Black Spring
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- £6.49
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- £6.49
Publisher Description
Black Spring takes the passionate story of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and re-imagines it in a fantasy nineteenth-century society set in savage lands sustained by wizardry, where its people live by the vengeance code of vendetta. Like Wuthering Heights, it's a story within a story, featuring the brooding young Damek, who is swept along by his emotions. The object of his affections is Lina, daughter of the village lord, whose magical powers make her a witch -- and witches are not tolerated in this brutally patriarchal society. When Lina is sent away and forced to become a servant, Damek promises revenge and, like Heathcliff, spends a lifetime securing and refining it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Croggon (the Pellinor series) returns with an homage to Wuthering Heights, trading the English moors of the original for the remote northern wilds of Elbasa, a land of powerful wizards and strict rules concerning vendetta. In language and pitch, the pastiche is spot on: the mincing southern fop (Hammel, in Croggon's tale) and the pragmatic serving woman with hidden depths (Anna, standing in for Bront 's Nelly) are captured in detail and in general through their narrative voices. It's a fantasy setting, but Croggon maintains the north/south, high/low, and male/female class divisions Bront explores; Lina, born a witch, takes the place of Catherine, while "swarthy" Damek il Haran has his analogue in Heathcliff. The plot, in its essentials, is identical. And therein lies the potential rub: the story does not have its own inherent propulsion. The conflict is patterned, not driven it isn't discovering something new. Does it matter? In a tale as well written as this one, probably not. Devotees of Bront 's original work will still enjoy Croggon's amplification of the story's supernatural elements. Ages 14 up.
