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“It’s intriguing to wonder what Virginia Woolf—my great aunt—would have made of London today,” writes Emma Woolf in today’s issue of The Independent. In “Literary haunts: Virginia’s London walks,” she ruminates on what Woolf would think of London today, what her much-sensationalized relationship with her husband, Leonard, was really like, how her dark moods and nervous breakdowns eventually became her undoing and led to an untimely end 70 years ago today, and where bibliophiles can follow in the writer’s footsteps.
If you’re up for a literary-inspired stroll through the city, the Virginia Woolf Society has a self-guided Mrs. Dalloway Walk in London.
“He was a twinkling-eyed, pimple-faced man, with his hair standing upright all over his head; and as he stood with one arm a-kimbo, holding up the glass to the light with the other hand, he looked quite friendly.” –David Copperfield
Among the artwork on display at the Normal Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, is “Boy in a Dining Car.” The painting, which depicts a youngster (the artist’s son) calculating a waiter’s tip for the first time, was inspired by H.K. Browne’s illustration of a scene in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield.
Rockwell’s work, which appeared on the cover of the December 7, 1946, edition of The Saturday Evening Post, is a decidedly more serious take on David Copperfield’s eatery encounter. The Dickens’ title character is en route to a school in London when the coach in which he’s traveling stops for lunch at an inn, and a seemingly friendly waiter ends up enjoying the meal he’s serving to his young customer.
Dickens was Rockwell’s favorite author, an affinity that extended back to his childhood. A Sunday family tradition was listening to his father read the British scribes’ entertaining tales.
The much-loved, furry tourist magnets that live at the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West are famous for being polydactyls–they have six-toed front paws that make them look as if they’re wearing mittens. Like Fats Waller in the picture at left. Today’s New York Times has an article, “For Whom the Cell Mutates: The Origins of Genetic Quirks,” that delves into the science behind what makes a cat polydactyl, along with some insights about Hemingway and his writing. Although they care more about enticing literary travelers to pet them and napping in the garden, Fats Waller and his fellow residents have made it into science lore. “When found in felines,” the Times reports, “the condition, formally known as preaxial polydactyly, is now commonly referred to as a ‘Hemingway cat.’”
If seeing the film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic novel Jane Eyre, which opened in theaters last Friday, has inspired wanderlust, head for Haddon Hall (below left) in the English countryside. Located in Bakewell, Derbyshire, the stand-in for Mr. Rochester’s atmospheric Thornfield Hall is a fortified medieval manor house and one of the oldest dwellings in England.
Some scenes were also shot in the gardens at Chatsworth House (below right)—home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire—which has appeared on film before. It was used for the exterior shots of Mr. Darcy’s house, Pemberley, in the 2005 movie Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen.
Combine a visit to Haddon Hall and Chatsworth House with a trip to the village of Haworth in Yorkshire, the longtime home of Charlotte and her famous sisters, Emily and Anne. Visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum, housed in the siblings’ former abode; take a literary-themed walking tour of the town; and have a pint or two at the Black Bull, a pub their wayward brother Branwell frequented.
One of the most memorable things Joni and I did on our trip to Haworth was amble along the moors to the Brontë sisters’ favorite destination. The picturesque spot has a waterfall and what has been dubbed the “Brontë chair,” which is a stone slab in the shape of a (surprisingly comfortable) chair. It’s a great place to take a breather after the two-and-a-half mile hike to get there.
The Focus Features website has a ton of fascinating information about the making of the film. Also of note: Austenprose.com has a review of the movie by Syrie James, whose novels include The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë and The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. –Shannon McKenna Schmidt
[Photos: Haddon Hall, ©flickr/roger 4336; all others, ©NovelDestinations.com]
In honor of Jack Kerouac’s birthday this Saturday, March 12, Time Out New York has a festive tribute to the On the Road author. In a round-up of “the spots where he wrote, drank and jammed” are a jazz joint, his one-time abode, and a few watering holes, including one of our favorites–the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village.
