Some people call this one of literature's great love stories, while others object strenuously to this idea. How can this be a love story, they argue, when Heathcliff is a violent psycho and Catherine is manipulative and cruel?

To which I'd answer, can't bad people experience love? There's nothing much admirable about these folks, true, but it can't be denied that they're in love... even if it is a sort of creepy, semi-incestuous kind of love.

People want to imagine love as uplifting, as a kind of salvation. Wuthering Heights offers of a different vision entirely: love is brutal, dangerous, and ultimately destructive to the lovers and everything around them. ( )

This is not a love story! That’s the first thing any potential first-time reader of Wuthering Heights must understand, lest they be as disappointed as I was when I first read this book as part of my English class my senior year of high school. I was expecting an epic romance that would tear my heart to pieces as I worried over the fate of two great lovers. What I got was a story of people doing a lot of wicked things in the name of love, but rarely doing anything actually loving.

I was horrified! I couldn’t believe this book had been called a great romance. But I was also fascinated. I didn’t like any of the characters in the book much, but I couldn’t look away from them. And the more I thought about them, the more interesting they became. However, it wasn’t until my second time reading Wuthering Heights, this time for a college class, that I came to truly enjoy the book. This third reading, this time on audio, continued the pleasure.

Wuthering Heights may not be a love story, but I am growing to love it more with each reading. It will probably never supplant Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre as my favorite Brontë novel, but the complexity of the story and of the characters make the Heights a place worth returning to.

See my complete review at my blog. ( )

I just completed one of the five things I wanted to do this year - read a classic novel that I've been putting off but meaning to read. When it came to deciding which book to choose first (because I do intend to read several others even though my goal was just one) I picked this particular one because it's mentioned several times in Eclipse, the third book in the series by Stephenie Meyer. I wanted to know exactly what the characters were talking about when they alluded to this novel, so I thought I'd give it a try (there are worse ways to pick a book to read, I think). Plus, I had never read anything by any of the Bronte sisters and I thought this was as good a place to start as any.

I don't want to give anything away, so I'll keep this very short (I hear you laughing - fine, I'll try to keep it short). This story is heart-wrenching and maddening at times -very rarely do you find a love story that's pages are so devoid of love. The characters are unforgettable and unique. They are vile and detestable but you can't help wanting them to be happy. Heathcliff and Cathy deserve a special place among the famed couples of literature. Not because they are the epitome of love and romance, but because they are unlike anyone else - they are greedy, selfish, vile, and manipulative, but their love is so great that it transcends everything, even death, and neither can be happy without the other.

To be honest, I was surprised at how easy it was to read. Granted, I probably have a higher tolerance for British fiction than the average person, but this is only because my degree is in English Literature and I was forced to take four semesters worth of British literature. Trust me, there are good British novels, and then there are very bad British novels. This one, thankfully, can go on the "good" list. Reading some of the commentary at the beginning of Barnes and Noble's edition (the picture is courtesy of their website) helped me to a degree in realizing what I was in for. I was aware that the characters could become confusing, some of them having the same name, others having last names as first names and the other way around. I also used the genealogy provided, which helped immensely. Because of this, I was able to prepare myself for some initial confusion and just waited it out and let the story take its course, knowing it would sort out later, instead of desperately trying to figure it all out at the beginning. What also helped this classic go smoothly was the language. Obviously it's different from what we speak, but for a British classic, I thought it was easy to follow. I know it can get confusing at times concerning who is speaking or being spoken about, and the dialect can sometimes be thick enough to make anyone stop for a breather. Emily Bronte did a great job in keeping the conversations easy to follow (even when there was a narrator within a narrator within a narrator) and the dialect, when there was any, at least in this version, was explained in footnotes.

All in all, I would recommend this book. If you're new to British fiction and are just looking for a place to start, this classic is easy to read (considering it was written in 19th century Britain) and flows smoothly. I really wanted to know what would happen to the characters and found it hard to put it down. For those who are familiar with the classics and British ficition but haven't read this particular one, give it a shot. It's definitely different from anything I've read.

