'Twilight' used as a lure to the classics, on both sides of the Atlantic
In the US and Europe, publishers have been trying to use the 'Twilight' phenomenon to bring young readers to the classics.
The tagline on the 2009 HarperCollins Children鈥檚 Books edition of Bront毛 classic 'Wuthering Heights' proclaiming "Love never dies" is found just beneath the sticker reminding readers that the novel is 鈥淏ella & Edward鈥檚 Favourite Book.鈥�
"Twilight" fans know that, in Stephenie Meyer鈥檚 blockbuster series, protagonists Bella Swan and Edward Cullen love the classics they read in school, occasionally referencing books like 鈥淩omeo and Juliet鈥� and 鈥�Wuthering Heights.鈥�
this week about efforts by US publishers to introduce hardcore "Twilight" fans 鈥� also known as Twihards 鈥� to those older stories of romance by slapping on some "Twilight"-like covers. In fact, the 2009 version of the Emily Bront毛 classic "Wuthering Heights" published by HarperCollins Children鈥檚 Books could easily be mistaken for one of the Stephenie Meyer novels, using as it does the well-known 鈥淭wilight鈥� cover format of a black cover with a single red object in the foreground. The new 鈥淲uthering Heights鈥� cover is all black, with a shadowy flight of stairs in the center and a white rose tied with a red ribbon in front of it.
Just in case you missed the point, a red sticker on the cover reads 鈥淏ella & Edward鈥檚 Favourite Book.鈥�
鈥淎s a bookseller, I appreciate the classics and I love when I can sell them to a new generation,鈥� Julie Klein, owner of the New York bookstore Book Revue, told of the new classics covers. 鈥淎nything that gets kids to look at them.鈥�
But European press was way out ahead on this one. In 2009 papers in France and Britain were already reporting on a 鈥淗eights鈥� mini-boom as European readers began snapping up both the "Twilight"-linked and other editions of the Bront毛 classic.
In France (where the book's title translates as "Les Hauts de Hurlevent"), teens who had never heard of the Bront毛 sisters were suddenly enthralled, as the Monitor reported at the time.聽 鈥淲e have sold as many copies of 'Wuthering Heights' in the first two months of 2009 [when the movie version of "Twilight" was released in Europe] as we usually sell in a whole year,鈥� a spokeswoman for Le Livre de Poche, the publisher of the French translation, told London's .
British teens, of course, have long been familiar with the homegrown Bront毛 books. But the 2009 "Twilight"-linked edition of "Wuthering Heights"聽 was rapidly outselling earlier editions of the book, the Monitor reported at that time.
In at least one respect it was a novel experience, Waterstone's classics buyer Simon Robertson said in an interview with at the time. 鈥淚 don't think a vampire's recommendation has ever sent a book to number one before."聽