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This Thing of Darkness
The storm that dismantles a dynasty…
1780. Wild and windswept Yorkshire. Sixteen-year-old Heathcliff runs from the only home he has ever known in a squall of pain and fury.
Blown into an inn on the edge of the moors, sodden, rejected, and hankering for revenge, he steals a horse and sets out for Liverpool in search of answers. The town he arrives in is a brutal new world, brimming in equal measure with risk and opportunity. Here, Heathcliff might map his future, make his fortune, forge a role for himself. But at what cost…
Reimagining the three years during which Heathcliff is absent from Wuthering Heights, This Thing of Darkness traverses countries and oceans in pursuit of one of literature's best known characters.
1780. Wild and windswept Yorkshire. Sixteen-year-old Heathcliff runs from the only home he has ever known in a squall of pain and fury.
Blown into an inn on the edge of the moors, sodden, rejected, and hankering for revenge, he steals a horse and sets out for Liverpool in search of answers. The town he arrives in is a brutal new world, brimming in equal measure with risk and opportunity. Here, Heathcliff might map his future, make his fortune, forge a role for himself. But at what cost…
Reimagining the three years during which Heathcliff is absent from Wuthering Heights, This Thing of Darkness traverses countries and oceans in pursuit of one of literature's best known characters.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
280 pages, Paperback
Published November 2, 2023
50 people want to read
About the author
Nicola Edwards
1 book7 followersNicola Edwards is a PhD candidate at the University of Bangor and teaches English and Classics in a school in North Wales. Nicola has worked as a journalist and has lectured on race and representation in the media for Race Council Wales. Her non-fiction writing has appeared in Wales Arts Review. This Thing of Darkness, her first novel, won the Michael Schmidt Prize at the Manchester Writing School.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 10, 2024
Being a massive fan of Wuthering Heights I had to read this novel which tells the story of Heathcliffe's three years away from Yorkshire. As we know he was a very troubled man and this book is told from the perspective of various people in his life, starting with Abe Earnshaw who brings him from Liverpool to the Heights as a young boy. It is not the first one to be written about this time. I would also recommend Nelly Dean by Alison Case and I'll Will by Michael Stewart. As only Emily Bronte would really know what happened to Heathcliffe in those three years it is lovely that writers are continuing the story. I heartily recommend this novel to everyone who loves Wuthering Heights.
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February 2, 2025The story read itself, and I finished it in a matter of days (I am not a speedy reader, so this is noteworthy)! The mood and language, even the framing, put me right back into the source material, and the characters were diverse and perverse and so very broken and human.
October 26, 2023
Nicola Edward’s reimagining of Heathcliff’s lost years is visceral, disturbing and deeply compelling, her anti-hero’s brutality a product of the true darkness at the heart of England’s past. A stunning debut.
February 6, 2024
When I told Nicola I had never read Wuthering Heights she wasn't surprised in a manner many people are who swear by the classics like a rite of passage in a reader's life. She promised to send me a copy. Thank you. The beauty of Instagram lies in these serendipitous encounters. We are here to celebrate our friends and their crafts. Our connections may occupy niche spaces but they are vibrant and powerful.
It's 1780 in Gimmerton, Yorkshire. He was named after a cliff of heathland. On this stormy cold night, he runs away on a stolen horse to Liverpool looking for answers. And here begins his adventures navigating the winding lanes of ship-builders, tradesmen, customs men, and powerful merchants of the bustling port city. Heathcliff is quiet, observant, arrogant, and shrewd. He becomes a ward, a confidante, a spy of the merchant Samuel Unsworth and rises in the ranks. These chapters of his learning and slowly accumulating pockets of power using leverage through sheer cunning are written from the point of view of people who meet Heathcliff. Ned Morgan, Sam Unsworth, his daughter Henrietta, and their Jamaican housekeeper Hana who remains suspicious of Heathcliff's ulterior motives.
