H.- The Story of Heathcliff's Journey Back to Wuthering Heights

I recently came across H: The Story of Heathcliff's Journey Back to Wuthering Heights by Lin Haire-Sargeant. It is a great deal of fun to read if you are a Brontë fan and, what she did was so diabolically clever that I found myself grinning as I read.Basically she used the tale-within-a-tale technique to describe a train trip that a fictional Charlotte Brontë was taking back from France when an ill-fated love affair ended. On the train she encounters a man who tells her about a trip he is taking to visit an old friend on her death bed. Soon he persuades Miss Brontë to read a series of letters sent him by this lady and the fun begins. Of course using such a construct for a novel is extremely clever because you can cover any gaps in credibility with missing pages to letters or letters to another party or simple human error but this story doesn't really rely on this at all.All lovers of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights know the story --- Catherine Earnshaw has become enthralled by Edgar Linton and, while talking with their housekeeper Nellie, complains that while she loves Heathcliff, it would "degrade her" to marry him. Heathcliff overhears this and flees. Some years later Cathy is now married to Edgar and Heathcliff returns --- wealthy and a gentleman (though sort of in the sense that Tony Soprano can act like a gentleman at times) --- but it is too late. Everything goes downhill from there.Well, Haire-Sargeant picks up the story at the moment Heathcliff flees, ragged, filthy and furious, and finds his way to London where he is discovered outside an insane asylum by the mysterious "Mister Are". Mister Are takes a liking to Heathcliff and invites him back to his home where he sets about the process of making a gentleman of him. The rest of the story is genuinely enjoyable.What makes it so clever is that any devoted Brontë fan will, in short order, begin to recognize names and places and, grinning madly as you read, say "Ahhhhhh, `Are' for Rochester!" The magnanimous Mister Are lives in Thornfield Hall and has a dog named Pilot and pretty soon Mrs. Fairfax shows up followed by Blanche Inghram. So now Emily Brontë's story has merged with her sister, Charlotte's story Jane Eyre. Great fun! As the story progresses there are a lot of things that are perhaps wild and improbable but then both stories are wild and improbable so who cares. My favorite part was once Rochester hired the "governess" that he falls in love with and she and Heathcliff do NOT get along. Frankly, the only two people who ever got along with Heathcliff were Cathy and now Mister Are.The book is beautifully written and as engrossing as its inspirations. Anyway, I loved the book because, having read both of the books from which it grew many times, it was like spending a weekend with old friends and discovering all kinds of astonishing new things about them! --- from ParlezMoiBlog.com

Did you ever wonder how Heathcliff made his fortune? Where he went for those many years after he heard those life-changing words uttered from Cathy, "It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff." You can imagine how that stayed with him and motivated him into some kind of action. But what was it that he did? How did it all happen?Author Lin Haire-Sergeant makes a bold attempt to fill in that space and explain Heathcliff's life during that time. What I did like about this book is that the story is told by two narrators (which is very similar to Wuthering Heights!) Mr. Lockwood is traveling on a train on his way back to Gimmerton to see Nelly Dean who is on her death bed (this book takes place 20 years after the end of WH). His fellow passenger on the train is none other then Charlotte Bronte! Mr. Lockwood shows her a letter that Nelly Dean sent him and asks her to read it and advise him. The letter is written from Heathcliff to Cathy upon his return to WH and in it he explains what has happened to him and were he has gone. This takes up majority of the book, and Heathcliff is our narrator. Unfortunately, the letter is never delivered and if it was we can imagine that the course of WH would have been very different!What I didn't like about this book was that the author used the plot and characters from another story to create Heathcliff's path. At first it was fun to discover the similarities and spot the parallels in the story, but by the end I wished that the author would have created her own back story and give us tale that wasn't borrowed. If this was done, then this book would become one of my favorites! I would have liked more creativity and imagination from the author, she has an excellent writing style and I loved her portrayal of Heathcliff. She showed how Cathy was always on his mind, always motivating his actions.I recommend this book to any Wuthering Heights or Bronte fan. But I would advise you not to have high expectations. While you may enjoy Heathcliff's story you may walk away feeling as I did that it would have been better if she did not borrow it from another book. OR you may like the connections she made between the two books and not mind it being borrowed.

decent book to complement Wuthering Heights. Not bad for a first-time author

Very well written in the style of Brontë's original work, hooked from the first page and hard to put down.

I originally bought this as a first edition many years ago at a used book store. It is probably the best book in my collection. The author creates a story within a story: as in if you read what Wuthering Heights you get one character's story. With this book you get another. Villains aren't born, they are made and in this book the reader gets to see the process that made Heathcliff into what he became. Those who have read Jane Eyre and Villette will have an easier time with the clues and references in this book.

Purists will probably scream until their hair turns white but I thought this was actually a very good yarn. What happened to Heathcliff after he left Wuthering Heights? How did he become the gentleman he returned as?It's a nicely woven tale, tying in how the Bronte sisters conceived their tales and connecting the dots between Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff is just plain wicked--the warning he gives Linton against marrying Cathy is absolutely horrifying--and his origins, though predictable after a while, are intriguing.Unfortunately I found it came apart a bit at the end, which after ping-ponging about and even making at attempt to give the fatal romance a happy ending ends on an ambiguous note that left me puzzled.

I read a many years ago in hardback & loved it then. Having acquired a kindle & recently re-read wuthering heights I thought I would see if I could find this on kindle. I haven't finished it yet but am enjoying it all over again & as it's so long since I read it originally am enjoying it all over again.