Has a book ever been written about what Heathcliff did while he was away from Wuthering Heights?

[raccoon]

How did he make his money?

I don't like him these days, but just curious...

[Avalux]

1. He got rich doing something.....

but I don't think it was ever addressed. He turned into a mean bastard so it must have been something nefarious.

[raccoon]

4. I wonder that myself. Murder or highway robbery. Or all of the above.

Unless they had a lottery in those days I don't see how he could've made it legally.

[Sal Minella]

7. He was so unpleasant and unprincipled I remember assuming he'd made his fortune in the slave trade

or something equally distasteful. Don't know whether the chronology works out for slavery or not.

[raccoon]

9. Yes, it does fit with the time. Either Lockwood was writing this stuff down around 1801

or else the events occurred around 1801. it would fit. That was a good idea.

[Avalux]

10. That is a good idea and would fit his psych profile -

He was a slave himself as a child; his deep-rooted hate allowed him to become that which he loathed - a slave trader. I like it.

I think how Heathcliffe made his fortune being left out of Wuthering Heights allowed the reader to ponder exactly what he did while he was gone; much better a read that way.

[Sal Minella]

11. Exactly. More shrouded mystery behind that dark man. He came anonymous and filthy off the street

and I think we're meant to assume that his fortune came to him anonymous and filthy also.

[elehhhhna]

2. IIRC he was a contractor for Blackwater

[Speck Tater]

3. I heard he was hanging out with Garfield.

We ARE talking about the same Heathcliff, right?

[Sal Minella]

5. The Wide Sargasso Sea, I believe --

a woman author wrote it, and it explains why the woman in the attic is insane, how she got that way, and it's a ripsnorting good read and a not-so-great movie, as I recall.

Jean Rhys -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Sargasso_Sea

EDIT -- oops, never mind.
Who's conflating Rochester and Heathcliff?
certainly none of the erudite old readers on this board. :blush:

[pitohui]

6. i thought of this book too

certainly worth a look even if it isn't exactly heathcliff! -- also shows the poster what has already been done in the event that she decides to tackle writing the "missing years" of heathcliff herself (i suspect there would be an audience for it)

[Sal Minella]

8. Yes, and I would be in that audience, actually.

I still haven't read Agnes Grey. One of those treats I've been "saving for later" for a few decades now. Had the feeling that the movie "Tenant of Wildfell Hall" didn't do justice to the book, even though it was most watchable.

At the moment I can't remember whether Branwell wrote anything of note or not and am too lazy/tired to look it up.

So many deaths in that family, so close together. So much talent. Such wonderfully readable books. I wonder if the girls would be surprised at still having so many fond readers.

[EFerrari]

15. It's a beautifully written novel and I'm glad you brought it up.

:)

[hedgehog]

12. Was there ever a hint that he ws the bastard child of Mr. Lipton?

[raccoon]

13. I've read it somewhere in criticism that there is a possibility he was

the bastard child of Mr. Earnshaw, Cathy's father. Which would of course make them half- brother and sister.

[hedgehog]

14. Earnshaw! I knew the Liptons were the other family, but I was too tired to look it up.

It would explain the initial hatred that Cathy and her brother had for Heathcliff.