#RomanticFridayWriters - We Love Lovers - fan fiction challenge - Wuthering Heights - Heathcliff, the Byronic Hero, and Cathy

Fan fiction (alternatively referred to as fanfiction, fanfic, FF, or simply fic) is a broadly-defined term for stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator.      Wikipedia

This month's RomanticFridayWriters challenge is writing fan fiction. As it is Valentine's month, Donna Hole and I named the challenge - We Love Lovers. Not all entries may reflect lovers past or present, but I've always been fascinated by Scarlett and Rhett, Elizabeth and Darcy, Heathcliff and Cathy...thus, my entry...a monologue...an additional scene from Wuthering Heights with a twist.

Heathcliff is one of the Byronic Heroes. You can read my post comparing him to Edward from Twilight here if you're interested. I did a series on these brooding heroes in the past. Here is an excerpt from one of my posts:

We all love him or hate him – he’s the tall, dark brooding hero. The Byronic hero, based on the fictional characters of author Lord Byron, is a mysterious man, intelligent, sophisticated, educated, magnetic, charismatic, socially and sexually dominant while at the same time being detached from human society. We suffer his moods accompanied by his bouts of temper. His past is often troubled and he is riddled with self-destructive secrets. 

Lord Byron himself, according to his lover Lady Caroline Lamb, was ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know.’ Recent examples of this type include Batman, Dr Gregory House from the television series House, MD, and the late actor James Dean. 

The Byronic hero is sometimes called an anti-hero because of his negative qualities. Gilbert and Gubar compare him to a bewitching monster like Milton’s Satan – “He is in most ways the incarnation of worldly male sexuality, fierce, powerful, experienced, simultaneously brutal and seductive, devilish enough to overwhelm the body and yet enough a fallen angel to charm the soul.” 

DISCLAIMER: "Mt story 'Who is the Ghost Now?' is a work of fan fiction using characters from Wuthering Heights, the 1847 novel by Emily Brontë. The story below is a work of my imagination and I do not claim ownership of the story or the characters. I will not profit financially from this work. Thank you Emily Bronte for your contribution to the world of literature."

Who’s the Ghost Now?

Can you hear the wind blowing in from the mountain peaks? Can you see the grey glint of snow in the faraway clouds? Can you feel the ice crunching under your feet? 

No! Your thoughts are elsewhere!

You are so infatuated with Edgar Linton you’ve forgotten everything else!

You never invited me to your special day! Why? Were you afraid I’d create a scene?

Cathy! How could you do this? You love me, I know you love me! At least you used to love me. When did that change?

I never saw this betrayal coming.

We’ve loved each other since we were children, ever since your father adopted me and treated me as part of the family after your mother died. Everyone treated me with kindness except your nasty brother Hindley. How he loved to torment me, just because I was different. And just because I was so much stronger, more useful to father than he was. But I was never good enough to be his brother—father should have left me in the gutter to rot and Hindley would have been happy.

But Cathy, my darling, how could you desert me? How could you give yourself to another man? I could bear it if he was worthy of you, but he’s not! I could forgive a little flirtation while I was away overseas bettering myself, but marriage! Cathy! We were meant for each other! It is you and I who should be marrying today!

Old Ellen caught me at the door last night. A whiff of me anyway as I passed through. Gave her a shock I'm telling you, ha ha.  Couldn't resist revealing myself to her--even asked her for the key to the roof. She was unhappy to oblige.

I can be so-o-oo persuasive.

Now I have you in my sights. I see you and that loathsome crowd you hang around with. I hate how they touch you…how they fawn over you.

Enjoy their company while you can.

You, my Cathy, are a vision in white, pure as the driven snow. But we know better, don’t we? We have our secrets! Only you and I know what went on when we spread our cloaks on that carpet of soft spring flowers in the woodlands.

No one need ever know!

You’re leaving the house for the chapel. Look at those pathetic followers bowing and scraping to your every whim.  I’ll ignore how they press against you, brushing snow from your white cape and your beautiful hair. I want to kill them all!

My Cathy!

Do you love me?

