I appreciate Orenda Books for including me on the blog tour for Essie Fox's "Catherine". I reviewed her novel "The Fascination" in 2024 and was looking forward to reading more of Fox's work.
It's been many years since I first read Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights". Like millions of others, the book left an indelible impression on me. Essie Fox's "Catherine" is a stirring re-imagining of Brontë's tale, using Catherine as the narrator. Fox shines a new light on this classic story while giving a voice to one of the greatest characters in romance literature.
If you haven't read the original, the plot and setting are not very different from Brontë's. (In some cases, Fox quotes Brontë directly.) In "Wuthering Heights", a Mr. Lockwood rents a great estate in Yorkshire, Thrushcross Grange from the mysterious Mr. Heathcliff. On a visit to his landlord, he finds and reads the diaries of a previous inhabitant, Catherine Linton. When Lockwood returns to the Grange, he falls ill, and housekeeper Nelly Dean tells him the rest of the story.
Lockwood and Nelly both narrate, but it's mostly told from Nelly's point-of-view. When writing this review, I came across an essay called "The Villain in Wuthering Heights" (1958) by James Hafley. Hafley argues that "Nelly is the true villain of the novel, as she drives the majority of the conflicts by selectively revealing or concealing what others are doing..."
Whether or not Nelly was the true villain, she's still an unreliable narrator. In her eyes, Catherine is responsible for her own fate, by choosing to marry Linton rather than the man she really loves. Fox's re-telling emphasizes the lack of empowerment Catherine suffered as a young woman in the mid-1800's. It's not only her emotions that she can't control; she's imprisoned by the stifling conventions of the time.
Fox has chosen to begin the book after Catherine's death. The first scene opens in a graveyard. The title character has been dead for 18 years, yet her voice begins the tale:
Catherine hears voices and slowly awakens, as if from a dream. Catherine's husband Edgar has just died, and Heathcliff has gone to his gravesite where Catherine is also buried. He utters a tormented plea for Catherine to return and it seems that his wish is granted. Catherine gradually "awakens", first feeling the warmth of his tears, and then seeing his tortured face. Is she a ghost, a wraith conjured by Heathcliff's frenzied desire for his lost love, or something else entirely? Fox blends the world of the supernatural with the power of Catherine's memories to bring her presence to life. The story is now Catherine's to tell.
Led back to Wuthering Heights by her younger self, she relives her memories from 18 years past. The six-year-old Catherine lives on a huge estate with her father and mother, her brother Hindley, maid Nelly and farmhand Joseph. It's a lonely life, and her beloved father has been gone for days on a trip to Liverpool. She can't wait for his return and finally, he staggers into the house, exhausted and covered in mud.
This child (christened "Heathcliff" by Catherine's father) disgusts both family and servants, who wonder why he would bring a "filthy little urchin" into the house. Heathcliff's origins are cloudy; Father initially claimed to have found him on the moors, then changed his story to "the streets of Liverpool." His changing story is meant to conceal a dark secret, which we learn at the same time as Catherine.
Catherine comes to believe that this strange boy is her "other half". Unfortunately, throughout his young life, Heathcliff is despised and brutalized by Hindley and treated contemptibly by religious zealot Joseph. This treatment becomes much worse after Catherine's father dies. Nevertheless, the two are inseparable and their bond grows more powerful as the years go by. In both books, Heathcliff and Catherine's wild, savage love leads to the destruction of both the Earnshaws and the Lintons. There are no happy endings here.
Why read "Catherine" if you've read "Wuthering Heights"? Because Fox offers a contemporary re-framing of the story. Remembering her past, Catherine (and, thereby, the reader) reflects on her life choices with the benefit of hindsight. I use the word "choices" but I doubt whether they really were. Her fate was shaped by forces stronger than her will: class differences, social convention, and puritanical morality. Fox brings out the bitter irony that Catherine is free to follow her heart only after her death.
I hope that reading "Catherine" will encourage others to read "Wuthering Heights" and for lovers of the original, read it with new eyes.
Author Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, then the book publishers George Allen & Unwin – before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. The Fascination, published in 2023, was a Sunday Times bestseller and was followed by Dangerous in 2025. She has lectured at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London.
Please buy/order "Catherine" from your local independent bookstore, or go to bookshop.org and order there. They now offer ebooks as well.
For audiobooks, go to libro.fm.
