only copy in existence.

Claire Harman, author of Charlotte Brontë: A Life, welcomed the publication of a manuscript that she felt would appeal to the Brontë bibliophile.

“What we see is the end of a long process for Charlotte Brontë,” Harman said, “the last edits and adjustments to a story that had been with her for several years and that she wanted to present in an almost perfect condition to bowl over the publishers who had been intrigued but ultimately dissatisfied with The Professor. The manuscript shows justifiable pride in her work and control of it – and carefully hides the hard graft she had gone through to get there.”

The Parisian publishing house said that “due to the technical challenges of reproducing it, to date the manuscript has never before been published”, adding that “Brontë’s elegant handwriting and thoughtful edits showcase the author’s genius and determination”.

Éditions des Saints Pères co-founder Nicholas Tretiakow hailed the novel as “a compelling gem of English literature, a novel so many of us hold close to our hearts”.

“We wanted to rise to the challenge and offer this beautiful and rich manuscript to the public for the very first time,” he said.

Tretiakow’s co-founder Jessica Nelson said that the pair were inspired to set up the press after attending an exhibition of manuscripts and first drafts in Paris 10 years ago. “We were totally moved and astounded by what we saw. We already had a passion for literature but we were astonished,” she said. “Nicholas said that in 10 years’ time we would create our own publishing house and specialise in the production of manuscripts, and that’s what we’ve done.”

According to Nelson, print runs are limited to 1,000 or 2,000 copies per book, with reproductions aimed at bibliophiles, collectors and those passionate about a particular author. The Jane Eyre copies will be priced at more than £200, and Éditions des Saints Pères plans to follow the novel’s release with further titles in English next year.

“There is a sense in this ever increasingly digital world that the value of handwriting and handwritten craft has never been so precious,” Nelson said. “It’s another reading experience – you really feel something very intimate, you create an intimacy with the writer, even a writer who has been gone for centuries. A particular bond is created when you discover a manuscript.”

Nelson said she had felt the bond in particular when working on the publisher’s edition of Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu. “He had terrible handwriting, and it was really difficult to read him, and when I was first working on the manuscript I was quite angry, because it was so difficult,” she said. “But after a few weeks I realised I could understand him, and I felt close to him.”

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