David Barnett, of the Guardian, talks about book publisher, HarperCollins’, latest fad: Emily Brontë’s classic Wuthering Heights being re-branded to appeal to the younger generations.
UK's edition of the Wuthering Heights Reprint
Novels getting a makeover because of a TV or movie adaptation is nothing new, though this is perhaps the first time I’ve ever seen a classic of English literature get re-branded because it is the favourite book of a character in another work of fiction.
And it isn’t just the metaphysical endorsement from Twilight’s Bella … the new edition of Wuthering Heights, from Harper, borrows the contemporary Gothic design style of Meyer’s successful series. The American edition, coming in October, re-presents the Brontë novel with a cover comprising a black background and blood-red rose, while the UK edition opts for a tender white bloom, and the very vampiric cover blurb: Love Never Dies.
Should we be appalled, or approving of this latest move? Those of us who find ourselves shaking our heads and muttering, “Dreadful, dreadful”, are possibly marveling at the chutzpah of those who would make an enduring classic such as Wuthering Heights into a pale imitation of a mass-market publishing phenomenon aimed at adolescent girls.
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As a purist, I tend to lean toward the side of appalled by HarperCollins’ marketing strategy. However, I can see the benefit in such a move. As long as it gets young readers interested in finer pieces of literature, I suppose I can live with it.
Do you think such re-branding is a slap in the face to classic literature? Do you think this sort of bandwagon tactics are dumbing down the books they are selling, or bringing an otherwise oblivious audience a new outlet? Do you think Brontë would mind?
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As long as this isn't the only cover available, I don't mind. I'd rather have kids who weren't big readers before Twilight try this because of the cover than not. I can let stuff like this go because reading is so important that as long as kids are doing it, I'll look the other way.
I agree, whatever gets kids reading works for me.
That cover is just…just…*shudder* Wuthering Heights is my favorite novel, and to see it dressed up like that…I cringe. I would never pick up any book that looked like that, anyway. People like their classics to have pretty, sophisticated covers…Not ugly, stupid, hideous, terrible, stupid, stupid, stupid looking designs. </endrant>
As long as this isn't the only cover available, I don't mind. I'd rather have kids who weren't big readers before Twilight try this because of the cover than not. I can let stuff like this go because reading is so important that as long as kids are doing it, I'll look the other way.
I agree, whatever gets kids reading works for me.
That cover is just…just…*shudder* Wuthering Heights is my favorite novel, and to see it dressed up like that…I cringe. I would never pick up any book that looked like that, anyway. People like their classics to have pretty, sophisticated covers…Not ugly, stupid, hideous, terrible, stupid, stupid, stupid looking designs. </endrant>