Ten of the best foundlings in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best foundlings in literature.

One entry on the list:

Heathcliff

A dark-skinned child is found on the streets of Liverpool by Mr Earnshaw, who takes him back to his Yorkshire home (adoption laws being looser in those days). The home is Wuthering Heights and the child is named Heathcliff. Earnshaw's son, Hindley, grows to hate the interloper; his daughter Catherine to love him. In Emily Brontë's novel, the introduction of this foundling stirs a brew of terrible passions.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Wuthering Heights appears on Valerie Martin's list of novels about doomed marriages, Susan Cheever's list of the five best books about obsession, and Melissa Katsoulis' top 25 list of book to film adaptations. It is one of John Inverdale's six best books and Sheila Hancock's six best books.

The Page 99 Test: Wuthering Heights.

--Marshal Zeringue