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Wuthering Heights, A Longman Cultural Edition (Longman Cultural Editions)
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Manufacturer: Longman
Author: Emily Bronte, Alison Booth
Publisher: Longman
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Our Price: $8.40
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Longman
Author: Emily Bronte, Alison Booth
Publisher: Longman
Average Customer Rating:
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Wuthering Heights, A Longman Cultural Edition (Longman Cultural Editions) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780321212986
ISBN: 0321212983
Label: Longman
Manufacturer: Longman
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2008-01-25
Publisher: Longman
Studio: Longman
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780321212986
ISBN: 0321212983
Label: Longman
Manufacturer: Longman
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2008-01-25
Publisher: Longman
Studio: Longman
Editorial Review of Wuthering Heights, A Longman Cultural Edition (Longman Cultural Editions)
The narrative is non-linear, involving several flashbacks, and involves two narrators - Mr. Lockwood and Ellen "Nelly" Dean. The novel opens in 1801, with Lockwood arriving at Thrushcross Grange, a grand house on the Yorkshire moors he is renting from the surly Heathcliff, who lives at nearby Wuthering Heights. Lockwood spends the night at Wuthering Heights and has a terrifying dream: the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw, pleading to be admitted to the house from outside. Intrigued, Lockwood asks the housekeeper Nelly Dean to tell the story of Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights while he is staying at the Grange recovering from a cold.
Customer Reviews of Wuthering Heights, A Longman Cultural Edition (Longman Cultural Editions)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: one of the best "study" editions so far...
Review: As with other Wuthering Heights editions, I will not delve into the depths of this strangest and strongest of novels, with its haunting poetical intensity, its everyday realism, its display of physical and psychical violence, its metaphysical contents and its eerie beautiful otherness. As the noted critic C. A. Swinburne put it in 1883:
"It may be true that not many will ever take it to their hearts: it is certain that those who do like it will like nothing very much better in the whole world of poetry or prose".
By the way, whatever the edition you end up with (or none), don't forget to have
a try with Emily Bronté poems, or a sensible selection from them. I realize that this review is by far too long: so, if you are in a hurry, I think that you can skip safely to the last paragraph ("SO WHAT?") for practical recommendations.
The real issue that we face now is: how much does THIS PARTICULAR EDITION of Emily Brontë's novel measure up to its intended goal? How does it compare with other editions currently available?
Beginning with the bottom line, THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST "STUDY" EDITIONS EVER, together with Beth Newman's one for Broadview Press and Dunn's one for Norton Critical (4th edition). By a "study" edition (in roughly the same sense as a "study" Bible), I mean one that is richly annotated, with an interesting Introduction and a variety of context-oriented documents, such as critical reviews or essays, biographical or chronological items, a selection of poems or other writings... Such an edition must be evaluated firstly by his handling (more or less scholarly or careful) of the TEXT(s) involved, then by the choice of supplementary materials (whether interesting or not, balanced or else), in third place by the quality and accuracy of the Introduction and notes, ending with very important issues of design (user-friendly, beautiful) and material production (durability, paper and print quality, binding).
IN SUMMARY, lest I get too long and formal, this is a well cared for, accurate and reliable 1847-type text, springing out of the University of Virginia electronic texts, but tightly controlled by the 1976 Clarendon Edition one (by Hilda Marsden and Ian Jack), and silently adapted as punctuation is concerned (resulting in a friendly version, which the scholarly reconstructed punctuation of Clarendon is not).
THE INTRODUCTION is short (11 pp) and well planned so that it opens ways for understanding, but can be read before the novel without spoiling anything.
It sounds a bit like run-of-the-mill material, but this is a deceiving image
(Alison Booth's command of the material is always there).
THE ANNOTATION IS VERY GOOD and extensive enough, with full and right glosses of the dialect tirades, and accurate, to-the-point information on biblical or literary references, or contextual ways and means.
In that most elusive of references, the one about Milo (of Croton) in Chapter IX, however, Alison Booth edition slips a little, like many other good ones (with Clarendon doing a little better, the ones getting the story right if not in full are Barnes&Noble, Wordsworth Classics, Penguin/Nestor, Broadview/Newman, Oneworld Classics and the excellent but ill-fated Routledge edition by Heather Glen). According to the Geography of Strabo, Book XII, which is the only source for this story, Milo in his old age tried to tear apart in two a tree half split and with a wedge to retain it open. He then exerted all his force with his hands, opening the gap wide enough for the wedge to drop off; the tree closed (it requires an ever increasing force to continue opening the trunk -this is Hooke's Law in physics-) and trapped the hands of Milo, who was then devoured by wolves.