Do you remember our days, carefree and wild, running on the moors like lambs in the springtime? How soft the grasses were as we collapsed in a heap of tangled arms and legs. How sweet the flowers were as I crushed you to myself, covering you with my cloak. How tender your body felt, as I caressed you through the soft stuff of your gown. Oh Cathy! You did love me! Why couldn’t you wait?

I was penniless, a nobody. Well, I made my fortune, just like you wanted. I’ve come back for you, but too late!  Was that dirty, ragged, black-haired gypsy not enough for you? Did you need the handsome, rich Mr Edgar Linton after all?

Cathy, you never loved me. To you I was just a wild child, someone to tame. After that visit to the Linton’s, you changed. You wanted the refined life, a life of silk frocks and fancy dinners -- not the life you’d have with Heathcliff, your savage!

Don’t leave me Cathy! 

Did I scream out loud? 

I see you turn towards my window.

I see the fright in your eyes.

Have you seen a ghost, Cathy?

Did you not think I’d return to claim you?

I see your confusion.

What a sight I must be. Some demented ghoul looking down on the wedding party. Someone who could tear you all apart in a moment.

But I will bide my time.

Don’t think marrying Linton is the end of our story, Cathy.

I’ll be back to claim what is rightfully mine. You’re part of me. We’ll never be parted. Never!

You love me, not Edgar Linton!

I hope you enjoyed  my monologue. 

Full Critique Acceptable
WORDS: 705

If you want to read/post fan fiction on the net, here is a link...

For other entries to this challenge, click on the names in my right-hand sidebar or click on the RFW link.

From Traditional Publishing to e-Publishing. Author Ann Carbine Best tells us why and how she went indie...

Hello there!

Those of you who have been following me a long time might remember my Publication Party. As an aspiring author I wanted to hear the stories of bloggers who had broken through and found a publisher. Along with my Byronic Hero series, (where we wallowed in Heathcliff, Darcy and Rochester) this was the most popular series I've ever run on my blog (which turns 4 this April!)

Ann Best was one of the authors who'd just been accepted for publication with her memoir, In the Mirror. She told us of her journey to publication and shared her life with us. Ann has always inspired me and I count her as a sister across the oceans, one who I'd love to visit one day. We've remained in close touch and today I bring you Ann again, for an update on her journey and an insight into her most recent projects.

Over to you, Ann!

A small press, WiDo Publishing, accepted my memoir In the Mirror, back in December of 2010. It was a long and interesting process that took place at a time when the publishing industry began going through massive changes. It was a major change in my life in other ways, too. Because I was housebound with my disabled daughter, my only means of marketing was through the Internet, so I had to learn how to blog.

My seventy-year-old brain was stretched to the limit! So much so that I didn’t think I could ever self-publish. However, at my age, I didn’t want to wait years to publish something else; and I knew that a novella would be a tough sell, especially one that didn’t fall in one of the “popular” genres.

But I had a novella in my files, Svetlana Garetova’s story.

I met Svetlana in 1997 when she was a fill-in aide for my disabled daughter. On day one, I told her I was interested in miracles and angel stories for a book I was writing. After showering my daughter, she started telling me how she came to America. Instantly I recognised a dramatically compelling story. I held up my hand -. “Stop! I’ve got to record this,” I got out my tape recorder.

 I spent several days transcribing what she told me into story form. But I never did the miracles and angels book, and so her story sat in my file for years. Then last fall when I got it out, I thought, This is fascinating.

I’m getting older by the minute, and don’t have the years to spare to query publishers, let alone the patience. I’ve always enjoyed a challenge, so I decided to self-publish it, partly to see if I could. I couldn’t do a cover on my own. I absolutely can NOT figure out PhotoShop. So a friend came to my rescue. She offered to do it for free, but I paid her anyway.

This was all I had to pay. From a lifetime of reading and writing, and with my editing and proofreading skills, I knew I could produce an error-free manuscript. I just needed some readers who would tell me if something didn’t make sense.

After they gave me their feedback, I went through the manuscript again and again to make sure everything did make sense, and then I had to figure out how to format it for uploading. It took time, but Mark Coker’s Smashwords guide is designed for dummies like me. Up it went on Smashwords.