Three years later, in the summer of 1783, Heathcliff is onboard the Othello, Unsworth's slave ship bound for Sierra Leone. Written in epistolary form from the hand of Dr John Avery, the ship's doctor with abolitionist views, this chapter remains my favorite of the book. Nicola brings her years of research about Liverpool's history, the history of the Atlantic slave trade, and maritime experiences in the book's second half. There are conversations between Dr. Avery and Heathcliff about slavery which show the dubious moral philosophy surrounding the nature of human bodies. Heathcliff is torn between his hardened racist ideas borne from his upbringing and his yearning for Cathy Earnshaw which spills into moments of kindness for his crew. The author presents a believable picture of the lengths this boy went to earn money and be prosperous in a society obsessed with ranks and titles.
And he returns home. Cathy is his home. The novel ends like a prequel to the original book. But it leaves you haunted by the heat of West African shores, seasickness, the clink of coins being exchanged hands at the slave market mixed with the clank of metal collars and muzzles, the hoary waves on the cursed Atlantic, and the cries of the passengers aboard just waiting to make greedy men richer, fatter, and shinier. It's a weird feeling to sit with a book that is supposedly a romance. Retellings have a way of providing the space for contemplating the period of original texts. And Nicola does a brilliant job. Never boring. I told her she must write a crime novel in the future. Because This Thing of Darkness keeps you on your toes.
Stray Observations: The ship's name to begin with. Othello. Is this a coincidence? Hana's chapter is heart-rending and painful to read. Written in a language resembling Jamaican patois or Jamaican Black English, another historical accuracy. Some sections reminded me of the television series Taboo and the first season of Terror. There is a resemblance between Heathcliff's journey and James Keziah Delaney's character arc in Taboo (Tom Hardy, everyone, go watch it). But then I watch too much telly and find patterns everywhere.
It's 1780 in Gimmerton, Yorkshire. He was named after a cliff of heathland. On this stormy cold night, he runs away on a stolen horse to Liverpool looking for answers. And here begins his adventures navigating the winding lanes of ship-builders, tradesmen, customs men, and powerful merchants of the bustling port city. Heathcliff is quiet, observant, arrogant, and shrewd. He becomes a ward, a confidante, a spy of the merchant Samuel Unsworth and rises in the ranks. These chapters of his learning and slowly accumulating pockets of power using leverage through sheer cunning are written from the point of view of people who meet Heathcliff. Ned Morgan, Sam Unsworth, his daughter Henrietta, and their Jamaican housekeeper Hana who remains suspicious of Heathcliff's ulterior motives.
Three years later, in the summer of 1783, Heathcliff is onboard the Othello, Unsworth's slave ship bound for Sierra Leone. Written in epistolary form from the hand of Dr John Avery, the ship's doctor with abolitionist views, this chapter remains my favorite of the book. Nicola brings her years of research about Liverpool's history, the history of the Atlantic slave trade, and maritime experiences in the book's second half. There are conversations between Dr. Avery and Heathcliff about slavery which show the dubious moral philosophy surrounding the nature of human bodies. Heathcliff is torn between his hardened racist ideas borne from his upbringing and his yearning for Cathy Earnshaw which spills into moments of kindness for his crew. The author presents a believable picture of the lengths this boy went to earn money and be prosperous in a society obsessed with ranks and titles.
And he returns home. Cathy is his home. The novel ends like a prequel to the original book. But it leaves you haunted by the heat of West African shores, seasickness, the clink of coins being exchanged hands at the slave market mixed with the clank of metal collars and muzzles, the hoary waves on the cursed Atlantic, and the cries of the passengers aboard just waiting to make greedy men richer, fatter, and shinier. It's a weird feeling to sit with a book that is supposedly a romance. Retellings have a way of providing the space for contemplating the period of original texts. And Nicola does a brilliant job. Never boring. I told her she must write a crime novel in the future. Because This Thing of Darkness keeps you on your toes.
Stray Observations: The ship's name to begin with. Othello. Is this a coincidence? Hana's chapter is heart-rending and painful to read. Written in a language resembling Jamaican patois or Jamaican Black English, another historical accuracy. Some sections reminded me of the television series Taboo and the first season of Terror. There is a resemblance between Heathcliff's journey and James Keziah Delaney's character arc in Taboo (Tom Hardy, everyone, go watch it). But then I watch too much telly and find patterns everywhere.
