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.'Sturmherz' takes place in a small, urban village named Haworth that is on 'The Lizard' (Cornwall).The Wuthering Heights connection is clarified by the author:
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."
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.A pity that BrontëBlog's German skills are pretty scarce. It really seems a curious read.
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.
Beyond the reservoir lie the untouched, pristine moors and slopes — probably the kind that Bronte’s free-spirited Miss Earnshaw loved to cross in Wuthering Heights.And finally Sheila Fordham writes a post for the Brussels Brontë Blog where she compares her own experience working with foreign students facing the 'culture shock' and Charlotte and Emily having their own 'culture shock' in Brussels, and how this was described by Charlotte afterwards.
"Jane Eyre," by Charlotte BronteIf you're looking for inspiration on what to drop everything for and read today, you might find this news item interesting. It looks like the New York Public Library has recently picked its top 10 favourite love stories according to Reuters. Which is number one? Well, no other than Wuthering Heights! Tango Together lists the complete selection. No Jane Eyre though :(
I read “Jane Eyre” when I was 13 or 14 and I guess it came at just the right time. I loved the book so much, I couldn’t put it down. I read it at the school bus stop, on the bus and as soon as I got out of school, then again during all my waking hours at home when I wasn’t doing homework. (Kristin Buehner, reporter, Globe Gazette, Mason City)
Put Jane Eyre in front of me and I become a zombie that must feed on all things Bronte.And finally The Irish World reviews Douglas A. Martin's book Branwell.
Martin skilfully takes the reader on a journey of Branwell’s life and self-discovery through his very own eyes. (Hazel Gray-Read)Just remember: today drop everything and READ.
Rhys is a bit of a strange creature. Her last novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, is her best-known. A prequel to Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea recounts the story of the marriage and honeymoon of Rochester and his first wife, Bertha. Told in odd, dreamlike prose, the narrative drifts through shabby mansions and overgrown gardens, where ferns grow as big as trees and over-scented flowers bloom (like truth) just out of reach, and where, inevitably, a few weeks of bliss tumble into tragedy and madness.The Times instructs us about how to be chivalrous without being sexist. Heathcliff wouldn't be a model...Published in 1966 (after a 27-year silence), Rhys saw Wide Sargasso Sea as her rescue job on the madwoman in the attic and a deconstruction of the race and gender relations in Jane Eyre that nobody else seemed to question. By 1966 she was also something of a madwoman in the attic herself, and it could be said that Wide Sargasso Sea rescued not one but two people. Living a long way from her Dominican birthplace in a squalid bungalow in a Devonshire village, hounded by her neighbours as a thief and a witch (one woman accused her of impersonating the "dead author, Jean Rhys"), Wide Sargasso Sea plucked Rhys out of poverty and won her long-overdue recognition.
Rough and ready Heathcliff types were fine as a teenage fantasy; in the adult world, however, they are an embarrassing liability. (Extracted from Manners for Men: What Women Really Want by E. Jane Dickson published by Debrett’s)Be My Guest! discovers another Brontëite in writer Hazel Statham:
It was at this point that I discovered Bronte's 'Jane Eyre'. I adored the brooding, angst-ridden hero, Edward Fairfax Rochester and although I didn't try to recreate him in my writing, he none-the-less left a lasting impressionIn other news: Hà Hầng publishes an article about Jane Eyre in Vietnamese. Salomes Bücher reviews in German Sabine Klaus's Sturmherz (more information on these old posts of ours). The Rake's blog comments briefly on the Guthrie's performances of Jane Eyre.
