Romantic Retreat - Brontë Country
Whether you're looking to woo, rekindle or celebrate the romance in your life, Haworth, the home of the Brontë sisters and the inspiration for the spectacular Wuthering Heights is the perfect romantic retreat.
Haworth Parsonage, a gaunt building on the edge of beautiful, lonely moors is set in a wild and brooding part of Yorkshire, Northern England. Here, three sisters, broken down with sickness, worked on their great love - writing poetry and romantic fiction. Their books stand out, lonely landmarks of English literature. Here the author of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë, died at 38 years old, 150 years ago.
From early childhood the countryside of heather-covered wild moors, still here today, provided inspiration for the sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, whom all had work published under pseudonyms. It is difficult to focus on just one of these fascinating women. To speak of one is to bring in all three, for their fortunes were closely intermingled.
The first novel, Jane Eyre, was published in October 1847; it met with increasing success for Charlotte. Then came Emily’s chance for fame, Wuthering Heights and Anne’s Agnes Grey followed later the same year. Charlotte went to school at Roe Head, where she later worked as a teacher. She fell ill, suffering from melancholia, and gave up the post. Her first love was writing, creating an imaginary world as she had done since childhood. At age 21 she asked poet Robert Southey’s advice about her writing prospects. “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life,” he answered, “and ought not to be.” Her first novel, The Professor, was not published in her lifetime but undeterred; she started on Jane Eyre, which captivated Victorian readers.
Charlotte’s death, on March 31 1855, during pregnancy, came a year after her marriage and several years after the death of her literary sisters and wayward brother, Branwell. Her life will be commemorated during the 150th anniversary year at her parsonage home, now a museum, in Haworth; in poet’s corner at London’s Westminster Abbey and with a commemorative Royal Mail stamp issue. A famous portrait of the sisters, by Branwell, is on display in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
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