The Content Reader

In his introduction to his part of this book, Derek Stanford says: Alone, perhaps, of the great English writers, Emily Brontë's fame has survived without the keen preservative of a cool discriminative criticism. Of every other kind of attention her work has received a plenary measure. She has had her biographers and topographers, editors, bibliographers, and general researchers. She has had - less popularly - her psychoanalysts; and, finally, her life and work have been blessed with a great host of professional sympathisers, writing with endless affirmation on her. As you might conclude from this, Stanford is rather critical of Emily's work. He means that it is not among the 'Brontë-lovers' to question, evaluate or reflect  on her work. Her readers form a sort of "club for internal admiration" and therefore anything that comes from her pen is considered the best and no objective criticism is put forward. Furthermore there are not that many critics that hav...

This book I bought in a book shop with second hand books in Haworth. The other items connected to the Brontës that I bought you see below; book marks and a BBC version of Wuthering Heights from the 60s. I remember seeing the series on TV. After that, nobody portrayed Heathcliff as well as Ian McShane! Can't remember much of it to be honest and so far I have only seen part 1. So far so good. I think this is the most true account of Emily's book. My purchases I have just finished the book I bought.  The first part is about the life of Emily written by Muriel Spark and the second part a critical review of Emily's poem and Wuthering Heights written by Derek Stanford. It turns out to be a rather long post so I divide it into two. To start with the first part, there is not much there that I did not already know, but there is an interesting discussion in the end about Emily's relationships with people and the way it is interpreted through her writing. I quote Muriel Sp...