Places that inspired bestselling writers
It is no secret that many invented countries and worlds, like literary characters, have very real prototypes. The landscapes seen on a journey or remembered in childhood sometimes inspire writers so much that they simply can’t help but talk about them in their books. We’ve gathered a few places that have inspired famous authors to create famous books.
“Puzzlewood’s Fairytale Forest. UK
Puzzlewood is a forest with a unique landscape. In Roman times, ore was mined here. When the mines were abandoned, nature restored the forest cover, and special folds of “scola” were formed on the site of the former quarries.
Secret paths, unusual boulders and small caves make this forest look like a fairy tale country: you just wait for some unusual creature to appear from an old hollow. It is believed that J.R.R. Tolkien copied the Old Forest, Lycholsie, Fangorn and Lorien, which appear in The Lord of the Rings, from the landscapes of Puzzlewood.
“The forest on either side grew thicker and thicker: the interlocking trees were younger and their trunks thicker; then the path deepened into a hollow, with hazel thickets overhanging to the right and left. At last the elves turned into the thickest of the thicket, where suddenly, as if by some miracle, a narrow green glade opened; narrower and narrower were the high walls of trees – but suddenly they parted, and in front there was a flat meadow, matte gray in the night light. On three sides it was surrounded by forest; and on the east it had a steep slope, and the mighty tree crowns rose to his feet from somewhere below.”
By the way, Puzzlewood is part of the Forest of Dean, where Joan Rowling also visited. It is possible that the Forbidden Forest in the Harry Potter universe is also connected to this amazing place.
Ashdown Forest is the home of Winnie the Pooh. United Kingdom
“The sun was still lounging in bed, but the sky above the Deadwood Forest glowed slightly, as if to say that the sun was already waking up and would soon come out from under the covers. In the dawn twilight the Pines seemed sad and lonely; the Very Deep Pit seemed even deeper than it was, and the honey pot that stood at the bottom was quite ghostly, like a shadow.
Another famous British forest that inspired literary opuses. This is where all the adventures of Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh and their friends happened. In 1925, Alan Milne bought a country house near Ashdown, and his young son often ran there to play. Christopher’s accounts of his hikes and tales of childhood discoveries formed the basis of the story of the animated teddy bear. Incidentally, artist Ernest Shepherd, who illustrated Milne’s books, painted the Ashdown Forest from life.
“Anyone who has read the Winnie the Pooh book knows this forest, and I don’t need to tell you about it,” the now-grown-up Christopher Robin wrote.
Aracataca is the existing Macondo. Colombia
«Они стояли на краю узкой, круто уходящей вниз лощины, по дну которой протекала — вернее протекала бы, если бы ее не сковал лед, — довольно широкая река. А прямо под ногами реку перерезала плотина. <…>
Выше плотины была глубокая заводь, вернее, была когда-то, — сейчас, естественно, они видели ровную поверхность темно-зеленого льда. Ниже плотины, далеко внизу, тоже был лед, но не ровный, а самых причудливых очертаний — пенный каскад воды, схваченный морозом в одно мгновение. Там, где раньше вода переливалась струйками через плотину или просачивалась сквозь нее, сейчас сверкала стена сосулек, словно цветы, венки и гирлянды из белоснежного сахара».
“Two dozen huts built of clay and bamboo on the bank of a river that rushed its clear waters over a bed of white polished stones as large as prehistoric eggs.
Gabriel García Márquez spent his childhood in a Colombian town with the poetic name of Aracataca. The boy was raised by his mother’s parents, and it was they who introduced the future writer to national legends. But do not think that the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is based only on them. The description of Macondo, for example, fully coincides with what can be seen in Aracataca, and character traits, as well as some moments of biography, Marquez borrowed from his closest relatives. For example, his grandmother was his grandfather’s cousin, and his grandfather, Colonel Nicolas Ricardo Marquez Mejía, excelled at making souvenirs in the form of goldfish.
Lake Como is the place where there is an entrance to the underworld. Italy
“I didn’t sit at home that day. I prowled around the city without purpose, went into the Gothic cathedral and gazed at the beautiful paintings of Bernardino Luini without pleasure. I stumbled over baskets of figs and grapes and once even knocked over a whole tray of hot chestnuts. You should know that in Como they roast chestnuts in the streets; this custom also exists in other Italian cities, but nowhere have I seen so many roasters and pans as here.
Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy made his debut with stories about vampires. One of his first short stories was the gothic short story The Dead Man’s Family, but this work remained unpublished. In 1838 he traveled to Lake Como (Italy) with his cesarevitch Alexander (the future Alexander II), from where he sent letters to his wife about the Villa Remondi and a girl named Pepina. This villa and the writer’s new acquaintance appear in his next story, The Ghoul. Here, as in “The Dead Man’s Family,” it’s about vampires who come from Eastern Europe (hello Count Dracula!), but the story also has an Italian plot, as well as characters from ancient mythology.
Today literary historians agree that it was a trip to Como that inspired Tolstoy’s The Ghoul. It’s hard to say why it was the gothic tale of the descent into the underworld that came to the writer’s mind on this idyllic-looking lake. Perhaps it struck him by its depth.
Yorkshire Wetlands. United Kingdom
“I begged my way back to earth; and the angels became angry and threw me down right into the heath on Wuthering Heath; and there I awoke weeping for joy.”
In 1845, the English novelist Anne Brontë arranged for herself and her sister Emily to take a short trip to Yorkshire. The trip left such a strong impression on Emily, who rarely left home, that upon her return she wrote a novel, Wuthering Heights. The story of the tragic love of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff is intertwined here with detailed descriptions of rural life and natural phenomena. The novel is set on the heathlands of Yorkshire, which has now become one of Britain’s top tourist destinations.
Where the real Narnia lies. Ireland
If you look at a map of Italy, not far from Rome you will see the town of Narnia, whose population is now only about 20 thousand people. The name of the town really gave Clive Staples Lewis the name for his famous country. But that’s all Italy, which the writer had never been to, could do for his famous novel. In fact, the scenery of Narnia is drawn from the vicinity of the Morne (or Morne) Mountains, located in the Irish county of Down. Lewis didn’t even have to go anywhere to do it, because he was born in those places.
Agatha Christie’s Egypt
“Pensive,” Renicenb sat at the entrance to the grotto near the tomb and kept her eyes on Neal. It seemed to her like a long time ago, when she first came up here after her return to her father’s house. Then she said cheerfully that nothing had changed in the house, that everything was exactly as it had been before she left eight years ago.”
As the wife of an archaeologist, Agatha Christie often visited the land of the pyramids, where her husband, Sir Max Mallone, worked. Egypt appears in several of Lady Agatha’s detectives, the action of one of which she even transported to the time of the pharaohs. “Death Comes at the End is Christie’s only historical novel. The plot is based on the texts of papyri discovered in 1921-1922, known to historians as the Papyri of the scribe Heck-necht, and as Hercule Poirot here is a young scribe Hori, who serves as a manager in the house of a rich farmer Imhoteb. Thanks to his powers of observation, he manages to uncover a string of brutal murders in his master’s house.