February 1, 2025
He was a lad in the process of re-making himself into something else, something unnatural.
Edwards does for Wuthering Heights what Rhys did for Jane Eyre 6 decades prior, adding a postcolonial approach to Emily's already incredibly complex characters. Straying from recent trends in the retelling subgenre, Edwards refuses to make her Heathcliff a mere understood, sympathetic, and vindicated here. Instead, she makes him perhaps even more insidious than the Heathcliff we love to despise in the original novel. She firmly declares that the racially ambiguous Heathcliff is not only half-black, but actually the illegitimate child of the elder Earnshaw. When he flees the Heights at 16, he is catapulted into a cruel and hectic world: he runs into ruffians, spends months in the Liverpool jail, works for a shipping company, becomes the personal bodyguard to his boss' lovely daughter, and joins the crew of a slave ship headed for Jamaica. All the while, he is plotting and scheming with only one goal in mind: to return to the Heights and claim what is rightfully his.
The moors would be flowering at this time of year, but in my dream the heather is black, and the birds are all dead. There is a hand smashing through a lattice, a hand that I hold and will not release, despite the horror of its owner, ordering me to release her.
Elements of this retelling follow the Gothic tone of its source material, but it also delves into a social and political history of 18th-Century England, more firmly grounding it in the realm of historical fiction. We get only glimpses of Heathcliff through the lens of several new characters he interacts with, who each have their own unique style of speaking and writing. Minor characters include some real historical figures, such as humanitarian John Howard and quack-physician James Graham. By combining various different—yet all equally unreliable—narrators, Edwards gives us a rich and nuanced portrayal of the three lost years of our protagonist before he even gets a chance to tell his own side of the story. And when he does...
I was a fool to carry this image of us as fetterless yet joined, slaves to each other yet ungoverned by God, man, even nature. I dared the devil himself to separate us. I bore this idea, nurtured it, and welcomed it. She said our souls were twined like two oaks, that we could never be uprooted. But she was a liar. I knew my own destiny—it was ingrained in the Cragg itself, and it was as implacable as the rocks beneath it. I was fated to love my deceiver, my destroyer. How could I not?
November 13, 2025
There were parts of this book that I loved, especially the multiple narrators with distinct tones of voice, and kudos to the author on making these voices feel authentic and immersing the reader into the different worlds of the characters.
I also really appreciated seeing the context of what else was happening in the world at the time of the original novel, particularly the sections in Liverpool where we see trade happening and the ship where we see the horrors of the slave trade. These added useful background beyond the somewhat isolated world of the Heights.
My favourite aspect was the exploration of Heathcliff's mixed-race background (a subject of scholarly debate), how people react to him because of it, and the impact this on him.
What I didn't enjoy was the way Heathcliff was portrayed as a one-note character. For me, what made Wuthering Heights interesting was the complexity of Heathcliff's character. He wasn't an out-and-out baddie but misunderstood, mistreated, and flawed. In This Thing of Darkness, he is just that: a thing of darkness. The nuance is lost.
There is nothing redeemable about Heathcliff here, not from the moment we see him in Feather's pub to his later deeds and later, later deeds. In every character's depiction of him, it's like being hit with a sledgehammer of how deplorable he is. How cunning, vengeful, and heartless he is. And for me, this got kind of boring... like yes he's bad, we get it already.
And so ultimately, this novel was a great conceptual idea to explain "the missing years" and was well-executed in the range of voices and contexts, but it missed the mark in creating a "He Devil", a thing of only darkness and no light. Would Cathy have loved this Heathcliff? Probably not.
I also really appreciated seeing the context of what else was happening in the world at the time of the original novel, particularly the sections in Liverpool where we see trade happening and the ship where we see the horrors of the slave trade. These added useful background beyond the somewhat isolated world of the Heights.
My favourite aspect was the exploration of Heathcliff's mixed-race background (a subject of scholarly debate), how people react to him because of it, and the impact this on him.
What I didn't enjoy was the way Heathcliff was portrayed as a one-note character. For me, what made Wuthering Heights interesting was the complexity of Heathcliff's character. He wasn't an out-and-out baddie but misunderstood, mistreated, and flawed. In This Thing of Darkness, he is just that: a thing of darkness. The nuance is lost.
