SOURCE: Du Maurier, Daphne. “Chapter Six.” In The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë, pp. 60-74. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1960.

In the following excerpt, Du Maurier focuses on Brontë's immense literary activity during the years 1836 to 1838.

Branwell's literary output, between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one, was fantastic. The complete history of the kingdom of Angria in nine parts, including several long stories and many poems, covers sheet after sheet of manuscript, all in microscopic handwriting. These manuscripts, scattered as they are today, and housed in various collections throughout the country, might—after years of study—give the patient reader some idea of this extraordinary conception.

Here was this imaginary colony, situated where we should find Ghana and Nigeria today, founded by the original soldier adventurers when Branwell was eleven or twelve years old; then split into kingdoms, united into an empire, given a written constitution and an...