 First edition | |
| Author | Helen Dunmore |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Gothic novel |
| Publisher | Viking |
Publication date | March 1995 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 313 |
| ISBN | 0-670-86269-X |
A Spell of Winter is a 1995 literary gothic novel [1] by Helen Dunmore, set in England, around the time of World War I. The novel was the first recipient of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996. [2]
Cathy and her older brother Rob grow up without their parents on an estate in rural England in the early 20th century. Their mother had abandoned them for a better life in southern Europe, and their father was committed to a sanatorium. They live with their grandfather and are brought up by one of the servants, Kate. Their governess is Miss Gallagher, but the siblings hate her. Cathy and Rob have little contact with the outside world, and as they get older, they grow closer. An older, wealthy neighbour Mr Bullivant befriends Cathy, but she is more interested in her brother.
Cathy and Rob's contact becomes more intimate and eventually sexual. Miss Gallagher finds out about their liaison and threatens to expose them to their grandfather. Kate notices that Cathy is pregnant and assumes the father is Mr. Bullivant. Cathy wants the pregnancy terminated before anyone else notices, and Kate arranges an illegal abortion for her. Cathy is depressed about losing her baby, but tells no one, not even Rob. To prevent Miss Gallagher finding out, Cathy leads her deep into the nearby woods, ostensibly to show her some wild flowers. Cathy, knowing she will not find her way back home on her own, frightens her with ghost stories, then abandons her. The next day Miss Gallagher is found dead of a suspected heart attack. Cathy is overcome with guilt and withdraws. She and her brother drift apart.
Rob and Kate become close and they leave for a new life in Canada. The Great War starts and all the local boys of age depart to fight in France. Mr. Bullivant serves on a hospital ship. Rob returns from Canada, without Kate, but leaves soon after for France. Cathy later receives news that her brother is missing, presumed dead. After the War, Mr. Bullivant returns and persuades Cathy to travel with him to France to see her mother. Cathy has no interest in her, but agrees to go. In Brittany she finds and reunites with her mother.
In a review in The Washington Post , American writer and academic Nicholas Delbanco described A Spell of Winter as "an erotic pastoral". [3] He said it is "heady Gothic stuff" reminiscent of Brontë's Wuthering Heights . A less experienced author may have turned this into a "romantic melodrama", but Delbanco stated that Dunmore's "authoritative telling" has produced a "haunt[ing]" tale. [3]
A reviewer at Publishers Weekly called the novel "a finely crafted, if disturbing, literary page-turner". [1] Some readers may find the book's "intensity and darkness", which hovers between "gripping and overwrought", a little "heavy-handed", but the reviewer was impressed by Dunmore's "keen, close writing" and "artful use of metaphor". They felt that the book was worthy of the Orange Prize. [1]
Writing in The New York Times , Louisa Kamps was a little more critical of the novel. She did not find Cathy "very credible, or likable", and felt that she lacks empathy. [4] Attempts by Dunmore to make Cathy a "modern update" of Brontë's Catherine Earnshaw turns A Spell of Winter into "a string of salacious, increasingly overwritten adventures straight out of the pulp-fiction files". [4] The siblings' "incestuous intimacy" in particular stands out as an example of one of these sagas. Kamps noted that once the War starts, Cathy shows signs of "something akin to sympathy for others", but added that it is too late "to believe, or care, that the clouds in Cathy's life are suddenly parting." [4]
Charlotte Nicholls, commonly known as Charlotte Brontë, was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which she published under the male pseudonym Currer Bell. Jane Eyre went on to become a success in publication, and is widely held in high regard in the gothic fiction genre of literature.
Emily Jane Brontë was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte and Anne titled Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell with her own poems finding regard as poetic genius. Emily was the second-youngest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell. She published under the pen name Ellis Bell.
Wuthering Heights is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent relationships with the Earnshaws' foster son, Heathcliff. The novel, influenced by Romanticism and Gothic fiction, is considered a classic of English literature.
Jane Eyre is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.
A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, the primary role of a governess is teaching, rather than meeting the physical needs of children; hence a governess is usually in charge of school-aged children, rather than babies.
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848) and Anne (1820–1849), are well-known poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories attracted attention for their passion and originality immediately following their publication. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily's Wuthering Heights, Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were accepted as masterpieces of literature after their deaths.
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Jane Eyre is the fictional heroine and the titular protagonist in Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name. The story follows Jane's infancy and childhood as an orphan, her employment first as a teacher and then as a governess, and her romantic involvement with her employer, the mysterious and moody Edward Rochester. Jane is noted by critics for her dependability, strong mindedness, and individualism. The author deliberately created Jane as an unglamorous figure, in contrast to conventional heroines of fiction, and possibly part-autobiographical.
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Catherine Earnshaw is the female protagonist of the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights written by Emily Brontë. Catherine is one of two surviving children born to Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw, the original tenants of the Wuthering Heights estate. The star-crossed love between her and Heathcliff is one of the primary focuses of the novel. Catherine is often referred to as "Cathy," particularly by Heathcliff.
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