Scan barcode
A review by xterminal
The House of Dead Maids by Patrick Arrasmith, Clare B. Dunkle
3.0
Clare B. Dunkle, The House of Dead Maids (Holt, 2010)
The current craze for revising and updating classic works of literature rolls on with Clare Dunkle's The House of Dead Maids, a prequel to Wuthering Heights with an intriguing twist. In this one, Tabby (the real-life maid of the Bronte family, mentioned by biographers as the source of Emily's gothic leanings), formerly an orphan at a knitting school, is chosen by an old biddy named Miss Winter to be the new governess at a secluded mansion. She finds the driver, Arnby, far more companionable than Miss Winter. When they all get back, she's told she has the run of the place until the young master gets there. (A pause to mention that with all the moaning about how she felt useless in the same breath as how dusty everything was, you'd have thought she'd clean something.) Then cometh the young master, the savage lout who will grow up to become Heathcliff. (While this bit of information is not revealed until the Epilogue in the actual text, one can't really call it a spoiler; it's in the first sentence of the jacket copy.) There is something very odd afoot at Seldom House, and it falls to Tabby and Himself, as she calls Heathcliff, to figure out what's going on, and why the ghost of Izzy, Tabby's predecessor at the house, keeps appearing to her.
Running at just one hundred forty-eight pages, this is a tract that an adult lover of Wuthering Heights would be able to take down in an afternoon, and I'd think even reluctant YA readers would get through it in a scant weekend. It's got more than enough in the way of mystery, suspense, and the occasional gore to capture the imagination of male readers in a way that the Bronte sisters never quite managed to, but Bronte fans will likely be charmed by Dunkle's cleverness with language; she's quite obviously influenced by Emily Bronte without ever sacrificing her own voice to that of her spiritual predecessor. Me, I've never been a Bronte fan myself, but I liked this all right. Definitely worth picking up for the scary-story lover in your house. ***
The current craze for revising and updating classic works of literature rolls on with Clare Dunkle's The House of Dead Maids, a prequel to Wuthering Heights with an intriguing twist. In this one, Tabby (the real-life maid of the Bronte family, mentioned by biographers as the source of Emily's gothic leanings), formerly an orphan at a knitting school, is chosen by an old biddy named Miss Winter to be the new governess at a secluded mansion. She finds the driver, Arnby, far more companionable than Miss Winter. When they all get back, she's told she has the run of the place until the young master gets there. (A pause to mention that with all the moaning about how she felt useless in the same breath as how dusty everything was, you'd have thought she'd clean something.) Then cometh the young master, the savage lout who will grow up to become Heathcliff. (While this bit of information is not revealed until the Epilogue in the actual text, one can't really call it a spoiler; it's in the first sentence of the jacket copy.) There is something very odd afoot at Seldom House, and it falls to Tabby and Himself, as she calls Heathcliff, to figure out what's going on, and why the ghost of Izzy, Tabby's predecessor at the house, keeps appearing to her.
Running at just one hundred forty-eight pages, this is a tract that an adult lover of Wuthering Heights would be able to take down in an afternoon, and I'd think even reluctant YA readers would get through it in a scant weekend. It's got more than enough in the way of mystery, suspense, and the occasional gore to capture the imagination of male readers in a way that the Bronte sisters never quite managed to, but Bronte fans will likely be charmed by Dunkle's cleverness with language; she's quite obviously influenced by Emily Bronte without ever sacrificing her own voice to that of her spiritual predecessor. Me, I've never been a Bronte fan myself, but I liked this all right. Definitely worth picking up for the scary-story lover in your house. ***