Emily Brontë's astonishing maturity

Artist Jonathan Barry writes about his illustrations for an edition of Wuthering Heights in The Irish Times.

Wuthering Heights is not just an exceptional novel – it is a Gothic masterpiece of artistic vision, spun together by the literary genius of Emily Brontë’s imagination. It surprised readers then, and it still shocks and lures us in today.

So what marks it out as a must read? There are several compelling reasons to enter its dark world; there is Brontë’s superb, fluid, modern prose, her delicious turn of phrase, the novel’s unique setting and atmosphere, the outstanding romantic protagonists Cathy and Heathcliff, its striking supernatural undercurrents, and its scenes that can never be forgotten by the reader.

Great prose writers are not as common as you think, but Emily was one of the finest. It’s hard to believe that someone so young could write with such astonishing maturity as a first-time novelist. She was only 19 when she started it and most Brontë scholars believe that she completed the text by her 24th birthday – a fine achievement in itself. But what stands out to anyone reading Wuthering Heights today is the absolute modernity of the prose. It reads like a novel that could have been written a year ago. Her style is fluid, clear, confident and eminently readable for all age groups. At times it resembles a screenplay. Sadly, it was to be her only novel. [...]

When I was asked to illustrate Wuthering Heights some years ago, I visited the parsonage on several occasions. To research my drawings I walked all of the moors that Emily trod each day, and visited the same ruins, buildings and natural landmarks that she was familiar with.

I was struck by the astonishing beauty of the moors and felt as if I was transposed into the living, breathing world of the novel. My visits to the ruin called Top Withens (which Emily used as her model for the fictional building of Wuthering Heights,) left me mightily impressed with its close resemblance to the doomed house in the story. Emily had a brilliant eye for choosing a dramatic architectural structure.

On Good Morning America, writers Fiona Davis and Asha Lemmie share their Women's History Month book picks and one of them is

"Brontë's Mistress" by Finola Austin

"A bold historical portrait from the perspective of a woman often maligned in men's history books, the woman who seduced the brother of the famous Brontë sisters. I loved that this novel took a nuanced, compassionate look at a character like Lydia Robinson." (Angeline Jane Bernabe)

Grupo La Provincia (Argentina) has Gabriela Margall write about her latest novel La institutriz.

Un amor maduro, el particular modo de vida de las clases acomodadas porteñas a comienzos del siglo XX y los secretos más oscuros de una familia son los ejes de “La institutriz”, la novela más reciente de Gabriela Margall que suma elementos del gótico a su tradicional narrativa romántica y que con reminiscencias de “Jane Eyre” -el célebre libro de Carlota Brontë- cuenta la historia de Elizabeth Shaw, una mujer inglesa que llegó al Río de la Plata a trabajar como institutriz. (Translation)

Las Provincias (Spain) has a short story with a Brontë mention:

Laura se ha ido. Sin ruido. Tranquila y en silencio. Casi de improviso. Vencida tan rápido por la enfermedad que, a cada instante, me descubro todavía con una súplica en los labios y los dedos cruzados a la espalda, rogando despertar de esta pesadilla cruel y verla de nuevo sonreír; arreglar con mimo las rosas del jardín; pasear con descuido entre los tilos a la caída de la tarde; releer ensimismada, tras los cristales de cualquier café, las historias de Jane Austen o las hermanas Brontë, siempre sus favoritas, romántica impenitente como fue. (Marta Navarro) (Translation)

The Telegraph and Argus reminds its readers that Ponden Hall is still for sale. Brussels Brontë Blog has a post on a talk by Paulina Carlin on 'The Novel that made Charlotte Brontë Fear Plagiarism Charges – Meet The Neighbours by Fredrika Bremer'