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Brontë Parsonage Museum
This new publication follows one of the great British literary shrines, the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, home to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë and their brother Branwell. Here the sisters wrote their remarkable novels, including Jane Eyre,Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and the parsonage became a focus of literary tourism even during Charlotte's lifetime.
With an illuminating introduction by Professor Ann Sumner, Executive Director of The Brontë Society, this beautifully produced book follows a major refurbishment of the parsonage, based on historical research and scientific investigation to produce a historically accurate scheme.
With an illuminating introduction by Professor Ann Sumner, Executive Director of The Brontë Society, this beautifully produced book follows a major refurbishment of the parsonage, based on historical research and scientific investigation to produce a historically accurate scheme.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
48 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 6, 2017
Great memento of my visit there in September, 2017.
September 29, 2025
I spent a couple of days in Haworth a few months back and when I preordered my ticket I also arranged to pick up a guide book. This gives a brief history of the Brontes, Haworth and the building and includes lots of lovely photos and illustrations.
June 12, 2025
Whenever we go to a tourist venue or museum, we do like to have a guidebook to help us around or to provide further information afterwards. Generally, we’ll order these with the tickets if we can, or buy them on arrival, but I don’t recall ever being advised on the door not to buy the guide at that stage but to wait until afterwards. But having been through the museum and then reading Ann Dinsdale’s “Brontë Parsonage Museum”, I can quite understand the advice we were given and agree with it.
The first part of the guide is a history of the family, with the timelines of their lives, most of them sadly much shorter than we’re used to in modern times. This is followed by a brief history of Haworth as it would have been in their lifetime, but the majority of the guide takes you through the museum itself. The guide ends with a little bit about how the Brontë name has lived on in literature and on screen and a section about the museum and the trust itself and how both came into being and the ways you can support
The main section of the guide does replicate a lot of the information that you can read on the display boards as you go around, which then makes sense that you don’t need the guide in hand at the time of the visit. But even these sections have a little more depth than is present there and adds a little depth about how the items came to be and their provenance. But what’s here is detailed enough, in both pictures and text, to provide a decent reminder of the visit and there is so much around this, with the history and the legacy they left that it’s even more worth taking away and reading more slowly.
This guide is exactly what I like in a guide, as it’s useful at the time, even if it’s technically a little extraneous, but it’s better reading afterwards. It’s informative and educational and Ann Dinsdale’s writing makes clear that she has a reverence for her subject, both the people and the place. Whilst the Parsonage is an experience worth having, this is very close to being there with everything it contains.
The first part of the guide is a history of the family, with the timelines of their lives, most of them sadly much shorter than we’re used to in modern times. This is followed by a brief history of Haworth as it would have been in their lifetime, but the majority of the guide takes you through the museum itself. The guide ends with a little bit about how the Brontë name has lived on in literature and on screen and a section about the museum and the trust itself and how both came into being and the ways you can support
The main section of the guide does replicate a lot of the information that you can read on the display boards as you go around, which then makes sense that you don’t need the guide in hand at the time of the visit. But even these sections have a little more depth than is present there and adds a little depth about how the items came to be and their provenance. But what’s here is detailed enough, in both pictures and text, to provide a decent reminder of the visit and there is so much around this, with the history and the legacy they left that it’s even more worth taking away and reading more slowly.
This guide is exactly what I like in a guide, as it’s useful at the time, even if it’s technically a little extraneous, but it’s better reading afterwards. It’s informative and educational and Ann Dinsdale’s writing makes clear that she has a reverence for her subject, both the people and the place. Whilst the Parsonage is an experience worth having, this is very close to being there with everything it contains.
August 27, 2019
A quick read of the official book for the Bronte Parsonage Museum that I visited in 2018. Much of the information was things I had remembered reading in the museum, but I enjoyed re-learning them during my read.
I find it amazing how much memorabilia from the Bronte sisters was actually retained and could be displayed in this lovely museum. I have a sneaking suspicion that they learned something from the mistakes they made with Jane Austen (i.e. not having kept almost anything of such an iconic and famous author). For myself, I would prefer more Jane, but I greatly appreciated what was present from the Bronte's lives.
I find it amazing how much memorabilia from the Bronte sisters was actually retained and could be displayed in this lovely museum. I have a sneaking suspicion that they learned something from the mistakes they made with Jane Austen (i.e. not having kept almost anything of such an iconic and famous author). For myself, I would prefer more Jane, but I greatly appreciated what was present from the Bronte's lives.
September 7, 2025
Great guidebook to the Bronte Parsonage Museum. I love the Brontes and have made a pilgrimage to Haworth now three times to walk in the steps of the Brontes. First visit was in 1994 and then in 2000 and finally in 2025 just last month when I was travelling in the UK.
This book is a brief summary of the lives and works of the Bronte family and in particular the Parsonage that they called home.
The Parsonage has been meticulously preserved and is a must visit for any true Bronte fan.
This book does well in outlining the lives of the Brontes and their home.
This book is a brief summary of the lives and works of the Bronte family and in particular the Parsonage that they called home.
The Parsonage has been meticulously preserved and is a must visit for any true Bronte fan.
This book does well in outlining the lives of the Brontes and their home.
July 15, 2019
A brief outline on the contents in the Bronte Parsonage, famed for being the home of the Bronte family. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne all wrote their famous books here.
August 31, 2015
I obtained a copy of this booklet at the start of my visit to the Brontë Parsonage Museum on August 2015. It features several quality photos of rooms withing the parsonage accompanied by informative text, plus images of the Brontë family's drawings and other related pictures.
Would've rated this booklet five stars had it been a little longer or more in-depth, but this is still a good memento of a great experience that a visit to the parsonage and Brontë country is. I give five stars for my time spent in Haworth where my favourite author, Anne Brontë, once lived, along with her talented sisters Charlotte and Emily, who I also greatly admire.
Would've rated this booklet five stars had it been a little longer or more in-depth, but this is still a good memento of a great experience that a visit to the parsonage and Brontë country is. I give five stars for my time spent in Haworth where my favourite author, Anne Brontë, once lived, along with her talented sisters Charlotte and Emily, who I also greatly admire.
September 3, 2016
My husband and I visited the Bronte Parsonage Museum in June and bought this small guide mainly because no photography was permitted inside the parsonage. For what it is, this book does a good job, although it would have been nice to have insets showing enlarged views of things like wallpaper patterns. During our visit, we were shown a slide presentation which provided the history of the family; I wish more of that had been included in the book. Branwell's death is the only one mentioned more than in passing. It was the story of the multiple significant losses in such a short period of time that impacted me most.
December 16, 2022
The Brontë Parsonage was bought by Sir James Robert in 1927 to be donated to the Brontë Society - who quickly worked to restore the building and acquire belongings in time to open to the public as a museum in 1928. In their short lives, all three Brontë sisters made their mark on history with literature that has been studied and loved for over a century. This book was such a fun source for historical information about the Brontë family, as well as the history of Haworth and the parsonage the Brontës lived and wrote in. It vividly brought to mind all my cherished memories of visiting Haworth.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews