Into the Strenuous Briefness

gjmueller:

Sexy Covers Lure “Twilight” Teens to Capital-L Literature

“A lot of the old covers are these painterly, pale covers that would never get your attention if you were passing them on the shelf,” says Shanta Newlin, director of publicity at the Penguin Young Readers Group. “They were getting a little stale.”

And it works. A representative of Harper Teen says that edition of “Wuthering Heights” sold more copies than the average new release for young readers, and no authors or agents to be paid.

I’m pretty ok with shamelessly using Twilight to steer kids to stuff worth reading. But! The fact that Bella & Edward’s favorite book is Wuthering Heights should really set off alarm bells for everyone. Don’t get me wrong; I freakin’ love Wuthering Heights. Let’s not pretend that it shows a romance we should aspire to. The fact that Catherine and Heathcliffe are the lovers Bella idolizes is real creepy.