Search - Bronte Country on DVD

Haworth's divine trinity...

Steven Cain | Temporal Quantum Pocket | 03/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a very well made and very informative DVD. While it didn't teach me anything new, that is only because I have read a great deal about the Brontes. So much so, that I can tell how much useful information this contains.

The scenery is wonderful, and the content and pacing is good, as is Liam's narration. The only complaint I have is that there is no guided tour of the Parsonage, the Bronte family home. This would have been the icing on the cake.

For the record, the Parsonage has been preserved in its 1850's layout, after Charlotte, the longest surviving sister, and her husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls, had carried out certain alterations, such as expanding Charlotte's room at the expense of narrowing what had been Emily's room, and widening the dining room at the expense of narrowing the entrance hallway.

I visited Haworth twice during my time in the UK, and this DVD gives you a good quick guide to the area. For any future documentaries, I would only request that they include a guided tour of the Parsonage and the much-haunted Black Bull pub, which Branwell used to frequent.

Well worth the money."

This is a blend of stories...

S. Hebbron | Leicester UK | 07/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...it focuses on the the region around Howarth, the small and hilly town nestling in the dramatic and often unforgiving portion of the Western Yorkshire Moorland which seperates the county from it's neighbour, Lancashire. Equally it focuses on the lives of the Bronte Family from their arrival in Howarth, their Father was the town's new Rector and Irish by birth, through the death of the one remaining Sister, Charlotte.
The story of the Sisters is told in well acted flashback sequencing and the anomalies of the story are also eluded to, such as the belief some had that Charlotte destroyed a remaining manuscript written by Emily, after Emily's untimely death from TB. It is a belief that suggests either Charlotte was jealous of her Sister's success with her novel, Wuthering Heights, or that following bad press about the great novel Emily penned, Charlotte burned the second manuscript to protect her dear departed Sisters memory. It is not even clear if these beliefs have any foundation in truth, this drama does not shy away from it however. The story is a s dramtic and as tragic as the novels the women produced and the landscape they lived in is every bit as wild, harsh and brutal as they suggest.
I hope this inspires fans of the great ladies to visit Howarth because in my opinion in enrichens the work they produced to place it context, obviously Howarth today is not as it was then but you get a sense of it and their former home, as this DVD points out, is now the "Bronte Parsonage Museum". It contains artifacts such as original manuscripts, the sofa on which Emily breathed her last and one of Charlotte's crinolines.
The Moors which so inspired them have changed not at all and as this film suggests you can get a real sense of Kathy's desperation in wild rain and wind."

VICTORIAN DAYS OF THE BRONTES

Jerry W. Watkins | HIXSON (CHATTANOOGA), TENNESSEE | 03/08/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED VISITING THE BRONTE COUNTRY VIA OF DVD. I ENJOY ANYTHING BY THE BRONTES!!! IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN SEEING HOW OR WHERE THE BRONTES LIVED, THIS WOULD BE A GREAT TOOL. IT'S SO AMAZING TO SEE THE HOME SCENES WHERE THEY LIVED AND WENT TO CHURCH AT HAWORTH,YORKSHIRE,ENGLAND. DURING THE TIME OF THEIR RESIDENCY AT HAWORTH, THE AVERAGE AGE OF DEATH WAS 25 YEARS OF AGE. HAWORTH HAD NO DRAINAGE/SEPTIC/OR CLEAN DRINKING WATER FACILITIES. THE DRINKING WATER RAN THROUGH THE HAWORTH GRAVEYARD WHERE THE BRONTES LIVED IN THE PARSONAGE. THERE WERE GRAVESITES ON THREE SIDES OF THE PARSONAGE, SO ONE CAN SEE WHERE THE DRINKING RAN THROUGH AND CAUSED POLLUTION AND DISEASE, RESULTING IN SOME EARLY DEATHS.
JERRY W.WATKINS"