Wuthering Heights is not a book for the faint of heart. Yes, it can be misread and pasteurized as a romance kind of novel in the same way you can read
Moby Dick as a novel about whale behaviour. But the inner nature of the book provokes intense answers in the reader. Mind, intense can be positive or negative... and Phil Basset in
the Scotsman belongs in the second category:
"WHEN I hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver" is a witticism often attributed to Hermann Göring. I don't suggest you do that, but I recognise the sentiment. I was once involved in the shooting of a copy of Wuthering Heights with an airgun - God, how I hated that book.
Today's
Times's Bookwise contains a Brontë reference:
Can you name these characters associated with knots? In which books do they appear? Who are the authors? (...)
4 Disguised as an old hag, this man persuaded the governess in his employ to let him read her palm. He spoke mostly of himself. Finally, confessing to his deceit, he asked her to help remove his cloak, saying: “The string is in a knot – help me!” She coolly replied: “Break it, sir.” (Barbara Hall)
If you don't recognize Rochester in drag (
à la gypsy), you need an urgent re-reading of Jane Eyre.
Some old news now:
Los Angeles Times recalls again the Wuthering Heights references in
Stephenie Meyer's novel Eclipse and the
Chicago Sun-Times reminds us also of the influences of the writer Min Jin Lee, author of
Free Food for Millionaires:
Lee cited Tolstoy, Balzac, Flaubert and the Bronte sisters as some of her favorites authors during a chat from her New York home two weeks before her family's move to Japan. (Jae-Ha Kim)
Brontë on the blogosphere:
bollewangenhaptoet remembers her reading of Villette and on
jonofuzzbox one of the latest visitors to Penistone Hill Country Park in Haworth can be seen.
Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Villette, Wuthering Heights
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