The Coughing Gothic Wanderer

A couple of recently published books with Brontë-related content:

The Gothic Wanderer: From Transgression to Redemption; Gothic Literature from 1794 - present Tyler R. Tichelaar (Author), Marie Mulvey-Roberts (Foreword)
Modern History Press (September 1, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-1615991389

From the horrors of sixteenth century Italian castles to twenty-first century plagues, from the French Revolution to the liberation of Libya, Tyler R. Tichelaar takes readers on far more than a journey through literary history. The Gothic Wanderer is an exploration of man's deepest fears, his eff orts to rise above them for the last two centuries, and how he may be on the brink finally of succeeding.

Tichelaar examines the figure of the Gothic wanderer in such well-known Gothic novels as The Mysteries of Udolpho, Frankenstein, and Dracula, as well as lesser known works like Fanny Burney's The Wanderer, Mary Shelley's The Last Man, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Zanoni. He also finds surprising Gothic elements in classics like Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes. From Matthew Lewis' The Monk to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, Tichelaar explores a literary tradition whose characters refl ect our greatest fears and deepest hopes. Readers will find here the revelation that not only are we all Gothic wanderers--but we are so only by our own choosing.

The book also examines Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights according to this Blogcritics review.

Orwell's Cough. Diagnosing the Medical Maladies and Last Gasps of the Great Writers
John Ross
Oneworld Publications
ISBN: 9781851689514
Publication Date: 04/10/2012

Did Shakespeare’s doctors addle his brain with mercury vapour, leading to his premature retirement? Was Jane Eyre inspired by the plagued school that eventually claimed the entire Brontë clan? Did writing 1984 kill George Orwell?
Many of our most beloved scribes struggled to conquer not just writer’s block but a bevy of maladies, which shaped the characters and stories they crafted. John Ross opens his surgery to consult with the likes of Milton, Swift, Melville, and Joyce, to debunk myths and probe muses, both literary and medical. Ross peppers his tales with vivid vignettes of medical practice through the centuries, from Shakespeare’s cloaked visits to Southwark to cure his unsavoury rashes to the arsenic-and-horse-serum jabs given for Yeats’s fevers. With novelistic flair and deep expertise, Ross reveals a wholly new angle on the writer’s life.

More information in Publishers Weekly.

The Telegraph reviews the book and mentions this arguable conclusion about Emily Brontë:

Emily Brontë may have had Asperger syndrome (this seems likelier for the monosyllabic author of Wuthering Heights than for "charming conversationalist" Milton, for whom the same condition is attributed). (Martin Chilton)