However, getting it uploaded to Amazon was another problem. I finally used one of the programs suggested in Amazon’s style guide, Mobi Pocket Creator.

Through a lot of trial and error, it worked! Phew! Mission Impossible became Mission Accomplished!

I think Svetlana would be pleased with the way it turned out.

Brief Synopsis:


When Svetlana Garetova flies with her four-year-old son from Moscow in Russia to Salt Lake City in America for a visit with Jimmy Rafael, she becomes very ill. He nurses her to back to health, but when she recovers, she realizes with horror that she has missed the deadline in Moscow to pay protection money for her businesses. Her distraught mother tells her that she would be safer in America, and when Jimmy says he will marry her, she accepts his proposal even though she barely knows him and has some misgivings. On their wedding night, she discovers who he really is, and that she and her son are almost prisoners in his house. She must find a way to escape, and people to help them.

You can download a sample from the beginning of the book on Amazon. (Link: http://www.amazon.com/Ann-Carbine-Best/e/B0053YU4B8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1   This also links to In the Mirror)

You can also read a sample of it on my blog post, a scene that’s from the middle of the book, the most dramatic scene in the story. (link to the post: http://annbestblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/roland-yeomans-novel-let-the-wind-blow-through-you-free-for-kindle/#comments)

 Wasn't it wonderful hearing from Ann today? I wish her every success in her new self-publishing career. I still hope she will write another memoir for us...

• Would you share your self-publishing story with me?
• Do you think you'll stick to the traditional route?
• Do you read many self-pubbed books?

 

Jane Eyre, the latest movie. Have you seen it?

My followers know I'm a fan of the Byronic Hero and even did a series on these moody, broody old-fashioned masculine hunks. So when the latest version of Jane Eyre hit the big screen I was there! And it didn't disappoint (Monsieur Aussie swears he wasn't asleep, he was just breathing heavily.)

A virginal heroine who's in thrall to a powerful and vaguely threatening older man has always been the stuff of melodrama. Today's teenagers lap up Twilight, (the latest incarnation); teens from earlier generations lapped up delicious novels such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Charlotte Bronte's seminal gothic novel on which the movie Jane Eyre is based is ancient by Twilight standards; it was first published in 1847.

History of Jane Eyre movies

From the beginning of cinema, filmmakers have been attracted to this book. The first known version was made in 1910, one of two that year. At least four more versions were made during the silent film era. The most celebrated version until now was the 1943 production starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, but I preferred the 1996 Franco Zeffirelli version with Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane and William Hurt as Rochester.

Skip along if you're not into trivia as there's more! There's been an Indian version (Sangdil, 1952), at least eight television versions and the Australian film Wide Sargasso Sea (1992) filled in Rochester's back story. Hey, don't forget Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie, a horror film made the same year as the Fontaine-Wells version which deals with Bronte's basic story in very interesting ways.

The latest version of Jane Eyre

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will."

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

                                     
So what about the latest version? Well, it stars the luminous Australian-born actress Mia Wasikowska as Jane and I think she's marvellous. You might remember her from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I think Jane Eyre was the role she was born to. She radiates solemn intelligence and wide-eyed innocence along with pride and idealism. Edward Rochester, the mysterious owner of Thornfield Hall is Michael Fassbender, well cast also. His first appearance on his black steed is splendid, and creates exactly the right mood of excitement and danger. The love affair is in first-class hands.

I assume if you're reading this far, you know the story. In the book Rochester is far less attractive and Jane is truly Plain Jane; not in this film. The story is told non-sequentially, beginning where Jane flees Thornfield into a wild, storm-tossed landscape, beautiful but dangerous moors. Flashbacks are used to take us back to Jane's childhood, orphaned and miserable. I'm glad the filmmaker didn't spend too long at the hideous charity school Lowood as the book descriptions have haunted me since I first read the novel as a young teenager. How could adults be so cruel to children? We do see poor, doomed Helen Burns...

When Jane is sent to Thornfield as governess to Adele (delightfully played by Romy Settbon Moore), the ward of the usually-absent Rochester, she finds a friend in housekeeper Mrs Fairfax (Judi Dench wonderful as usual.)

