When the weather turns dreary, my mind tends to take a mental vacation . . . by planning a dream getaway. If you’re the same—or if you’re lucky enough to, you know, be planning an actual vacation—you may want to look into some far-flung destinations with literary relevance. Whether it’s an author’s hometown or a factual setting that proves important to the plot, here are some (more) of the most interesting places to stop on your book tour.
Oxford, Mississippi, USA
Where: Rowan Oak at 916 Old Taylor Road
Why: Rowan Oak is the name given to William Faulkner’s private home. The Nobel Prize–winning author of such gems as The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying lived there for over forty years, where the surrounding thirty-three acres supposedly served as inspiration for many of his novels. The house itself is in a modified Greek revival style, while the whole estate is located close to Oxford’s historic town square—another popular tourist destination in the city. The grounds are open year-round to the public.
Castelo Novo, Portugal
Where: various sites throughout the country, beginning at Castelo Novo
Why: This is your chance to follow the trail of the titular elephant described in Nobel Prize–winning author José Saramago’s novel The Elephant’s Journey. Begin in the village of Castelo Novo, located on the side of Gardunha mountain range, before moving on to the historic village of Belmonte, where you can tour the impressive Belmonte Jewish Museum. Next up comes Sortelha, then on to Cidadelhe, which Saramago describes as “the heel of the world” and is renowned for its food.
Rochester, Kent, England
Where: the city of Rochester and the Historic Dockyard Chatham
Why: Having grown up just outside Rochester, Charles Dickens wrote some of his most famous novels there, like A Tale of Two Cities, and often mentioned the city specifically. Miss Havisham’s house in Great Expectations, for example, is an actual residence you can visit called the Restoration House. Plaques abound throughout the city detailing how certain places were worked into Dickens’s writing, making it a perfect area for a walking tour. The nearby Historic Dockyard Chatham was famously one of Dickens’s favorite haunts as both a child and an adult, and now includes a maritime museum that sprawls over eighty acres and includes three naval warships.
Lenox, Massachusetts, USA
Where: The Mount at 2 Plunkett Street
Why: The Mount is the name given to the personal home of Edith Wharton, the first female Pulitzer Prize winner for her novel The Age of Innocence. The place where she wrote The House of Mirth and Ethan Frome, and designed by Wharton herself, the mansion offers both guided and self-guided audio tours but is always closed during the winter months. When the main house is open, and for an additional fee, you can get a private tour of Wharton’s personal library. This includes over 2,700 books and showcases personal notes written by the author herself.
Stromness, Orkney, Scotland
Where: various sites throughout the city, beginning at Stromness
Why: Nicknamed the George Mackay Brown Trail after the author of the novel Beside the Ocean of Time, as well as many different poetry collections and plays, this path begins not only in Mackay’s hometown of Stromness, where he lived most of his life, but at the exact spot of his birth. From there, you can follow the trail through the streets of the town where various plaques point out sites that directly influenced his literary work. Also within walking distance is a cemetery in the town of Warebeth, where Brown was buried in 1996. For a more majestic view of the area, take the alternative route up Brinkie’s Brae.
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Where: Canada’s easternmost province
Why: Going way, way back for a moment, take a look at the site of the earliest evidence of European settlement in North America. Called L’Anse aux Meadows, this is where famed Viking explorer Leif Erikson was thought to spend many years collecting adventures that are in what is now referred to as the Vinland Saga—a thirteenth-century tome that consists of The Saga of the Greenlanders and Erik the Red’s Saga, which describes Erikson’s first Norse expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador and includes tales of his father, Erik “the Red” Erickson, who is thought to be the first to discover Greenland.
Beijing, China
Where: various sites throughout the city
Why: As China’s capital city, Beijing is home to countless cultural and historic landmarks. But many people tend to overlook the fact that it is also the birthplace of many influential writers. Lu Xun, author of short stories like “Diary of a Madman” and “The True Story of Ah Q,” is considered the father of modern Chinese literature and lived there from 1912 until 1926. An important figure in the 1919 May Fourth Movement—a student-led movement that called for the rejection of traditional Confucian values in favor of more scientific thought and Western democracy—Lu Xun now has a two-story museum dedicated to his works. It houses copies of his writings, including some first editions, personal belongings, and photographs.
Beijing is also where the former home of Cao Xueqin is located. Now a memorial, the eighteen-room home is surrounded by a courtyard and found inside the Beijing Botanical Garden. Xueqin wrote Dream of the Red Chamber in the eighteenth century, a book that China considers one of its four great classical novels and explores what life was like for Qing dynasty aristocratic women. The memorial itself showcases Cao Xueqin’s personal items and insights into his life and work, with a special emphasis on his most famous novel.
Andrea Moran lives outside of Nashville with her husband and two kids. She’s a professional copywriter and editor who loves all things books. Find her on LinkedIn.
