Out in the world on his own again, Heathcliff is groomed into a gentleman, encounters old rivals, and prepares to face his beloved Cathy again in a speculative novel on Heathcliff's three-year absence from Wuthering Heights. Returning home from Brussels, Charlotte Bronte shares a train compartment with Mr. Lockwood and spends the night reading a letter from Heathcliff to Cathy explaining his absence. Nelly Dean had been charged with delivering the letter, but she chose instead to keep it hidden for 60 years; then she seeks Lockwood's assurance that she had done the right thing. In the letter, Heathcliff describes his experiences as the protege of Mr. Are of Thornfield. While the conclusion belies Emily Bronte's vision of Cathy and Heathcliff, the story is suspenseful and well told. Those familiar with the Brontes' work will be fascinated with Haire-Sargeant's conception; others will find that the story stands on its own. Necessary for Bronte collections and also recommended for fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/92. - Judy Mimken, Saginaw Valley State Univ., Mich. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. Sequelmania strikes again as Haire-Sargeant presumes upon Emily Bront‰'s stark, strange masterpiece, delivering a story that achieves a slight success as a literary pastiche but never becomes a satisfying work of fiction in its own right. The novel commingles the author's invention with elements in both Emily and Charlotte Bront‰'s fictional worlds. The literary sisters themselves appear as characters, interacting with Charles Lockwood, Nelly Dean, Edgar Linton, et al. It all begins with Charlotte sharing a railway compartment with Charles Lockwood, who shows her a long letter from Heathcliff to Catherine Earnshaw recounting his doings in the three years he was absent from Wuthering Heights. This letter was contained in a letter from the Heights' old housekeeper, Nelly Dean, in which she confesses that she intercepted Heathcliff's missive to protect Catherine, and now, on her deathbed, wonders whether she did the right thing. While Mr. Lockwood sleeps, Charlotte reads Heathcliff's letter, an account to Cathy of his flight to Liverpool, where he met up with one Mr. Are; the older gentleman took him as his proteg‚ with the aim of refining him. Heathcliff took instruction well, motivated by his desire to be worthy of his beloved Cathy. A surprise meeting with his rival Edgar Linton at Mr. Are's house ended with an improbable act of vengeance on Heathcliff's part. Mr. Are took Heathcliff abroad with him and there fell in love with a young governess named Jane Eyre; upon returning to England, he was about to marry her when it became known that he had a wife, Bertha, who was insane and confined in the attic of his house. Throw in the occasional italicized stream-of-consciousness rumination by Catherine Earnshaw and you have a veritable peat bog of a novel in which a solid footing is hard to attain. Stick to the high ground of the original instead. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.