It is regarding this story that we read in the novel:"Who is to separate us, pray? They'll meet the fate of Milo!" (who also tried unwisely and deadly to SEPARATE something). Saying in a note, as Booth does, "In the classical fable, Milo, an athlete, tried to pull a tree up by the roots" is a little misleading (not only do we lose the "separation factor", but also accuracy. Milo is neither a fable nor a myth, but a real human being with a place both in time and on earth, mentioned with consistent witness by two of the best historians of the time, other than Strabo. As to the stories connected to him, nothing is known for sure when we go into the details, and so the label "legend" is most appropriate).
The CONTEXTUAL MATERIALS are well chosen and presented. The only problem, and I think THE GREATEST PROBLEM with this otherwise excellent edition, is that there are 40+ items of this material and only 130 pages to fit them in: it looks hopelessly like a motley medley of maddening fragments, with, say, ONLY FIVE OF EMILY'S POEMS, which is both a pity and a blunder. There are interesting curios as the "Table of the average yearly wages paid to domestics... according to their rank in a household".
More important are the pages devoted to Yorkshire dialect (too scarce) and ballads (very good). There is also a fair amount of space (11 pages) allotted to "cultural dissemination", that is, works of art (songs, theatrical or musical adaptations as well as TV or movie ones, sequels...) deriving from or related with the novel.
The data included are very good and complete except for the chapter on translations in which, just as an example, only two translations into Spanish are listed, and only one in current use although it is barely acceptable: there are by now no less than TEN Spanish translations easily available; some are very good, some are rightly annotated, none is both things together and none is based on the 1847 text (but on the 1850 one).
MATERIAL PRODUCTION is... fair enough, as far as I can tell without ripping apart my copy. A not-too-bad paperback, perhaps even signature-sewn but without flaps (with cover corners and even front-edge vulnerable). Paper quality looks good (time will tell) and printing quality is excellent. Design is clear and user-friendly
(I will not comment on the typeface they use for big headlines, perhaps somebody will love it).
SO WHAT?
If an accurate and reliable text and a rich annotation are a must,
then stick to this Longman Cultural Edition (by Alison Booth).
If you can make do with a generally reliable text with a few errors, some idiosyncratic readings and inconsistencies and, besides, you don't mind a scanty annotation (but with full dialectal glosses), and you will appreciate the finest choice ever of contextual materials (but with only EIGHT OF EMILY's POEMS) as well as a MOST INTERESTING and thought-provoking INTRODUCTION (29pp), then choose the Broadview Press edition by Beth Newman (be sure not to pick their earlier one by Christopher Heywood!).
If, on the other side, you may accept a generally reliable text and a very scanty annotation (but with full dialectal glosses), and you would appreciate the best presentation ever of early reviews and similar materials (Charlotte's prefaces for 1850, and some letters by Charlotte) and you would enjoy a really good and wide enough selection of EIGHTEEN EMILY's POEMS, then don't miss the elegant and no-nonsense Fourth Edition of Norton Critical (by R.J. Dunn, with almost the same text, for good and worse, of the late and mourned William M. Sale 1963 1st edition).
Have a haunting reading!
Review Summary: one of the best "study" editions so far...
Review: As with other Wuthering Heights editions, I will not delve into the depths of this strangest and strongest of novels, with its haunting poetical intensity, its everyday realism, its display of physical and psychical violence, its metaphysical contents and its eerie beautiful otherness. As the noted critic C. A. Swinburne put it in 1883:
"It may be true that not many will ever take it to their hearts: it is certain that those who do like it will like nothing very much better in the whole world of poetry or prose".
By the way, whatever the edition you end up with (or none), don't forget to have
a try with Emily Bronté poems, or a sensible selection from them. I realize that this review is by far too long: so, if you are in a hurry, I think that you can skip safely to the last paragraph ("SO WHAT?") for practical recommendations.
The real issue that we face now is: how much does THIS PARTICULAR EDITION of Emily Brontë's novel measure up to its intended goal? How does it compare with other editions currently available?
Beginning with the bottom line, THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST "STUDY" EDITIONS EVER, together with Beth Newman's one for Broadview Press and Dunn's one for Norton Critical (4th edition). By a "study" edition (in roughly the same sense as a "study" Bible), I mean one that is richly annotated, with an interesting Introduction and a variety of context-oriented documents, such as critical reviews or essays, biographical or chronological items, a selection of poems or other writings... Such an edition must be evaluated firstly by his handling (more or less scholarly or careful) of the TEXT(s) involved, then by the choice of supplementary materials (whether interesting or not, balanced or else), in third place by the quality and accuracy of the Introduction and notes, ending with very important issues of design (user-friendly, beautiful) and material production (durability, paper and print quality, binding).