There is nothing redeemable about Heathcliff here, not from the moment we see him in Feather's pub to his later deeds and later, later deeds. In every character's depiction of him, it's like being hit with a sledgehammer of how deplorable he is. How cunning, vengeful, and heartless he is. And for me, this got kind of boring... like yes he's bad, we get it already.
And so ultimately, this novel was a great conceptual idea to explain "the missing years" and was well-executed in the range of voices and contexts, but it missed the mark in creating a "He Devil", a thing of only darkness and no light. Would Cathy have loved this Heathcliff? Probably not.
November 27, 2023
Wuthering Heights, the first and only novel from Emily Brontë is considered one of the greatest novels ever written. A story of toxic love and obsession, dealing with issues around mental health and domestic violence, it has to be said that the character of Heathcliff is probably one of the most complex male leads ever imagined.
Only Emily Brontë really knows what happened to Heathcliff during the lost three years. When he was absent from the wild moorlands, but Nicola Edwards has created a thrilling and at time brutally uncomfortable version of those missing three years.
Told from the perspective of various characters who had an impact on his life, this is a beautifully written story that complements the original text so very well. Abe Earnshaw narrates the first part, a prequel if you like, explaining how Heathcliff initially came to the Heights, we are then taken forward to the same town of Gimmerton as Heathcliff makes his escape. From the streets of Liverpool, to the slave ships in the Caribbean, Nicola Edwards vividly describes the different landscapes and allows her readers to experience Heathcliff's journey so very well.
Heathcliff is a brutal man, damaged without doubt, with varying degrees of loyalty to those that he encounters. He leaves a legacy of cruelty and despair where ever he goes, thinking nothing of betraying those who have aided him, thinking only of a future wealth and his one big obsession; Cathy Earnshaw.
The writing is beautiful, it is stark and vivid, with characters who are so completely and wonderfully created. The sense of place and atmosphere is wonderfully presented, layered with the violence and toxicity that is Heathcliff.
This is such a fabulous piece of historical fiction and one that kept me turning the pages eagerly to find out just what terrible things Heathcliff would do next. Highly recommended.
Only Emily Brontë really knows what happened to Heathcliff during the lost three years. When he was absent from the wild moorlands, but Nicola Edwards has created a thrilling and at time brutally uncomfortable version of those missing three years.
Told from the perspective of various characters who had an impact on his life, this is a beautifully written story that complements the original text so very well. Abe Earnshaw narrates the first part, a prequel if you like, explaining how Heathcliff initially came to the Heights, we are then taken forward to the same town of Gimmerton as Heathcliff makes his escape. From the streets of Liverpool, to the slave ships in the Caribbean, Nicola Edwards vividly describes the different landscapes and allows her readers to experience Heathcliff's journey so very well.
Heathcliff is a brutal man, damaged without doubt, with varying degrees of loyalty to those that he encounters. He leaves a legacy of cruelty and despair where ever he goes, thinking nothing of betraying those who have aided him, thinking only of a future wealth and his one big obsession; Cathy Earnshaw.
The writing is beautiful, it is stark and vivid, with characters who are so completely and wonderfully created. The sense of place and atmosphere is wonderfully presented, layered with the violence and toxicity that is Heathcliff.
This is such a fabulous piece of historical fiction and one that kept me turning the pages eagerly to find out just what terrible things Heathcliff would do next. Highly recommended.
January 10, 2024
Firstly I have to say WOW… what an absolutely brilliant debut novel! I couldn’t put it down and read it in just one sitting.
It’s enticingly dark and disturbing, and at points makes you flinch with some of the brutality that unfolds as you turn the pages.
In short, the story follows the three years that Heathcliff is absent from Wuthering Heights, and is told from the perspectives of various characters, including Heathcliff. It follows his life from being picked up as a young child from the dark, dirty backstreets of Liverpool to Yorkshire, where misery is waiting with open arms to greet him.
Shunned and highly disliked by the locals from the very start, when he reaches 16 he steals a horse & returns to Liverpool to seek answers but is met by a city whose inhabitants are dark, untrustworthy, and governed by greed & hierarchy.
