Shakespeare's Birthplace
SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHHOUSE IN STRATFORD UPON AVON
One of the Gods undisputed names of universal letters becomes flesh in the charming town where he was born and to which he has given worldwide fame. Stratford upon Avon maintains a delicate balance between being the probably greatest shakespearean relic and a town with its own identity. Waves of tourists travel the course of the Avon and visit its characteristic houses with wooden beams in the air, good example of rural life in the 16th century.
We can't help but feel a little envious of this miracle of conservation and British mythomania that has managed to ensure that Shakespeare's **Jacobin style houses**, that of his mother or that of the daughter of him Open as a museum and place of visit for more than two centuries, the birthplace-workshop-farm long ago he became a temple to which to pilgrimage, and was visited by some of the other English geniuses who also appear for this article.
Shakespeare's House
JANE AUSTEN'S HOME IN CHAWTON
We already gave a good account of the different homes that the family had Austen here, but the red brick house of chawton deserves a special mention because it is considered (somewhat at odds with bathroom ) the mecca of austenism (one of those profane religions with thousands of followers), and above all because Jane loved living there (not like in Bath) and she was very sorry to have to leave her. Letters, period furniture, dresses and above all the famous little table on which she wrote Mansfield Park or Emma and dealt with the publication of his first successful novels. A house in full rural countryside populated by women that could be taken directly from the plot of one of his books.
The home where Jane Austen loved to live
HAWORTH, THE HOME OF THE BRÖNTE SISTERS
a little house sinister next to the cemetery , an obscurantist rural society surrounded by moors and a family history dotted with premature deaths . This was the perfect environment for the tempestuous writing of Charlotte, Emily and Anne (the eternal forgotten) bronte . Or maybe it wasn't that bad and the whole gothic atmosphere is an addition to the legend of the sisters. It is true that they had a short, intense life full of family misfortunes, but that was commonplace in their time.
Her father rose from humble beginnings to become a parish priest ( Haworth it was her longest destiny, and the house is full of memories of her children's childhood and youth, when they played to create the kingdoms of Angria and Gondal) and the sisters received an education typical of young ladies of their time (with small tortures included that served as inspiration for Charlotte for Jane Eyre's boarding school) . Although the legend likes to present them locked up Emily Dickinson lost in their own world of fiction and darkness, the truth is that they traveled (even to Brussels ), her novels were successful and were not disconnected from the cultural scene of their time. Everything in its proper measure, of course.
to the region of yorkshire likes to showcase strings of places that inspired women writers, even organizing tours of the “ wuthering heights And the moors that she walked jane eyre , but the approach to reality, fiction and myth of the Brönte sisters goes beyond any tour package.
Haworth, the house of the Brönte sisters
THE JOHN KEATS HOUSE IN LONDON
Talk about kats is to talk about friendships between geniuses, premature deaths, the curse of tuberculosis, poetry and ode to a greek urn . Almost everything is contained in this white building despite the fact that he only lived here for two years, before retiring to Rome to try in vain to get better from his illness. Here I would write Ode to a nightingale Y he would fall in love with the girl next door . Today it commemorates the work of Keats and universal poetry.
In this house John Keats would write Ode to a Nightingale
THE DICKENS HOUSE MUSEUM
dickens he is one of those authors in which the surname has become an adjective that defines a very specific era; one of the authors who are irrevocably associated with a city and with whose life and work a complete urban itinerary could be traced. A) Yes, London and Dickens they live an idyll that is in good health centuries after the author's death and his museum house is a good place to check it out.
Although the writer only lived here between 1837 and 1839 (relocations were a constant in his life, splashing blue plaques that identify the homes of famous artists in London today), the exhibited collection is extremely detailed because it has been accumulating objects from the later (and more affluent) dwellings of the family , none of which have been preserved. Furniture, manuscripts, countless portraits and photographs and personal belongings of the family are kept in its rooms, including the mahogany desk at which he wrote his last works.
