To Walk Invisible, or an Englishman's Notes about Brontë Country
Hello, Everybody! Here is my story written specially for Perfectenglishblog.
Last weekend my wife and I visited Haworth. Haworth is a small English village in the county of West Yorkshire. Lying at the heart of Brontë Country, Haworth is the village in which the Brontë sisters grew up to womanhood and composed much of their world-renowned literature. As a result, Haworth and its surroundings draw in millions of travellers each year.
Though visiting museums is not my cup of tea this time I have learned a few noteworthy facts.
It turned out that 3 famous Brontë sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne - had a less famous brother Branwell and this year the Brontë Society in the UK are celebrating the bicentenary of his birth. Branwell lost his way in life and died young but one of his paintings found a way to the National Portrait Gallery in London.
I didn`t even expect that Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights was based on the true story she overheard when she was a governess in a rich family. However, she placed Heathcliff and Cathy in the familiar surroundings of Yorkshire moors overgrown with heather and populated with sheep.
The farm called Top Withins which acted as inspiration for their home is now derelict. It is a famous destination for walkers and Brontë fans from all over the world. It is so popular with the Japanese tourists that the locals have made the signs in their language.
It is interesting to know that Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth is conducting a special project called A Manuscript. Anyone can get involved in recreating the story of Wuthering Heights by copying one line from the novel into the manuscript.
My wife took part in it and now Russia is proudly represented in the very heart of Wuthering Heights.
We also learned that in 2016 BBC released a new program about Brontë family called To Walk Invisible. They had to build a mock Parsonage (family home of Brontes) and parts of the village because historians said that in the 19th century the trees we see today were not there. The costumes of the actors are on display at the museum and you can try on period hats to get into the atmosphere.
