Terry Eagleton’s collection of essays Heathcliff and the Great Hunger (1995) ‘settles’ a long enduring mystery concerning the lineage of one of literature’s most fabled characters: Heathcliff from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847). The brooding and conflicted hero at the heart of the novel’s morose multi-generational love story – that “vengeful sadist”, to steal Helen Small’s condemning phrase – has undisclosed origins (vii). Early in Brontë’s novel, Mr. Earnshaw, the master of Wuthering Heights, travels to Liverpool for a three-day journey. He returns with a young Heathcliff who was “starving, and houseless, and as good as …
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Citation: Saroukhani, Henghameh. "The Lost Child". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 May 2020 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38879, accessed 01 December 2024.]