Heathcliff is the lowest of the low and works his way up out of the gutter; his ruthless, brutal & at times barbaric ways make even the hardiest men tread carefully.
Having made his fortune, Heathcliff returns to the only home he has known… Wuthering Heights, to exact revenge on those who have wronged him and take what he believes to be his.
Nicola transports you back in time so that you feel like you are right there beside Heathcliff and the other characters as his journey unfolds. The descriptive narrative is so atmospheric that it captures every sight sound and smell and brings them straight to you, at times making your stomach churn. Certainly not a book to be bypassed
It’s enticingly dark and disturbing, and at points makes you flinch with some of the brutality that unfolds as you turn the pages.
In short, the story follows the three years that Heathcliff is absent from Wuthering Heights, and is told from the perspectives of various characters, including Heathcliff. It follows his life from being picked up as a young child from the dark, dirty backstreets of Liverpool to Yorkshire, where misery is waiting with open arms to greet him.
Shunned and highly disliked by the locals from the very start, when he reaches 16 he steals a horse & returns to Liverpool to seek answers but is met by a city whose inhabitants are dark, untrustworthy, and governed by greed & hierarchy.
Heathcliff is the lowest of the low and works his way up out of the gutter; his ruthless, brutal & at times barbaric ways make even the hardiest men tread carefully.
Having made his fortune, Heathcliff returns to the only home he has known… Wuthering Heights, to exact revenge on those who have wronged him and take what he believes to be his.
Nicola transports you back in time so that you feel like you are right there beside Heathcliff and the other characters as his journey unfolds. The descriptive narrative is so atmospheric that it captures every sight sound and smell and brings them straight to you, at times making your stomach churn. Certainly not a book to be bypassed
May 13, 2024
I really enjoyed this brief novel which fills the gaps in Wuthering Heights and explores the evolution of and refinement of the darkness in Heathcliff. At times it is a tough read particularly when focusing on the Atlantic slave trade but it is a well written page turner.
November 28, 2024
Beautifully written and compelling. I loved the intensely atmospheric setting and the inspired characterisation. It cleverly recreates and extends the world of Wuthering Heights.
August 24, 2025
Loved it! A great little addition to 'Wuthering Heights'. Interesting and varied characters that all have one thing in common: Heathcliff.
September 3, 2025
Absolutely brutal and ingenious.
January 20, 2024
To take Wuthering Heights, that dark and brooding masterpiece, and tell the story of Heathcliff’s lost years is no slight undertaking. And yet, Nicola Edwards does not falter. This Thing of Darkness is an incredible read.
In this slim, multi-voiced novel - related by those who encounter Heathcliff over his years away from Gimmerton - we follow his journey from wild, troubled youth, to brutal manhood and vengeful oppressor.
Edwards crafts a mesmerising tale of poverty and power, from the Liverpool gaols and dockside, to its drawing rooms and ballrooms, and on across wild seas to the source of that wealth, the slave colonies.
A gritty, dark and unflinching look at 18th century trade routes, the slave trade, racism and violence towards women, it generated a brilliant discussion in our book group, very mixed emotions in us all, and an almost universal opinion of it being unputdownable!
Using Shakespearean imagery, subtle nods to the original text and distinct voices, this is an astonishing debut. Uncomfortable, visceral, just brilliantly done.
In this slim, multi-voiced novel - related by those who encounter Heathcliff over his years away from Gimmerton - we follow his journey from wild, troubled youth, to brutal manhood and vengeful oppressor.
Edwards crafts a mesmerising tale of poverty and power, from the Liverpool gaols and dockside, to its drawing rooms and ballrooms, and on across wild seas to the source of that wealth, the slave colonies.
A gritty, dark and unflinching look at 18th century trade routes, the slave trade, racism and violence towards women, it generated a brilliant discussion in our book group, very mixed emotions in us all, and an almost universal opinion of it being unputdownable!
Using Shakespearean imagery, subtle nods to the original text and distinct voices, this is an astonishing debut. Uncomfortable, visceral, just brilliantly done.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews