This ‘Twilight’ Novel Was Inspired by a Book Stephenie Meyer Doesn’t Like
While writing the Twilight books, Stephenie Meyer drew from many sources. For example, Eclipse was inspired by one of the most famous romance novels of all time. Thanks to Eclipse, this classic book became a bestseller again.
How Stephenie Meyer intentionally made a ‘Twilight’ book confusing
The Twilight saga includes drama, romance, good, evil, the supernatural, and lots of brooding. In terms of content, it’s not too different from some classic Gothic novels. Meyer doesn’t like one of the classics of that genre — but that didn’t stop her from mimicking it.
According to the book The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights inspired Eclipse. Meyer said “[That’s] one of the one’s that’s interesting to me, because Wuthering Heights is not a book that I like. There are characters in it that fascinate me…. I enjoy reading the very end of it, I enjoy reading a couple pieces in the middle, but most of the time I just find it really depressing.” Meyer has discussed the characters in the novel’s love triangle — Heathcliff, Edgar Linton, and Cathy Earnshaw.
“The pull between Edgar and Heathcliff is strong — and, you know, Cathy makes the wrong choice,” Meyer said. “Both of them had something to offer, and she chose the part that didn’t matter. Even though I don’t like to read Wuthering Heights, I think about that part a lot.” In addition, Meyer, compared Edgar and Heathcliff to two of the major characters from Twilight: Edward Cullen and Jacob Black.
“You could look at Edward and Jacob from one perspective and say ‘OK this one is Heathcliff and this one is Edgar,’” Meyer opined. “And someone else might say ‘No wait a second. Because of this reason and that reason, that one is Heathcliff and that one is Edgar.’” Meyer liked how that could create confusion because life is confusing. Bella Swan even quotes from Wuthering Heights in Eclipse.
How the ‘Twilight’ saga introduced a new generation to ‘Wuthering Heights’
The Twilight/Wuthering Heights connection got some readers interested in the 19th century Gothic novel. According to The Guardian, the edition of Wuthering Heights by the French publisher Le Livre de Poche saw its sales skyrocket thanks to Eclipse. The phenomenon repeated itself with a British publisher in a slightly different way.
According to The Guardian, a British publisher called Waterstone released an edition of Wuthering Heights which emphasized the Twilight connection. It even had a cover reminiscent of the dark, minimalist designs of the Twilight book covers. This edition of the novel topped the bestseller chart. Usually when a classic novel starts flying off the shelves again, it’s because of a film adaptation. However, Meyer influenced people to buy the book with a few strokes of her pen.
