Visitors to the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth are being invited to re-create the long lost handwritten manuscript of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights.
The project, ahead of celebrations for the bicentenary of Emily’s birth, is the creation of artist Clare Twomey. Because the original manuscript of the 1847 novel was lost, visitors are being offered the opportunity to copy Wuthering Heights, a sentence at a time, into a hand-made book.
Thousands of special pencils have been produced to write the book and visitors will be allowed to keep them as a memento.
The project, which launched earlier this month and is supported by the Arts Council, runs until January 1, 2018. After that the book will be displayed at the museum during the bicentenary celebrations.
Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the parsonage, copied the first sentence of Wuthering Heights – “1801 – I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with” – into the commissioned book.
Jenna Holmes, arts officer, explains the thinking behind the work: “It’s a simple but very powerful work, which we think will strike a chord with visitors to the museum this year. We hope they will find it a rich experience to participate in the mass act of writing.” The museum will publish regular updates and excerpts from the book through social media (#WHManuscript).
Entry to the parsonage museum is £8.50 for adults and £4 for children. The venue is open every day from 10am until 5.30pm.
