Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (Hardbound - 2006)

Emily Bronte appeared first in the literary world as a poet, but she is remembered even today for the single powerful novel, Wuthering Heights, that she composed towards the end of her life. The novel is a singular one and it stands outside the main current of nineteenth century fiction. Because of its peculiar nature it has given rise to much controversy. Some consider it a Gothic novel while others think of it as a novel of revenge. Some others find in it a romantic tale of languishing love. The dramatic way of narration by quoting the exact words spoken by the different characters, by mainly two narrators, Nelly Dean and Lockwood, gives the novel a peculiar interest. Besides, the portrayal of the character of Heathcliff, the protagonist, betrays a powerful imagination of the novelist. Like Coleridge, Emily Bronte has been successful in giving the esoteric world she has created, a touch of reality and credibility by making the supernatural a part of the natural. The novel is a story of two houses, at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange with a vast moorland separating them. Heathcliff comes as a disturber of peace in these two houses and the peace is restored only with his death. It is not simply a tragic tale although there are several deaths in it. The novel shows that there are both good and evil in this world and that evil is ultimately won over by love. Wuthering Heights remains a powerful creation of Emily Brontë’s imagination, and because of her originality and poetic intensity it is held that “she might have been Shakespeare’s younger sister” (Westminster Review, 1898).

Jibesh Bhattacharyya, a double M.A. (Modern and Old English) of Calcutta University, was conferred the degree of Master of Literature by Jadavpur University, Calcutta in 1975 for his thesis on John Ford. He carried on further research on John Ford and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the same university in 1978. He was the Reader and Head, Department of English, Anandamohan College, Calcutta University, and served this institution for four decades. He was also a guest lecturer, Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta, for about two decades. He has participated in several conferences and seminars on English literature all over India during the last three decades. His Papers have been published in many journals of repute like Indian Journal of English Studies, The Calcutta Review, Criticism and Research (B.H.U.), Punjab University Research Bulletin, Journals of the Department of English of Calcutta, Burdwan and Rabindra Bharati Universities, The Literary Half-Yearly (Mysore) and many others. His books The Dramatic Art of John Ford (1984), Select Studies in Literature (1994) — a collection of essays from Shakespeare to T.S. Eliot, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (2005) received public acclamation. His book on John Ford was favourably noticed in Notes and Queries (Oxford) in March 1987.