Nelly Dean: A Return to Wuthering Heights
Whether you’ve read Wuthering Heights a hundred times or never picked it up, you are going to like this book. Set in the moors of late 18th-/early 19th-century England, Alison Case’s novel follows the story of Nelly Dean, who grew up at Wuthering Heights alongside Catherine, Hindley, and Heathcliff. In her early teens, Nelly becomes the housekeeper instead of the schoolmate and friend, but maintains varying levels of complicated relationships with the children of the Heights as they all grow up.
Fans of Wuthering Heights will find the characters, setting, and writing style they remember, but the genius of this novel is the frame. It’s told from Nelly’s perspective as a letter she’s composing to Mr. Lockwood, who is the man she told only part (or so we now learn) of the story to in Emily Brontë’s novel. This is brilliant, because it eliminates the need for Case to rewrite the original Wuthering Heights, as Mr. Lockwood already knows that part of the story. Nelly’s purpose is to add to or correct what Lockwood already knows.
This book really does stand on its own quite well, though your experience may be richer if you read (or re-read) Wuthering Heights first. The books interlock like a puzzle that you hadn’t realized had pieces missing. I felt as though Nelly became the voice of my own conscience in many ways, echoing my feelings about the other characters. Her story is heartbreaking and courageous and simply lovely.
