The Book Eaters

The Book Eaters takes place throughout the UK, primarily in Devon’s home of North Yorkshire. This is an area rich with storytelling history. Hester intentionally makes note of this when she says, “Next you’ll be telling me you grew up in a manor, like something out of Wuthering Heights” (43). For someone growing up away from damp isolation, the “moors” seem like a romantic ideal out of a gothic novel. Ironically, it’s Hester who has a literary connection with North Yorkshire; her surname, Ravenscar, is an empty village near Scarborough that was initially intended as a resort town. (“Discover Ravenscar, the Town That Never Was.” Top 10 Trail Experiences). However, planning fell through, and now the unpopulated town remains a coastal curiosity. It’s very likely that Dean used this name intentionally to heighten the overall tone of the novel.

Two of the most famous gothic novels to be set in and inspired by Yorkshire are Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Wuthering Heights is predominantly driven by its setting, so much so that it became the novel’s title. Without Wuthering Heights, there would be no Wuthering Heights.