For some of us, the words "Charlotte Brontë's dollhouse" are tantamount to magic. The Jane Eyre author redecorated the "George II grained four-room 'baby' house circa 1750" when she was working as a governess for the wealthy Sidgwicks. The novelist wrote her sister Emily in 1839, "I now begin to find [Mrs Sidgwick] does not intend to know me; that she cares nothing about me, except to contrive how the greatest possible quantity of labour may be got out of me; and to that end she overwhelms me with oceans of needlework; yards of cambric to hem, muslin night-caps to make, and, above all things, dolls to dress." The results of this forced labor will be auctioned next month; the dollhouse is expected to fetch around £8,000. [Telegraph]

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