M.P. Hill

Classic of the Week: The Dream

Standout Line: "A sight to dream of, not to tell."

This is the first short story I've read for the CotW series! Thank you, random collection of Victorian Ghost Stories I found on the discount shelf, for introducing me to it. I'll be reading more J. Sheridan Le Fanu in the future (both Carmilla and Uncle Silas are on my list)!

Classic of the Week: Wuthering Heights

Standout Line: "I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth."

Wuthering Heights is well worth a read for genre fans who haven't yet taken the plunge. Brontë offers a masterclass in gothic setting and tone!

Classic of the Week: Cranford

Standout line: “I'll not listen to reason... Reason always means what some one else has got to say.”

A cow in a flannel waistcoat. That's the takeaway.

(Those seeking a more thorough analysis might be disappointed this week)

Classic of the Week: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Standout Line (from the preface to the 2nd edition): “I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the s*x of the author may be. All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.”

(It's no wonder that Anne initially wrote under a pseudonym. After her death, her sister, Charlotte, suppressed future editions of TToWH.)