DIE TOGETHER THAN LIVE A LIFE APART

WHEN Wuthering Heights was published in 1847, people were outraged with its open presentation of passion, rage and violence. At the same time, they were fascinated with the raw portrayal of a love which is so essential and powerful that it transcends death.

Emily Bronte and her sisters Charlotte and Anne all wrote under male pseudonyms. They were Ellis, Currer and Acton Bell. Emily was Ellis, Charlotte was Currer and Anne was Acton, supposedly brothers.

Interest as to the identity and personality of the brothers was great! People were excited and could not stop guessing about them.

The young man who had written Wuthering Heights was thought to be passionate, perhaps low born but probably cultivated, proud and strong. He has been slighted by society at some point, people thought, and that is why he has turned his passion and intelligence into anger. In other words, people thought that Wuthering Heights had been written by a young man exactly like Heathcliff, the protagonist.

Wuthering Heights is considered among the finest books ever written, and rightly so. Today it has gained notoriety in popular culture because it is Bela and Edward's favorite book in the Twilight saga, and was actually printed with a Twilight cover.

Like Heathcliff and Catherine before them, Bela and Edward are obsessed with each other, and prefer to die together than live a life apart. Catherine and Heathcliff's love drives them to extremities of passion and eventually to madness.

More about books within books, the Bronte sisters and their pseudonyms in later posts!

See you all again soon :-)