5 destinations for European literature lovers

Explore your favorite work of literature further with some travel

A great story can transport the reader, but there are also plenty of real world locations that honor and celebrate your favorite authors. These locations often attract visitors from around the world. All over Europe, you can visit monuments, landmarks and family homes of famous authors as well as some locations where they penned their famous works.

1. Paris — Oscar Wilde

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This author is famous for The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Ernest and found his final resting place in Paris, France. Today, his monument and tomb stands proudly in Père Lachaise Cemetery. The monument took ten months to complete by sculptor Jacob Epstein. Traditionally, women would place a kiss on the monument when visiting, but a renovation of the monument in 2011 added a glass panel to prevent anyone from getting too close.

2. Verona, Italy — Shakespeare

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Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous love stores written in the English language. The play is set in Verona and you can actually visit a balcony named after Juliet in the city. The 14th century two-story stone cottage was home to the Cappello family that Shakespeare is rumored to have developed the family name Capulet. Today, visitors from around the world leave notes and letters asking for advice or support from Juliet in their own love lives.

3. London — Charles Dickens

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Visit the building where Dickens wrote Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, and Nicholas Nickleby at 48 Doughty Street, the author's London home. Take a tour of his study, family bedchambers, and the servants' quarters below stairs. All of the rooms are dressed with the Dickens family's furniture, table ware, portraits, marble busts, china ornaments and paintings. You can also see Dickens's writing desk, his handwritten drafts from novels he wrote there, and his young wife's engagement ring.

4. St. Petersburg, Russia — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky became famous for his novels including Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. A memorial museum in his honor was established in his apartment home in 1972. The heart of the museum is a reconstruction of his family's home and features a display of Dostoyevsky's literary life. The apartment was his home while he wrote some of his most famous works and was faithfully recreated based on memoirs from his wife and his friends.

5. Edinburg, Scotland — J.K. Rowling

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For Harry Potter fans, J.K. Rowling is most likely their favorite author. You can experience the magic of the Wizarding World in Orlando — but you can also see the real-life inspiration for Diagon Alley in Edinburg's Victoria Street. This is the location were Rowling penned the first Harry Potter book while seated in a local coffee shop. In the city, you can also visit Grey Friars Cemetery to find the grave of Thomas Riddle, which was Voldemort's given name, as well as the hotel suite in which Rowling wrote the last book of the series. Locals also believe that Hogwarts was modeled after the local George Heriot's School.


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