I have just finished reading “Emily’s journal”, a book written by Sarah Fermi and published in 2006 and wanted to share my personal impressions.
I met the author, Sarah Fermi, during the BS Southern Excursion in October 2007 and learnt about her theory that Emily must have had a relationship which in the end was the basis of her one great novel “Wuthering Heights”. I got fascinated by this theory and bought the book. Unfortunately, I only got to reading the book just recently.
Reading this book really is an exciting experience: you start reading and the book does not let you go. You just have to continue reading until it is finished!!
The starting point of the author, writing a journal as Emily could have done, stepping into Emily’s shoes, describing the events in Emily’s words, even if they are imaginary though based on factual data, with the comments of both her sisters, is really a remarkable but fascinating point of view. When reading the journal, you can really picture Emily sitting at her writing desk all alone in her room writing these words in her diary, keeping it away from the rest of her family.
I was fascinated by the idea expressed by the author that Emily had “a boyfriend”. It is true, the passion elaborated in Wuthering Heights is very strong, difficult to believe it was all coming solely from the imagination of a young “innocent” woman. So the idea that she must have had a boyfriend at some stage in her life was most appealing to me. It also explained a lot.
I have loved reading this book. Even though the author, based on her research, had to imagine how things might have been in Emily’s life (since so few real facts are known to us, Emily being a very private person), you can really believe this story and believe that these things actually happened. The author has really succeeded in convincing me of her theory. It made me look at Emily from quite a different perspective. It is a wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable book, one that each Emily Brontë fan should have read! Perhaps they have, and perhaps I was the only one that had not read the book yet, but still! A book to be recommended!
Marina Saegerman
