A Brontë trilogy

Craven Herald & Pioneer features writer John Eames and his new book on Emily Brontë.

The title, Top Withins or Emily Brontë and how not to be, proved to be a challenge.
From his home in Wycoller Mr Eames can see the ruin of Wycoller Hall, possibly the inspiration for Fearndean Manor, in Jane Eyre, which was written by Emily’s sister, Charlotte.
Charlotte records a walk to Wycoller, so Mr Eames took the three famous bridges across the beck as focal points for Charlotte, contemplating the central issues of Jane Eyre.
The result was Wycoller’s Bridges, which was published earlier in the year.
“The latest companion volume has been more of a challenge, mainly because Emily was so inward,” he explained.
He says he has aimed to capture something of her self-perception and preoccupations, looking at how these might have inspired some aspects of Wuthering Heights.
Moving on from Emily’s close bond with the landscape of the moor, Mr Eames evokes the intense and regulated atmosphere of the Parsonage in Haworth, gripped between the wilderness of the moor on one side and the mournful graveyard on the other.
Within, the parsonage is a cauldron of creativity, from the early ‘bed plays’ to the great novels which were to immortalise the sisters.
“The book represents some of the tensions which arose in this context, particularly the conflict following Emily’s discovery of Charlotte reading the poems, in part inspired by a deep admiration for Lord Byron, secreted in Emily’s portable writing desk,” he adds.
He is particularly interested in the lives which Emily rejects – the excruciating discomfort which she feels in the company of most other people, her melting with embarrassment when she senses her social inferiority and Emily’s fading almost to death in the role of governess.
“These aspects of her life lead to the key point of this book: her search for invisibility. Emily discovers this in something as mundane as kneading bread for the family table but most significantly in her writing.
“The smouldering enigma of Heathcliff, interlinked with her deeply troubled brother Branwell, gives her one of literature’s most unforgettable and irresistible outsiders,” Mr Eames explains.
“She interweaves what she knows of foundlings and African slaves; she is inspired by the power or Milton and Blake. No wonder Wuthering Heights unsettled its early readers and, indeed, readers from 1847 to the present day.”
The book takes the reader past the death of Emily and brings us to the present day. It considers Emily’s probable response to the taming of the moor and the commercialisation of the Brontë narrative but also comments on her likely satisfaction at the impossibility of identifying Top Withins with the Wuthering Heights of the novel. [...]
 plans are already afoot to complete a Brontë trilogy, looking into the inspiration for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, in time for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anne Brontë in 2020.
All of the books are quite short, between 30 and 40 pages and priced at £3.
The texts are not biographical, although the biographical material has been carefully researched; on the other hand, the books are not literary critical, although they do seek to offer potential insights into the creative workings of the minds of the profiled authors. [...]
The books are available from: the Craft Centre/Tea Room in Wycoller; the Bookshop in Colne; and the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth or purchased via John and Nicola’s website https://nicoladennisart.com (Viv Mason)

The Stage describes actor Felix Hayes as

a majestic Rochester in Sally Cookson’s Jane Eyre. (Natasha Tripney)

ABC (Spain) suggests some books for over-18s to read in English, including Wuthering Heights.

«Wuthering Heights», de Emily Brontë. Retold by Clare West. La historia: El viento es fuerte en los páramos de Yorkshire. Hay pocos árboles, y menos casas, para bloquear su camino. Hay una casa, sin embargo, que no se esconde del viento. Destaca en la colina, desafiando al viento. La casa se llama «Cumbres Borrascosas». Cuando el Sr. Earnshaw trae a un extraño, un pequeño y oscuro niño a su hogar en Cumbres Borrascosas, da la sensación de que en realidad ha abiarto las puertas a los problemas. Nivel de inglés: B2. Incluye MP3. (Precio aproximado: 10,75 euros. Editorial: Oxford University Press). (S.F.) (Translation)

While Le Parisian (France) includes the same novel in a selection of paperbacks to give as Christmas presents.

«Les Hauts de Hurlevent» : l’élégance du classique
/Ed. Archipoche
C’est l’unique roman de la plus célèbre des sœurs Brontë que son auteure publia en 1847, un an avant sa mort, d’une tuberculose, sous le pseudonyme d’Ellis Bell. Faut-il en redire l’histoire ? Le cœur d’un valet de ferme, Heathcliff, au service d’une noble maison, rêve si fort de Catherine, la fille de la famille, qu’il envisage de l’épouser. Une fois de plus, la disparité entre les classes sociales surgit ici avec son cortège de fantasmes et de cruautés. Mais avec une couverture élégantissime et soyeuse au toucher.
« Les Hauts de Hurlevent », d’Emily Brontë, Ed. Archipoche, 450 pages, 8,80 euros. (Translation)

Watson (Switzerland) has a quiz which includes the following question:

2.Literatur: Wer schrieb den Roman «Wuthering Heights» (zu Deutsch: «Sturmhöhe»)?
Mary Shelley
Virginia Woolf
Emily Brontë
Agatha Christie
Jane Austen
Charlotte Brontë

Finally, a post on 'The Funeral Of Emily Brontë' on AnneBrontë.org.