Emily Brontë and two Scottish writers

In The Guardian the obituary of Scottish writer Elspeth Barker mentions her novel O Caledonia.

Elspeth Barker’s first and only novel, O Caledonia, was once described by the novelist Ali Smith as “the best least-known novel of the 20th century”. But in 2021, 30 years after its first publication – and a year before the author’s death at the age of 81 – it was reissued by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and found its place as a modern classic of Scottish literature. [...]

The novel tells the glittering, darkly funny story of the short life of a young girl, Janet, who lives in a bleak Scottish castle, calls her cats subjunctives, keeps a jackdaw as a pet and learns poetry by heart. The only bright spot in her life is her risque Cousin Lila, whose room rattles with empty whisky bottles and smells of Schiaparelli’s Shocking and Craven A cigarettes.

While the novel’s literary forebears are Emily Brontë and Walter Scott, it is more akin to Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle, and the Big House novels of Molly Keane. Clever, awkward Janet is in many ways a manifestation of Elspeth as a child, and Cousin Lila perhaps a manifestation of her adult self. But O Caledonia is much more than simply a delightful coming-of-age novel, for it is original, poetic and passionate, a hymn to the importance of nature, books and the imagination. (Alexandra Pringle)

America magazine has an article on another Scottish writer, Muriel Spark.

After the war, Spark began publishing poetry and worked for a time as the editor of The Poetry Review; she also collaborated with the journalist Derek Stanford on literary appreciations of Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë and John Masefield, as well as an edition of the letters of Cardinal John Henry Newman. A romantic affair with an unhappy ending between her and Stanford soured her on the collaboration, though she retained a great interest in Newman, particularly for his literary and poetic sensibilities. (James T. Keane)

On Crime Reads, writer Elizabeth Day includes Jane Eyre on a list of 'nine works from different eras and genres, all united by one thing: a twist that completely upends your reading experience'.

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë wrote psychologically-driven fiction way before her time. In Jane Eyre, she revolutionised the fictional form by lasering in on her protagonist’s inner thoughts with a first-person narrative. The twist in this novel comes halfway through and is so famous it has entered the public consciousness. Although I didn’t realise this at the time, the ‘mad woman in the attic’ trope clearly had some influence on Magpie—and that’s all I can say without giving too much away!

A columnist from The Guardian discusses first impressions.

For many decades, I considered Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights my favourite novel, based on a first and only reading at the age of 15. My reluctance to re-read it over subsequent decades was out of fear I may have got it wrong as a teenager, and that I couldn’t trust the judgment of that younger self. But when I did pick it up again, in my 40s, I loved it for many of the same reasons – its outsider spirit, dark romance and wildness – as well as some new ones.

It is a reminder, for me at least, that what we liked the first time around is usually what we will like the second and third time, and that the first response is a valid one, even under pressure of a deadline. (Arifa Akbar)