In search of Ellis Bell: Emma Tennant’s Heathcliff’s Tale
Keywords:
Neo-Victorian fiction, literary revision, Wuthering Heights, Emma Tennant, Heathcliff’s Tale, Emily Brontë, Ellis BellAbstract
Like several of Tennant’s books, Heathcliff’s Tale is a revision of a canonical English novel. Wuthering Heights has continued to intrigue readers ever since its publication, partly owing to the disturbing gaps in the story which provoke various, even contradictory readings. Just as the central character in Bronte’s novel remains mysterious, so the authorship of the novel has been subject to reinterpretations. Published under a pseudonym, the novel was initially ascribed to Emily’s brother, but establishing the correct authorship posed further questions pertaining to the sources of Emily Brontë’s inspiration. These questions are imaginatively pondered in Tennant’s neo- Victorian novel. Heathcliff’s Tale reinterprets Wuthering Heights by completing the gaps inserted by Brontë in the original version as well as draws attention to its own artifice by imitating and enhancing the structural complexity of the original. Tennant’s book is analysed here as representative of the literary dialogue with the Victorian past undertaken by a considerable group of contemporary English novels.
References
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