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A review by claudiaswisher
The House of Dead Maids by Clare B. Dunkle
5.0
Wow! What an inventive book...a classic "What if...." What if Tabby Ackroyd, maid to the Bronte brood, had an incredible adventure with a little boy much like the young Heathcliff? What if she told the Bronte sisters her stories and Emily fashioned them into her Wuthering Heights?
I've always wondered where the story of Heathcliff and Cathy came from. Haworth was one of my mother's favorite places to visit, and she filled me with stories of the quiet, the isolation, of the place. I know Jane Eyre is semi-autobiographical, so much of that story was braided with memories and experiences. But WHERE in the world did Wuthering Heights come from? Not from experience, not from memories...where??
Dunkle supplies us with a possible answer. What if Emily absorbed the fantastical stories Tabby told them? What if Tabby's stories weren't so fantastical after all, but true ghost stories of a place barely civilized, a place where ancient pagan rituals were commonplace, where ghosts and dead maids and masters walked the moors? What if a wild child whose only name was 'Heathen's git' shared fierce months with Tabby in a brooding, mysterious house filled with memories and dread?
This story gave me shivers and inspired me to reread Wuthering Heights...my friends and I have decided every woman is either Cathy or Jane...I'm definitely Jane, but now I want to explore Cathy's life again.
When I visited the author's website I was moved to tears, looking at those amazing pictures, thinking of my parents walking that same graveyard, looking over those moors. This book touched me in so many ways...the dead maids will haunt me now, as well as Tabby.
I've always wondered where the story of Heathcliff and Cathy came from. Haworth was one of my mother's favorite places to visit, and she filled me with stories of the quiet, the isolation, of the place. I know Jane Eyre is semi-autobiographical, so much of that story was braided with memories and experiences. But WHERE in the world did Wuthering Heights come from? Not from experience, not from memories...where??
Dunkle supplies us with a possible answer. What if Emily absorbed the fantastical stories Tabby told them? What if Tabby's stories weren't so fantastical after all, but true ghost stories of a place barely civilized, a place where ancient pagan rituals were commonplace, where ghosts and dead maids and masters walked the moors? What if a wild child whose only name was 'Heathen's git' shared fierce months with Tabby in a brooding, mysterious house filled with memories and dread?
This story gave me shivers and inspired me to reread Wuthering Heights...my friends and I have decided every woman is either Cathy or Jane...I'm definitely Jane, but now I want to explore Cathy's life again.
When I visited the author's website I was moved to tears, looking at those amazing pictures, thinking of my parents walking that same graveyard, looking over those moors. This book touched me in so many ways...the dead maids will haunt me now, as well as Tabby.