IN SUMMARY, lest I get too long and formal, this is a well cared for, accurate and reliable 1847-type text, springing out of the University of Virginia electronic texts, but tightly controlled by the 1976 Clarendon Edition one (by Hilda Marsden and Ian Jack), and silently adapted as punctuation is concerned (resulting in a friendly version, which the scholarly reconstructed punctuation of Clarendon is not).
THE INTRODUCTION is short (11 pp) and well planned so that it opens ways for understanding, but can be read before the novel without spoiling anything.
It sounds a bit like run-of-the-mill material, but this is a deceiving image
(Alison Booth's command of the material is always there).
THE ANNOTATION IS VERY GOOD and extensive enough, with full and right glosses of the dialect tirades, and accurate, to-the-point information on biblical or literary references, or contextual ways and means.
In that most elusive of references, the one about Milo (of Croton) in Chapter IX, however, Alison Booth edition slips a little, like many other good ones (with Clarendon doing a little better, the ones getting the story right if not in full are Barnes&Noble, Wordsworth Classics, Penguin/Nestor, Broadview/Newman, Oneworld Classics and the excellent but ill-fated Routledge edition by Heather Glen). According to the Geography of Strabo, Book XII, which is the only source for this story, Milo in his old age tried to tear apart in two a tree half split and with a wedge to retain it open. He then exerted all his force with his hands, opening the gap wide enough for the wedge to drop off; the tree closed (it requires an ever increasing force to continue opening the trunk -this is Hooke's Law in physics-) and trapped the hands of Milo, who was then devoured by wolves.
It is regarding this story that we read in the novel:"Who is to separate us, pray? They'll meet the fate of Milo!" (who also tried unwisely and deadly to SEPARATE something). Saying in a note, as Booth does, "In the classical fable, Milo, an athlete, tried to pull a tree up by the roots" is a little misleading (not only do we lose the "separation factor", but also accuracy. Milo is neither a fable nor a myth, but a real human being with a place both in time and on earth, mentioned with consistent witness by two of the best historians of the time, other than Strabo. As to the stories connected to him, nothing is known for sure when we go into the details, and so the label "legend" is most appropriate).
The CONTEXTUAL MATERIALS are well chosen and presented. The only problem, and I think THE GREATEST PROBLEM with this otherwise excellent edition, is that there are 40+ items of this material and only 130 pages to fit them in: it looks hopelessly like a motley medley of maddening fragments, with, say, ONLY FIVE OF EMILY'S POEMS, which is both a pity and a blunder. There are interesting curios as the "Table of the average yearly wages paid to domestics... according to their rank in a household".
More important are the pages devoted to Yorkshire dialect (too scarce) and ballads (very good). There is also a fair amount of space (11 pages) allotted to "cultural dissemination", that is, works of art (songs, theatrical or musical adaptations as well as TV or movie ones, sequels...) deriving from or related with the novel.
The data included are very good and complete except for the chapter on translations in which, just as an example, only two translations into Spanish are listed, and only one in current use although it is barely acceptable: there are by now no less than TEN Spanish translations easily available; some are very good, some are rightly annotated, none is both things together and none is based on the 1847 text (but on the 1850 one).
MATERIAL PRODUCTION is... fair enough, as far as I can tell without ripping apart my copy. A not-too-bad paperback, perhaps even signature-sewn but without flaps (with cover corners and even front-edge vulnerable). Paper quality looks good (time will tell) and printing quality is excellent. Design is clear and user-friendly
(I will not comment on the typeface they use for big headlines, perhaps somebody will love it).
SO WHAT?
If an accurate and reliable text and a rich annotation are a must,
then stick to this Longman Cultural Edition (by Alison Booth).
If you can make do with a generally reliable text with a few errors, some idiosyncratic readings and inconsistencies and, besides, you don't mind a scanty annotation (but with full dialectal glosses), and you will appreciate the finest choice ever of contextual materials (but with only EIGHT OF EMILY's POEMS) as well as a MOST INTERESTING and thought-provoking INTRODUCTION (29pp), then choose the Broadview Press edition by Beth Newman (be sure not to pick their earlier one by Christopher Heywood!).
If, on the other side, you may accept a generally reliable text and a very scanty annotation (but with full dialectal glosses), and you would appreciate the best presentation ever of early reviews and similar materials (Charlotte's prefaces for 1850, and some letters by Charlotte) and you would enjoy a really good and wide enough selection of EIGHTEEN EMILY's POEMS, then don't miss the elegant and no-nonsense Fourth Edition of Norton Critical (by R.J. Dunn, with almost the same text, for good and worse, of the late and mourned William M. Sale 1963 1st edition).
Have a haunting reading!