Walking The Invisible: A literary guide through the walks and nature of the Brontë sisters, authors of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and their beloved Yorkshire

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Meanwhile, the sisters have written novels and begin to send them out for publication. Charlotte takes their father for cataract surgery and during his recovery period she begins work on a second novel, Jane Eyre. I believe this is an impartial book (for the most part). However, Stewart does not like or agree with the book written about Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Another highlight of the book for me were the sections talking about areas that I am familar with – I loved the chapter on Mr Earnshaw’s walk to Liverpool (from ‘Wuthering Heights’) in particular as I know the city well and could picture some of the walk. This would be a great book if you are already familiar with Bronte country. The drama was filmed mostly in Yorkshire with Haworth being used extensively during filming. [7] A replica of the Parsonage at Haworth was constructed on the moorland in Penistone Hill Country Park, just west of Haworth. This allowed external scenes to be filmed away from the real Parsonage in the village. The replica parsonage was also added to with other buildings and a street to make a small set of how Haworth looked at the time of the Brontës, with at least one local councillor pointing out that in their time, the Parsonage was not shaded by trees as it is now. [8] Rees, Jasper (29 December 2016). "To Walk Invisible review: the Brontë sisters brought to fizzing, furious life". The Telegraph . Retrieved 1 January 2017. I was quite touched by the parts about Branwell Brontë, following the paths he trod and his descent into alcoholism that was his undoing. I did not know much about him but feel I have learnt more and he felt like a real person to me rather than almost a sideshow that he is often portrayed as.Walking The Invisible does not focus on a certain experience or memory for each of the Brontë family members. I consider this book to be a broad view touching on each of them. Charlotte becomes enraged after Anne and Emily's publisher tries to pass off The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, a book written by Anne, as being Charlotte's work. She insists that the sisters travel to London and reveal themselves to be separate authors. Anne agrees to go with her sister, but Emily refuses, insisting on protecting her anonymity. After Charlotte introduces herself and Anne, they are greeted with great enthusiasm by their publishers, who take them to the opera. The book makes you want to walk in Stewart’s (and the Brontës’!) footsteps and I can’t wait to visit Yorkshire again with the volume in hand. I especially loved reading about the genesis of the Brontë Stones project—a group of stones with poems honoring the sisters, which walkers can visit in the Thornton/Haworth area—and about the wide range of personalities whom Stewart has encountered due to their voracious love of the Brontës. He doesn’t offer a definitive answer as to why so many of us continue to be fascinated by one of literature’s most famous families, but his book will be a valuable artifact speaking to the early twenty-first-century version of the Brontë Myth (one which owes more to Kate Bush than to academia). The focus on Stewart’s experience yields some interesting stories about people encountered on the way, pubs, local gossip and incidents. His own points of reference also infiltrate the book – from the Shirley joke in ‘Airplane’, ‘Coronation Street’, Brexit and the wrestler, Big Daddy. All this is woven into the book alongside details about the Brontes and their world, plus historical frames of reference – the (separate) sections on slavery and the Luddites were particularly engaging.

This is a brilliant book which is both a discussion of the lives and legacies of the Bronte family and an exploration of the urban and natural settings that inspired them. I loved the feel of bruised and brooding clouds over moors, almost permanent rain and mizzle, pubs, pints, camping and characters. It’s a really wonderful journey.I want you to walk with me but to see through their eyes as I compare the times they lived in with the times we live in now. A postscript reveals that Emily died three months after Branwell and Anne died five months after her. The parsonage was later turned into a museum celebrating the sisters and their work. I completely did not expect, then, to be utterly immersed by Michael Stewart’s blend of literary biography, meditative nature writing, walking tour, and northern history. As co-creator of the Brontë Stones project – which saw poems about each Brontë sibling carved onto stones and set into the landscape in and around Thornton and Haworth – Stewart knows the landscape around the Brontë family’s homes intimately, and shares their passion for its wild majesty.