"Why did you run away? Why didn't you come to me girl? I would have helped you."

The British class system of the 19th Century is captured in detail and the landscape is given a poet's vision - beautiful and lowering.

To me, this is the best version yet! I hope you go see it. I can't wait to re-read the novel yet again.

Byronic Hero Series, Part 4 - Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights compared to Edward Cullen and Twilight.

The Byronic Hero

For those of you who are visiting my posts for the first time, I have been finding parallels between the recent blockbuster series Twilight and checking out how clever author Stephenie Meyer has drawn from the classics - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in particular. The Twilight hero, Edward, (sorry Team Jacob) shares many of the attributes of the Byronic Hero (read my first post of the series below if you want the background.)

Darcy's Byronic Hero has an overbearing ego, Rochester exhibits moody paternalism, but Heathcliff from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, is exotic and savage, in contrast to the civility of Imperial Britain. Nelly describes Heathcliff after he returns from making his fortune: "...half-civilized ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows and eyes full of black fire..." His innate wildness has not been subdued.

Heathcliff's wildness sometimes manifests as brutality. He becomes monstrously cruel, killing a lapdog, and taunting Linton and Catherine. Edward Cullen's "monstrosity" is his vampirism, against which he fights a daily battle. Edward never exhibits the unrestrained cruelty of Heathcliff, but he does admit "a typical bout of rebellious adolescence" where he hunted and killed humans." (Twilight, 342.) Even though Edward has become a "vegetarian" vampire, the reader knows he possesses the barbarous power to kill James, Victoria, or anyone who would hurt Bella.

Wuthering Heights is the only one of Bella's novels mentioned in each of the Twilight Saga's four books, with one exception, New Moon. This is a little odd, since the plot of New Moon closely mirrors Wuthering Heights more so than any of the other books. Like Wuthering Heights, New Moon begins with Edward and Bella's carefree happiness, the English moors replaced with meadows outside Forks. Edward abandons Bella in New Moon, which emotionally destroys her and she begins to recklessly act out. She takes to riding motorbikes and cliff-diving. But despite all this, she still rushes to his vampire's deathbed (in Volterra) driven by love. When Edward returnds to Bella he says: "As if there were any way that I could exist without needing you!" (New Moon, 510.) Bella sees her situation in Eclipse as similar to the plot of Wuthering Heights when she is torn between Jacob and Edward, just as Cathy is torn between Edgar and Heathcliff.

Edward himself identifies with Heathcliff during Eclipse. He denigrates Heathcliff at first, calling Heathcliff and Cathy "ghastly people who ruin each other's lives." He later changes his mind. "The more time I spend with you, the more human emotions seem comprehensible to me. I...can sympathise with Heathcliff in ways I didn't think possible before." (Eclipse, 28,265.)

Heathcliff is likened to a vampire by Nelly when he roams the moors alone at night. When Edward re-reads Bella's copy of Wuthering Heights, he leaves the book open where it shows Heathcliff describing his rival Edgar Linton in almost vampiric terms "Had he been in my place...though I hated him with a hatred that turned my life to gall, I never would have raised a hand against him...I never would have banished him from her society, as long as she desired his. The moment  her regard ceased, I would have torn his heart out, and drank his blood!" Edward, however, says he sympathises with Heathcliff, perhaps becuase he is overcoming his Byronic savagery by trying to become more human.

The flip side of the Byronic hero's savagery is his passionate attachment to his love. As children, Heathcliff and Cathy are inseparable, appearing to share even the same soul as they run wild over the moors. Their perfect happiness is ruined when Cathy convalesces at Thrushcross Grange and falls under the influence of the Lintons, determining to marry Edgar Linton, while at the same time saying: "I am Heathcliff-he's always, always in my mind-not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself-but as my own being." It is not until Cathy is dying that Heathcliff reveals the depth of his ardor. He rushes to Cathy's sick room, "he gnashed at me, and foamed like a mad dog, and gathered her to him with greedy jealousy" Nelly says. "Be with me always-take any form-drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life...without my soul!" Edward quotes this final line of Heathcliff's, after Bella's quotes Cathy's lament to him: "If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger." (Eclipse, 611.)


