The book that... [...]

…I’ve re-read the most:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre is my favorite novel, and I used to be able to recite entire passages from it—which should tell you just how many times I’ve read it. Her voice has endured the test of time and my porous memory. (Riza Cruz)

   

Bayliss Rare Books offers the chance to buy an 'affordable' first US edition of Wuthering Heights. We read in Salon Privé Magazine:

Nearly 200 years later, as Emerald Fennell prepares to showcase Wuthering Heights on the silver screen, one of the few surviving copies of that anonymous first American edition – ‘by the author of Jane Eyre’ – has resurfaced, as if it could sense the timely groundswell of interest in the story, with all of its historical context baked into the near-perfect-condition cloth cover. It is one of only two examples available in the original state, and this is by far the finer.
The intrepid discoverer is London-based book dealer Oliver Bayliss, who happened upon it largely by chance. He recently found himself in Los Angeles in the pursuit of a collector who apparently possessed a rare first edition of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit. ‘The photos he had sent me over email were truly awful – pixelated, blurry, the works. Still, I took a gamble,’ Oliver says, and despite having ‘the photography skills of a potato’, he flew out to meet the collector in Hollywood.
Unexpectedly, The Hobbit was worth Oliver’s own there-and-back journey for more reasons than one. It was during a discussion with the collector about other books of note that Oliver mentioned in passing that he was also on the hunt for a first edition of Wuthering Heights. ‘He said: “I have one! In the original cloth.”’ It had never been on the market, sitting quietly in California all these years. ‘I can truly say I got goosebumps,’ Oliver adds, ‘so I flew home with my Hobbit, and then a few days later, the Wuthering Heights arrived in London.’

When he first opened it, Oliver was floored. ‘It’s so, so rare to find one like this,’ he explains. ‘The UK first edition is a unicorn at this point, but the first American edition is also a notorious rarity, especially in the original cloth.’ It was cheaply made for a mass audience, which contributes to its scarcity – it was never intended to last. ‘You’re seeing it exactly as the first readers did. It felt a bit like unearthing a ghost.’ (...)

The British first edition of Wuthering Heights, published in London in December 1847, has become mythical among collectors. Copies are virtually unobtainable today and command more than £200,000 when they surface, once in a decade. The Harper & Brothers first American edition is the earliest obtainable version for collectors (at least, says Oliver, the only one you can lay your hands on ‘without remortgaging the house, selling the car, and perhaps even a kidney’). For Oliver, the story of this specific edition mirrors Emily’s own. ‘It was printed without her name, sold under another’s, and for years misread. Yet it is through editions like this that Wuthering Heights first began its journey from obscurity to immortality.’ (Elly Parsons)

   

Wuthering Heights is “right” in the sense of phenomenal writing, but also because it’s wrong in all the right ways.

Brontë does not shy away from physical and mental abuse. However, the book treats these issues with the respect they rightfully deserve. Brontë paints a portrait of generational trauma, oppression, and passion-inflicted violence that stands out from many other books of her generation. Even today, the book’s approach to “dark romance” remains uniquely nuanced. For lovers of gothic literature or romanticism, Wuthering Heights also contains the best of both worlds.

Tragedy is at the heart of Wuthering Heights, with the question of “what could have been” constantly at the back of the reader’s mind. We follow two troublesome kids, Cathy and Heathcliff, as they develop a sweet juvenile romance. But due to a combination of external coercion and inner conflicts, an invisible barrier begins to form between them.

Ultimately, their love is intense and corrosive; it allows their humanity to shine through while simultaneously catalyzing each character’s self-destruction.

Many popular dark romance tropes today trace back to Wuthering Heights, but the book subverts them in surprising ways as well.

To start out, while Emily Brontë didn’t invent forbidden love, she certainly helped redefine what it could mean. While the foundational work of forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet, focuses on the mutual conflict between two aristocratic families, Wuthering Heights is built on class conflict and racial discrimination. But the book doesn’t use them as side pieces; it dives deep into how such issues shapes each character, and how that in turn perpetuates a cycle of abuse.

Forced proximity, obsession, and enemies-to-lovers are also popular modern-day tropes you can find in this 19th century novel. And you can be sure that Brontë doesn’t shy away from giving heavier topics their due diligence.

You’ll find yourself screaming at the characters for making all the wrong choices, but at the same time, you know perfectly why they would make that decision. That all makes it an excruciating read—but an excruciatingly good one.

So at the end of the day, we’re left with one question: Why read dark romance at all? Why can’t we just be satisfied with romance, and why are so many of us drawn to the darker side that fiction provides? The same thing applies to consuming tragedy, horror, and similar genres. They’re not feel-good material, but something about them fascinates us regardless.

I propose that it all has to do with catharsis—referring to the release of strong or repressed emotions. Originally, the term was popularized by Aristotle to explain how tragic stories heal the mind by allowing us to experience emotional purging without having to go through actual tragedies. In dark romance, a similar process applies. Most readers trudge through the psychological turmoil because they expect that at the end, the “romance” part of “dark romance” promises a strong emotional payoff.

Moreover, dark romance also draws to mind issues that are usually not present in the mainstream. Such issues usually tie into domestic spheres; thus, writers and consumers are more likely to brush them aside. But the dynamics that underlie romance also reflect bigger problems laced within our society. Dark romance, particularly those written with literary sensibilities, often directly address these issues and seeks to bring these hidden depths to the surface.

As with all cultural phenomena, a trend often originates from a convention-breaking product that shocks, intrigues, and captures. For a genre that’s constantly “trending” throughout different time periods, it’s interesting to see where it all started. (Nea Le)

   

An amateur production of the Gordon & Caird Jane Eyre musical opens today, December 2, in London:

Trinity Laban Musical Theatre presents: 

Jane Eyre A Musical Drama 

Music and Lyrics by Paul Gordon

Book and additional Lyrics by John Caird

December 2 - 6

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, King Charles Court,

Old Royal Naval College, London

Charlotte Brontë’s classic gothic romance is brought to life onstage in a  musical adaptation. We follow the independent, passionate governess Jane Eyre, through her harsh childhood after being left as an orphan to an uncaring aunt, through her employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall. There, she meets the mysterious and magnetic Edward Fairfax Rochester, master of the house and warden of her pupil. Though drawn to each other, they are haunted by the ghosts of Mr. Rochester’s past, which threaten any possibilities of a future of love or happiness for either. This Tony Award-nominated musical features a grand, sweeping score that transports the audience to a world of wild, ungovernable passion on the moors.