Just one book?
Why didn't they go for a second?
I read Wuthering Heights long before we ‘Googled’ everything. I remember going to four different libraries trying to find another book written by Emily Bronte. I couldn't find them, and the librarians either didn't know, or didn't bother to tell me that she’d written only one. I found out eventually. To much disappointment.
When I read ‘Gone with the Wind’, I was so enchanted by Ms Mitchell’s writing that I really wanted to read more. Yes, more than the hundreds of pages that are in the novel. I despised her for not writing more, yet my agony was somewhat mollified when I read the sequel ‘Scarlett’ written by Alexandra Ripley. Though she couldn't match Margaret’s writing style, she was able to maintain the consistency of her characters.
Nelle Harper Lee wrote something as wonderful as ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. The entire narrative unfolds as seen by a child, complete with the colorful imagination and delightful simplicity of a young mind. It presents a light overtone to the rather serious issue that’s the focus of the book. She won a Pulitzer for the book and went on to live a happy long life after it. Why couldn't she have written more? Wikipedia tells me that she started work on another book but never finished it. She wrote a couple of essays but never a book. She did help her friend Truman Capote with his research for ‘In Cold Blood’, but who cares. Capote is also a brilliant writer, and the treatment of his short story ‘A Christmas Memory’ reminded me of ‘to Kill a Mockingbird’ in the way it’s narrated by a child, the narrative so similar to a child’s.
Why did these great writers stop at just one book, while some other writers are spewing book after nonsensical book into the world? It infuriates me to no end. It can’t be that they had just one story to tell, can it? And someone who can find the patience to sit and write ‘Gone with the Wind’ cannot have a lazy bone in her body. Emily Bronte died at a very young age of 30 and lived a not-so-happy life, often battling health issues, so I can’t really blame her for not writing more. Yet I do, for I love Wuthiering Heights more than words.
I can rant all I want but the fact remains that they didn't go for a second. There are thousands of books in this world and I shall continue searching for more books that inpire, excite and move me.
