Limit search to available items
Book Cover
Book
Author Sutherland, John, 1938-

Title Is Heathcliff a murderer? : puzzles in nineteenth-century fiction / John Sutherland
Published Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1996

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  820.8 S9663 Z/Sui  AVAILABLE
Description x, 258 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm
Series World's classics
World's classics.
Contents Where does Sir Thomas's wealth come from? / Jane Austen -- How much English blood (if any) does Waverley spill? / Walter Scott -- Apple blossom in June? / Jane Austen -- Effie Deans's phantom pregnancy / Walter Scott -- How does Victor make his monsters? /Mary Shelley -- Is Oliver dreaming? / Charles Dickens -- Mysteries of the Dickensian year / Charles Dickens -- Is Heathcliff a murderer? / Emily Bronte --Rochester's celestial telegram / Charlotte Bronte --Does Becky kill Jos? / W. M. Thackeray -- Who is Helen Graham? / Anne Bronte -- What kind of murderer is John Barton? / Gaskell -- On a gross anachronism / W. M. Thackeray -- What is Jo sweeping? / Charles Dickens --Villette's double ending / Charlotte Bronte -- What is Hetty waiting for? / George Eliot -- The missing fortnight / Wilkie Collins -- Two-timing novelists /W. M. Thackeray, Gaskell and Anthony Trollope -- The phantom pregnancy of Mary Flood Jones / Anthony Trollope
Is Will Ladislaw legitimate? / George Eliot -- Is Melmotte Jewish? / Anthony Trollope -- Where is Tenway Junction? / Anthony Trollope -- Was he Popenjoy? /Anthony Trollope -- R. H. Hutton's spoiling hand /Henry James -- What does Edward Hyde look like? / R. L. Stevenson -- Who is Alexander's father? / R. L. Stevenson -- Why does this novel disturb us? / Oscar Wilde -- Is Alec a rapist? / Thomas Hardy -- Mysteries of the Speckled Band / Arthur Conan Doyle -- What does Arabella Donn throw? / Thomas Hardy -- What is Duncan Jopp's crime? / R. L. Stevenson -- Why is Griffin cold? / H. G. Wells -- Why does the Count come to England? / Bram Stoker -- How old is Kim? / Rudyard Kipling
Summary In Is Heathcliff a Murderer? (well, is he?) John Sutherland investigates thirty-four conundrums of nineteenth-century fiction. Applying these 'real world' questions to fiction is not in any sense intended to catch out the novelists who are invariably cleverer than their most defectively inclined readers. Typically, one finds a reason for the seeming anomaly. Not blunders, that is, but unexpected felicities and ingenious justifications. In Is Heathcliff a Murderer? John Sutherland, recently described by Tony Tanner as 'a sort of Sherlock Holmes of literature', pays homage to the most rewarding of critical activities, close reading and the pleasures of good-natured pedantry
Analysis English fiction
Notes Includes index
Bibliography Bibliography : pages [244]-258
Subject Heathcliff (Fictitious character from Brontë)
Doyle, Arthur Conan, 1859-1930 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Doyle, Arthur Conan, 1859-1930. Adventure of the speckled band.
English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
English fiction -- 19th century -- Miscellanea.
English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
Heathcliff (Fictitious character)
Genre/Form Puzzles and games.
LC no. 96000764
ISBN 019282516X (paperback: alk. paper)
0192834681 (paperback)