I hope you have enjoyed this series, and whether you agree or disagree with the parallels I've found, I hope you've found the posts enjoyable and thought more deeply about the classics and maybe are inpired to read Twilight if you haven't yet succumed. I recommend Twilight and History by Nancy Reagin if you'd like to read more.

Have you read any books that you can't help seeing parallels with well-known classics? Tell me about it...

The Byronic Hero - Darcy, Rochester, Heathcliff and ...Edward.

I love the Byronic Hero, especially since I read 'Twilight History' by Nancy R Reagin. I hope you will find something to interest you too. If you're not a fan of the Twilight series (I admit I was late to the party,) chances are you've read and enjoyed Price and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, all chock full of dashing Byronic heroes.

 Lord Byron, sketch by G. H. Harlow, c 1815

It's no accident that the Twilight saga was such a blockbuster. Stephenie Meyer has done her research, and throughout the story, her attention to detail is amazing. 'They' say that much of the explanation for the success of Twilight is Edward's inhumanly angelic face and perfect, marble body. Twilight satisfies because its universe is both like and unlike ours. Stephenie Meyer's world building has been thought out to the last detail, and casting Edward as the Byronic hero was her coup de grace.

The Byronic Hero: Darcy, Rochester, Heathcliff and…Edward

We all love him or hate him – he’s the tall, dark brooding hero. The Byronic hero, based on the fictional characters of author Lord Byron, is a mysterious man, intelligent, sophisticated, educated, magnetic, charismatic, socially and sexually dominant while at the same time being detached from human society. We suffer his moods accompanied by his bouts of temper. His past is often troubled and he is riddled with self-destructive secrets.

Lord Byron himself, according to his lover Lady Caroline Lamb, was ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know.’ Recent examples of this type include Batman, Dr Gregory House from the television series House, MD, and the late actor James Dean.

The Byronic hero is sometimes called an anti-hero because of his negative qualities. Gilbert and Gubar compare him to a bewitching monster like Milton’s Satan – “He is in most ways the incarnation of worldly male sexuality, fierce, powerful, experienced, simultaneously brutal and seductive, devilish enough to overwhelm the body and yet enough a fallen angel to charm the soul.”

Now to Twilight and how Stephenie Meyer has used Edward to embody the Byronic hero. The Byronic hero's mystery, moodiness and sensuality call to mind Bella’s reaction to Edward in their meadow: “I sat without moving, more frightened of him than I had ever been. I’d never seen him so completely freed of that carefully cultivated façade. He’d never been less human…or more beautiful. Face ashen, eyes wide, I sat like a bird locked in the eyes of a snake.” (Twilight, 264.)

At several points in the saga, Bella notes that Edward’s beauty is terrifying. She describes being captivated by Edward as “locked in the eyes of a snake,” yet she also describes him as an angel.

Early in their meeting, when Bella tries to get Edward to explain how he saved her from being crushed by Tyler’s van, Bella thinks, “I was in danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face. It was like trying to stare down a destroying angel.” (Twilight, 65.) And in Breaking Dawn, she says, “His face glowed with an expression of triumph that I didn’t understand – it was the expression an angel of destruction might wear while the world burned. Beautiful and terrifying.” (730).

But...the Byronic hero is not simply seductive and strong, he is also tormented. He is well aware of his flaws even as he despises them in others; his introspection often leads him to black moods and self-destructive behaviour. Edward has a penchant for self-flagellation, as does Darcy, Rochester and Heathcliff. Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights are explicitly mentioned in the saga. Foremost is Edward’s name. Bella comes across it in Austen’s works, leading her to wonder, “Weren’t there any other names available in the late eighteenth century?” (Twilight, 148.) In Wuthering Heights we have Edgar and Isabella Linton. In Jane Eyre, Rochester’s first name is Edward.

The Byronic parallels among Edward, Darcy, Rochester are many. I will continue to explore this topic next post.

Colin Firth's Mr Darcy