BrontëBlog: Sturmherz

Sturmherz by Sabine Klaus is a recently published novel (Lerato-Verlag) in German, highly Brontë-related. Wuthering Heights (Sturmhöhe in German) in particular seems to be at the very core of the novel.

We have contacted the author and she has kindly provided us with a summary and some comments about the novel.

'Sturmherz' takes place in a small, urban village named Haworth that is on 'The Lizard' (Cornwall).
The story plays on two time levels, one from the 1947-1970 (past), the second in 1994 (present).

1949 / Haworth
Half animal, half human. At least that is how the baby with the thick haircoat on its body looks like. Shocked by this looks Nelly Hareton hides her newborn baby daughter Joy in the shed behind the house. Only one person immediately falls in love with the unusual creature and saves her from the winter temperatures: Joys older brother Samson.

The hair drops out but within Joy remains a wild spirit. Samson is enchanted by her temper but over the years the deep affection he has for his sister prove to be a curse. Because at the age of 20 (1969) Joy commits a murder. Without any cognizable motive she shoots the 51 year old, Irish teacher Henry Linton before she surrenders herself to the police.

The following court case is unable to resolve Joy's reasons for murdering Henry as she remains silently. Well, not completely: "Heathcliff". The name of Emily Bronte's brute gypsy is her only word of defence. In October 1969 she is sentenced to death. Although the House of Commons
abolishes the 'Capital Crime Punishment Act' the same year, Joy insists on her verdict and gets hung. Being caught in total despair Samson leaves Haworth for good. He does not suspect that the secret of the murderer is not dead but still kept by Reverend Edgar Lockwood, the Hangman Noel Pierrepoint and Louise, Henry's only sister. Their behaviour is not altruistic as each of them pursues his own plan which keeps them silent although they hate each other for numerous reasons. They even prefer to leave Samson to despair and alcohol instead of telling him the truth.

25 years it seems to work out them until (1994) Pierrepoint -being close to death after two strokes- is tortured by pangs of conscience. Although he risks his life he searches for Samson in order to persuade him to come back to Haworth. He tells him that otherwise "Joy will die a second time without you knowing the truth."

The Wuthering Heights connection is clarified by the author:

It is not essential to have read 'Wuthering Heights' in order to understand 'Sturmherz'. Nonetheless it is a homage to it. The first sentence in the book is a quote from 'Wuthering Heights' (with many more to follow). As children Joy and Samson discover the book in an old chest and both, esp. Joy, get obsessed with it. They read it again and again and their lives some how get connected to the story.
Many names from 'Wuthering Heights' are used in my novel (e.g. when Samson returns to Haworth he meets Catherine - a main character) and the whole mystery evolves about who Heathcliff is and why Joy said his name in her defence for murdering Henry Linton.

Many names from 'Wuthering Heights' are used in my novel (e.g. when Samson returns to Haworth he meets Catherine - a main character) and the whole mystery evolves about who Heathcliff is and why Joy said his name in her defence for murdering Henry Linton.

When Joy and Samson first find the book they unleash a sort of curse, very closely linked to the story of 'Wuthering Heights' by somehow repeating its story in a different set. Samson Hareton's only chance of leaving the vicious circle is to relive the past in order create the future he wants.