READERS GUIDE
Questions and Topics for Discussion
INTRODUCTION
The windswept moors of England, a grand rustic estate, and a love story of one woman caught between two men who love her powerfully-all inspired by Emily Bronte’s beloved classic, Wuthering Heights. Solsbury Hill brings the legend of Catherine and Heathcliff, and that of their mysterious creator herself, into a contemporary love story that unlocks the past.
When a surprise call from a dying aunt brings twenty-something New Yorker Eleanor Abbott to the Yorkshire moors, and the family estate she is about to inherit, she finds a world beyond anything she might have expected. Having left behind an American fiance, here Eleanor meets Meadowscarp MacLeod-a young man who challenges and changes her. Here too she encounters the presence of Bronte herself and discovers a family legacy they may share.
With winds powerful enough to carve stone and bend trees, the moors are another world where time and space work differently. Remanants of the past are just around a craggy, windswept corner. For Eleanor, this means ancestors and a devastating romantic history that bears on her own life, on the history of the novel Wuthering Heights, and on the destinies of all who live in its shadow.
ABOUT SUSAN M. WYLERSusan Wyler lives in Los Angeles, California.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONSThis novel was inspired by the classic Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights. What similarities do you see, and what crucial differences? Consider not just broad elements like narrative structure and plot but details like the role of landscape, weather, and architecture in the story; and how family history and social dynamics between characters help shape their relationships and emotions.What is the importance of the Catherine-Heathcliff relationship in literary or cultural history,? Were you able to identify their roles in this book? What do you think the author is saying about the nature of love or the ways we find it? How did their history inform your reading of this novel, if at all?How do you think Eleanor would have felt about Mead if she’d met him on the streets of New York? Think about the importance of setting or timing in some of your own significant relationships. Does the origin of the relationship ultimately matter in the long run?In what ways are the moors themselves a character in the novel, affecting and shaping the outcome? Did the Manhattan landscape affect Eleanor in a different way? How did these different landscapes shape and influence Eleanor?Had Miles not betrayed Eleanor, do you think she would have allowed herself to fall in love with Mead? In what ways are the two men different? Do you think they are both suitable partners for her? Are there ways in which they are similar? Do you think Eleanor made the right choice, in the end?In the novel, there are various ghosts: the children, the fictional Catherine and Heathcliff, and Emily Bronte. What feelings are evoked in Eleanor by these different encounters? What is their significance in Eleanor’s evolution?Her first night in England, Eleanor wakes to find a mysterious young woman sitting at the end of her bed. She follows the young woman, and when she seems to disappear, she looks for her in the rooms of a dark and unfamiliar house. Throughout the novel, Eleanor is placed in unfamiliar situations where she is forced to confront her fears. How does this change her? What does she learn from doing this?Jane tells Eleanor that Mead is waiting for “his Catherine.” But Mead tells Eleanor, “Crazy love on the moors will kill you.” Do you think Eleanor is Mead’s Catherine? How does the relationship between Mead and Eleanor compare to the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights?In what ways does Eleanor’s meeting with Mrs. Garrens change Eleanor’s sense of her own life. Do you think Mrs. Garrens was correct in being so forthright? How might it have gone otherwise?Think about the choice Eleanor’s mother faced. Do you think knowing about her mother and father influenced Eleanor’s decision to stay in Yorkshire with Mead? How did not knowing her family history lead to the choices Eleanor made? Do you think she would have made different choices if she had known her history? How will knowing her history affect her future? Think about yourself: have your life choices ever been influenced by your ideas of where you came from, or what legacies precede you?What do you think about the Emily Brontë appearance and story woven into this novel? Would your reading of Wuthering Heights have been different if this story about her love affair been true?
