Sourland

by Mary D’Amore

Sourland answers the question, “What if the same personalities and circumstances occurred in our society?” It is a retelling of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, which is considered one of the greatest Victorian Gothic novels in the English canon.

Sourland moves the setting to 200 years later and 5,000 miles away, taking place between 1967 through 2002 on the Sourland Mountain of New Jersey.

Emily Bronte’s provocative story of the Earnshaws and the Lintons, two northern English families torn apart by violent emotions in the late 1700’s, still intrigues readers over a hundred and fifty years after its publication. Heathcliff, to this day, is one of the best-known characters in English literature, and Catherine Earnshaw’s tormented choice between two lovers retains its appeal for the modern reader. The novel’s highly ambivalent representations of domesticity; child-rearing; its characters and their actions; and the mystery of Heathcliff’s origins made for an irresistible “retelling” project.

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Analogous in every sense, Sourland experiments with the relevance of pathologies and societal mindsets, then and now, providing material for both the reader and for students of Victorian Studies.

21st Century American English has been chosen to translate each passage and transform meaning and message for the contemporary reader from YA to Adult—critical for the story line, and scene and character descriptions.

Setting Sourland in my neighborhood felt like a natural choice, since it allowed me to map my own personal world onto the scenes in the novel. The history and lore of the Sourland Mountain dates back to the Revolutionary War, and further, to when it was Lenni Lenape land. Later the mountain became a backwoods refuge for “miscegenation” and life-styles incongruous to the surrounding communities, as written about in the 1880 New York Times article, “Barbarism in New-Jersey,“ further making it a perfect setting for events and behaviors to play out that otherwise would feel improbable. Ghost stories abound, as well. Interwoven into Sourland are references to these local histories and hauntings, making it an even more satisfying substitute for Emily’s moors.

117,000 words

Querying

Rejections below (each followed by a “but” and a comment about finding a “current market”)

Broadview Press: “Your retelling has academic relevance, and I think there may be increasing demand for paraphrased or simplified versions of classic texts.”

Princeton University Press: “a promising manuscript”

Writers’ House: “[Your work] has many charms”