''The Twelve and the Genii'', or ''The Return of the Twelves'' in the US, is a low fantasy novel for children by Pauline Clarke, first published by Faber in 1962 with illustrations by Cecil Leslie. It features a young boy and "what might have happened if the lost toy soldiers that once belonged to the Brontë children had ever been found again". Clarke and ''The Twelve'' won the annual Carnegie Medal recognising the year's best children's book by a

British citizen British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...

. Six years later she won the

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis The (German Youth Literature Award) is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's and young adult literature. It is Germany's only ...

for the

German-language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a c ...

edition, ''Die Zwölf vom Dachboden'' (Berlin: Dressler, 1968)."Die Zwölf vom Dachboden"
(German edition). LCC record. Retrieved 17 September 2012. Coward–McCann published the first US edition in 1964, under new title ''The Return of the Twelves'' with new illustrations by

Bernarda Bryson Bernarda Bryson Shahn (March 7, 1903 – December 12, 2004) was an American painter and lithographer. She also wrote and illustrated children's books including ''The Zoo of Zeus'' and ''Gilgamesh.'' The artist Ben Shahn was her "life companion ...

Origin

"The Twelve" of the title are wooden soldiers that may come to life. "The Genii" are their protective spirits, from 1826 four Brontë children, now joined by Max and his sister Jane Morley. The twelve toy soldiers once belonged to

Branwell Brontë Patrick Branwell Brontë (, commonly ; 26 June 1817 – 24 September 1848) was an English painter and writer. He was the only son of the Brontë family, and brother of the writers Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Brontë was rigorously tutored at h ...

and his sisters. They were given to Branwell, the fourth of six children and only boy, by their father in 1826. The two eldest girls had died the preceding year and the four surviving children were 6 to 10 years old; they made the soldiers the centre of their imaginative life and their childhood literary efforts.

Plot summary

Max is an eight-year-old boy whose family has just moved into an old

farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 33 active chapters and four associate ch ...

in Yorkshire. He discovers some old toy soldiers in the attic and is surprised and delighted to find that they come to life. The soldiers, known as the Twelves, or the Young Men, have different personalities; they are brave, intelligent and very independent, not to mention argumentative. They adopt Max as one of their Genii, or protective spirits, and he begins to spend most of his time watching and thinking about them. He learns from the local parson that they once belonged to the Brontës, who wrote stories about their adventures. When his older sister Jane discovers the secret, she becomes as keen on the soldiers as Max is. The local newspaper publishes a letter about the Brontë wooden soldiers, from an American professor offering £5,000 (at the time a small fortune) to anyone who finds them. Max and Jane's older brother Philip believes the Morley soldiers may be the Brontë ones, and impulsively writes to the professor about them – only to deeply regret his act when he too discovers the truth. The soldiers learn that they are in danger of being taken to America and disappear in the night. The children have some anxious moments before they discover that the soldiers have determined to return to their original home in

Haworth Haworth () is a village in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines, south-west of Keighley, west of Bradford and east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages includ ...

, now a museum dedicated to the Brontës. Their march across the countryside is fraught with peril, but they finally reach safe haven with the protection of the Genii.

Characters

* Max Morley, an 8-year-old boy * Jane Morley, his 11-year-old sister * Philip Morley, his 14-year-old brother * Mr. and Mrs. Morley, their parents * Mrs. Hodgson, Mrs. Morley's help in the house * Bill, Mr. Morley's help on the farm * Mr. Howson, a parson and Brontë fan * Christopher Howson, his son * Seneca D. Brewer, an American professor * Mr. Kettlewell, a local farmer * A reporter from the local paper ;Wooden soldiers * Butter Crashey, the Patriarch of the Twelves * Stumps, formerly Frederick Guelph, Duke of York – Max Morley's protégé * Alexander Sneaky, formerly Buonaparte – Branwell Brontë's protégé * The Duke of Wellington – Charlotte Brontë's protégé * Parry – Emily Brontë's protégé * Ross – Anne Brontë's protégé * Gravey – Jane Morley's protégé * Cheeky, the surgeon * Bravey * Crackey * Monkey * Tracky ;Animals * Brutus, the Morleys' cat * Rover, Mr. Kettlewell's dog * A water rat

Allusions to other works

The source for the adventures recounted to Max by the Patriarch of the Twelves is ''The History of the Young Men'' by

. Parson Howson mentions the book and Mrs. Morley finds a copy which she intends to read to Max. This book convinces older brother Philip that the Morley soldiers are the Brontë ones. Jane Morley has just finished reading Charlotte Brontë's ''

Jane Eyre ''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...

'', which she loves, and she christens the handsome Mr. Howson "Mr. Rochester" after the hero.

References

External links