Heathcliff’s Fortune
This novel is set during the two-year period in Wuthering Heights when, having overheard Cathy’s decision to marry someone else, Heathcliff abandons England to seek his fortune with which to enact a revenge scheme. Shedding the gothic melancholy of Yorkshire for a time with the help of his lucky amulet, Heathcliff makes a name for himself as a brave and honest gentleman, first as a seaman and then as a writer and spy for the East India Company, as he applies himself with a single-minded purpose to amass great wealth as quickly as possible.
Deeply researched and reminiscent of classic novels in pacing and structure, the story unfolds like the chronicle of a living person. It is so thoroughly enmeshed in the history and political mise en scène of the Anglo-French War in India that it can be easy to forget Heathcliff is a fictional character, inserted into actual events, and difficult at times to tell where history ends and fiction begins. Readers sensitive to colonialist themes may be troubled by the historically realistic approach to racial and cultural insensitivity of the era, but those deeply interested in the finer historical minutiae will appreciate the thorough research and detailed footnotes.
Cleverly framed with Emily Brontë’s own narration from Nelly Dean to bookend the tale, Heathcliff’s Fortune imagines a detailed rise and fall for the eponymous hero, which Brontë herself may not have had the resources to fully realize, and for which readers need not be familiar with the source material beforehand.
