A Literary Pilgrimage

by Charlotte Reads Classics

This Sunday I made a pilgrimage to Haworth, home of the Brontës. Yes, The Taste of Sorrow has made a big impact. As you can see from the photographs, I couldn’t have asked for more atmospheric weather…

The building is the Parsonage where the Brontës lived. It is slightly bigger than when they lived there, as it was extended by the Reverend who lived there after Patrick Brontë died. The house was pretty cosy, but everything was much smaller than I was expecting. Obviously the Church in those days was not necessarily a wealthy vocation, but this seemed like there would have been too many people in too small a place – I suppose the Brontë’s reputations exceeded their beginnings.

The Museum really focused on the act of writing: They had Charlotte and Emily’s portable writing desks set up with all the original contents inside – nibs, blotting paper, seals etc. The living room of the house is laid out as it would have been when the sisters would use it to write and critique their work and it was exciting to stand in it and imagine all of that happening.

The Parsonage was fantastic to see on a day like this; with these views how could Wuthering Heights be written by anyone but a Brontë?! The landscape is always presented as so important in their writing, and today it seemed as though it would be hard to be unaffected.