What is it about?
This chapter shows how a 'cult' developed around Charlotte Bronte's life and death after her premature death in 1855. The essay discusses a number of accounts written by 'literary pilgrims', including Elizabeth Gaskell, Matthew Arnold, and Virginia Woolf, as they seek traces of Charlotte in Haworth and its parsonage.
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Why is it important?
It is the first account of how people wrote about their journeys to Haworth to pay homage to Charlotte Bronte in the period 1855 to 1910. It highlights common themes and images used by literary pilgrims, such as ghostly encounters, fetishism of objects touched by the author, and intense emotional experiences. It asks how Bronte's literary works fared in conjunction with the intense 'author love' (Helene Deutsch) expressed by those concerned to preserve her legacy.
Perspectives
It was fascinating to find so many accounts of Victorian and early twentieth-century pilgrimages to Haworth and to find ways of understanding the intense popularity of Charlotte Bronte in the decades after her death.
Professor Deborah Wynne
University of Chester
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The ‘Charlotte’ cult, July 2017, Manchester University Press,
DOI: 10.7765/9781526119841.00008.
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