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Rating: 
Summary: A "MUST-OWN" item for Janeites and Bronte fans everywhere
Review: "The Juvenilia" is a collection of Jane Austen's early work--scholars estimate that Austen produced the Juvenilia between the ages of 12 and 18. Austen edited and collected these early stories later in life, and of course, to the Austen scholar, "The Juvenilia" remains an invaluable testament to the genius of Austen, but, furthermore, the stories also stand as evidence for the development of one of the world's greatest writers.The first Austen book I read was "Pride and Prejudice," and that is a good place to start. "The Juvenilia" should be read after one has read all of Austen's other works. But no matter whether one has read two, three or all of Austen's novels, discovering and reading "The Juvenilia" will always be a surprising experience, for here is revealed a "new" side of Austen. "The Juvenilia" is composed of three volumes. The volumes contain short stories, the outline for a book, poetry, epistolaries, and short plays. Some of the characters are clearly early personifications of characters Austen developed and used in later novels. For me, the very best part of "The Juvenilia" is simply Austen's humour. The teenage Austen wrote of violent deaths, hangings and alcoholic women. Reading her comic presentations made me appreciate her much more than ever before. Jane Austen--juvenile and funny--: "Lovely and too charming fair one, notwithstanding your forbidding squint, your greasy tresses, and your swelling back, which are more frighful than imagination can paint or pen describe, I cannot refrain from expressing my raptures at the engaging qualities of your mind, which so amply atone for the horror with which your first appearance must ever inspire the wary visitor." Charlotte Bronte's Juvenilia is quite, quite different from that of Austen. But after all, what else should one expect? Here we have a marvellous peek at the Bronte household--including the intense, private world the Bronte sisters shared with their brother, Branwell. The Bronte children wrote stories for one another, and, unfortunately, a great deal of this did not survive. The various Bronte writings include stories, and plays, and again one can see early characters Bronte later develops. For example, Elizabeth Hastings receives a proposal from Sir William Percy to be his mistress, and she replies " I'll never be your mistress. I could not without incurring the miseries of self-hatred." This, is of course, is very much like the great scene that takes place between Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester. If you read and loved Austen and/or Bronte, reading this book will just add new layers of appreciation.
Rating: 
Summary: Six of wonderful, half a dozen of dull
Review: The two parts of this book differ greatly in reader appeal. While packaging the juvenilia of two loved women authors together seems like a good idea, I think the actual works are not particularly compatible. Jane Austen fans will love the sprightly, unrestrained wit of her juvenilia; 'Love and Freindship' in particular is a delightful romp, wickedly satirising the 'novels of sensibility' popular at the time. In contrast, the Bronte stories, which all form part of a series set in a fantasy world created by Charlotte together with her brother Branwell, are obscure and turgid. No doubt this peek at her early writing would be invaluable to a Bronte scholar, but the average reader is likely to lose interest. Particularly in contrast to Austen's lightness and ease of touch, the Bronte works seem clumsy and confusing. Still, the volume is worth buying only for the section on Austen, which is as far as I can tell fairly complete and an absolute must-read for any Austen fan.
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