The museum is a good starting point to follow the route through the surviving streets of David Copperfield or the sordid victorian world of Oliver Twist (written here).
It was in this house that Dickens wrote his last works.
THE SHERLOCK HOLMES MUSEUM
A bit of metafiction game. we all know that Sherlock Holmes is not a real character, and if we make the effort (not very difficult) to believe in his existence, the author of his exploits would not be him, but the doctor watson , with whom he shared rooms in Baker Street until he married Mary and moved house. If the English have set up a whole house museum around an imaginary character , we are not going to be so stale as not to pretend that we believe it. In addition, the house is a joy for the fan who the same recreate scenes from some of the most famous tales (with figures somewhat like a wax museum) that preserves all the details of the Holmesian paraphernalia to the delight of the Baker Street irregulars: the VR initials patriotic drawn in bullets on a wall, the violin, the pipe, the drugs that worried Watson so much, the railway guides with the schedules of the next train destination Sussex, the Gotham …
The museum recreates some of the most famous stories
GREENWAY, AGATHA CHRISTIE'S SUMMER HOME IN DEVON
Torquay and Devon are a constant celebration of genius bestseller creator of Poirot or Miss Marple . In addition to attending the festival so kitsch which can only be cool that we already mentioned above, fans of Christie Agatha You can't skip a visit to the vacation home bought in 1938 by Christie and her second husband. A mansion perched above the river with manicured gardens, gleaming china and welcome animals that would not be out of place in one of her novels. In fact, he was inspired by it to describe the houses of “ five little pigs " Y " towards zero ”, and the jetty served as inspiration for the novel “ The Nasse-House bandstand ”.
Agatha Christie's lovely summer house
SHAW'S CORNER IN HERTFORDSHIRE
Of the almost one hundred years that she lived the bearded and highly respected George Bernard Shaw , here he spent the last forty. The beautiful house converted into a museum manages to maintain the homey air of the first half of the 20th century while glossing the work of probably the only person capable of winning a Nobel Prize and an Oscar r (both exposed) . In the very pleasant and British gardens the writing hut that she used to abstract herself from the world , write his plays and create a long string of aphorisms and clever phrases to dazzle any party.
Shaws Corner converted into a homey museum
THE TOLKIEN ROUTE IN OXFORD
Travel Oxford without making a literary route it is almost impossible. Beyond Lewis Carroll or Oscar Wilde , is the immense popularity of Tolkien the one that entices Middle-earth fans to follow in the Professor's footsteps while dodging bikes. The house in which he wrote " The Lord of the rings " Y " The Hobbit ” belongs to an anonymous owner and cannot be visited (for fetishists who want to contemplate its rather ugly exterior, it is at 20 Northmoor Road), but Oxford is steeped in the tolkenian universe.
In addition to going to pay respects to his grave in the Wolvercote Cemetery , you have to approach the Pembroke and Merton colleges where he taught English literature and philology in a way, judging by his students, rather tedious. The classic visit that I could not miss is that of the tavern The Eagle and the child that Tolkien frequented with CS Lewis and other Inklings . It is essential to sit in this pub to evoke literary societies, marijuana, platonic love and invented languages.
The "Merton Student House"
ROALD DAHL'S WRITING CABIN IN GREAT MISSENDEN
The freaked out children of “ Matilda ”, “ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory " either " The witches ” and judicious adults who know the “ tales of the unexpected ” or hilarious “ my uncle oswald "They should immediately make a pilgrimage to his writing hut (yes, he had one too), the shelter originally set up in the garden of his house in which Roald Dahl I know locked up to work . The original dilapidated air is maintained a bit, the chair in which she sat to write by hand, personal photographs, human bones, puzzles and the “ idea book ”In which she wrote down the outbreaks of inspiration that she was having. The small museum that houses the structure organizes a multitude of activities for children and delves into the life and work of the author, passion for airplanes, chocolate and irony included.