Four Dreamers and Emily

Literary obsessions, farce and tender explorations of the heart combine in British novelist (Boy Blue) and literary critic (Emily Bronte: Heretic) Davies's entertaining U.S. debut, a gently satirical contemporary novel that targets academics and other devotees who worship at Emily Bronte's shrine. The dreamers of the title are four disparate conference-goers: Eileen, a spinster in her mid-60s who cares for her mother while indulging a passion for Emily; Marianne, a 30ish scholar and frazzled homemaker who's threatened with losing her teaching post; Timothy, a frail and grieving widower who claims to have seen Emily's ghost; and Sharon, a plump young waitress who finds herself alternately attracted to and repulsed by Emily's groupies. With high hopes, they journey to the Bronte homestead only to find ""Wuthering This and Blithering That,"" tearooms that serve Bronte Buns and merchants hawking mugs that bear the likenesses of the venerable family. Davies mischievously serves up a tasty slice of academic life replete with saucy, sexy asides: profs bed students, and feminists storm the podium; high- and lowbrows clash at the local pub, and a cross-cultural melee ensues. Only the untutored waitress sees through the academic sham--and for her clarity, she's rewarded with a lover and new resolve to diet. Davies's flair for comedy is matched by her fluid prose and her sympathetic portrayal of Timothy, who suffers the indignities of age, and Marianne, who struggles mightily to balance career and family. As the novel reaches its satisfying, albeit sentimental conclusion, the four pilgrims confront their uncertain futures with strength derived from their devotion to each other and to Emily, who would approve. (Sept.)