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Charlotte Brontë and Christianity 1<br />
Christine Alexander<br />
Adapted from a talk given to the ABA on 24th July 2010<br />
There is an apocryphal story told about Charlotte Brontë as a child. An early<br />
biographer 2 says that at six years old, fired by the descriptions of the celestial<br />
city in John Bunyan’s famous book The Pilgrim’s Progress, she set off for<br />
Bradford in Yorkshire, England—some twelve miles away from the<br />
moorland village of Haworth where she lived—in the hope of reaching her<br />
dream city. She barely reached the outskirts of the village before an anxious<br />
servant rescued her and brought her home; but the incident is significant.<br />
Bunyan’s story is about the journey of Christian, an everyman, carrying his<br />
sinful burden through the trials of life as he sets off for the Promised Land,<br />
the heavenly kingdom. This narrative of Christian pilgrimage caught hold of<br />
Charlotte Brontë’s imagination as a young child and remained with her as a<br />
creative inspiration and, I think, a guiding hope throughout her life.<br />
Haworoth Church<br />
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