So, I know it's hard to make a case for the classics. Very few people want to take the time to read them, and others are prejudiced enough to think that "classic" means "boring" (and some of them really are, but not all, so let's not be judgmental - it's stuck around for a reason). Honestly, I have to be in the mood to delve into books like this, but I always feel a little more educated, and a little more fulfilled in a literary sense when I'm finished. Of all the British literature I have read, Wuthering Heights ranks pretty far up there. And that's saying a lot. ( )

I seem to be one of the few literate women who - up until yesterday - had never read Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Given the rapturous delight with which many recall this novel, I fully expected to be caught up in a gothic, romantic dream. I think, however, I may have read it at least 20 years too late. If I had first read this between the ages of 14 and 24, rather than at 44, I think I would have loved it. Don't get me wrong, it was a good book, but I didn't think it was a great book.

Wuthering Heights takes place in the wilds of northern England. Mr. Lockwood has come to rent the house at Thrushcross Grange, and soon meets his landlord, Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights. After a very unpleasant encounter with the residents of Wuthering Heights, an unsettling night in which he is visited by a ghost, and a long trek back to the Grange, Lockwood becomes sick. He asks Nelly Dean, the servant woman who takes care of the Grange, to tell him more about Heathcliff and the other denizens of the Heights. Nelly gladly dives into the story - she has been serving the family for many years and knows all the details.

SPOILERS

Thirty years earlier, Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights, brought a street urchin back with him from a trip to Liverpool. He is names Heathcliff, and grows up with Earnshaw's children, Hindley and Catherine. From the start, there is something "different" about Heathcliff - he is brooding, dark - an unknown. However, he and Catherine become extremely close, while Hindley sees Heathcliff as an interloper. When Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley and his wife take over the estate, and Hindley immediately banishes Heathcliff to work with the servants. Meanwhile, Catherine meets the neighbors at Thrushcross Grange - Edgar and Isabella Linton. Heathcliff abhors the Lintons; not only is he jealous of the time Catherine spends with them, but he sees them as soft and unworthy.

When Hindley's wife dies (after giving birth to a son, Hareton), Hindley takes to drinking and Catherine agrees to marry Edgar Linton. Heathcliff leaves home, never knowing that Catherine truly loves him, not Edgar. When Heathcliff returns, some three years later, he is now wealthy and bent on revenge. He gambles with Hindley, who loses everything to Heathcliff. He elopes with Edgar's sister Isabella, which may allow him to inherit Thrushcross Grange when Edgar dies. Eventually, Isabella has a child - a weakly boy named Linton. Meanwhile, Catherine becomes sick. When she finally sees Heathcliff, it helps to drive her to her death - but not before she gives birth to another Catherine, or Cathy for short.

Over time, Edgar dies and eventually Heathcliff - through underhanded means - forces Cathy to marry the dying Linton. He keeps Cathy prisoner at Wuthering Heights, even after Linton's death. However, Cathy and Hareton eventually become friends, then fall in love. Heathcliff discovers he has nothing left to live for - no reason for revenge. He dies and is finally able to spend his afterlife with Catherine, his one true love.

Yep, lots happens in Wuthering Heights. And it all happens to cousins, it seems. The plot is convoluted, but moves along quickly. However, I found it very difficult to really like any of the characters. Of course, Heathcliff is meant to be irredeemably lost. If there was any chance that he might have a modicum of goodness in him, it was snuffed out early - either before he got to Wuthering Heights, or soon after Mr. Earnshaw's death. I found Catherine the Elder to be pretty annoying as well. Although she says she loves Heathcliff, she goes ahead with Edgar anyway. She seems to delight in torturing just about everyone around her. Cathy the Younger was okay, but a young and somewhat spoiled girl. And the other characters? Either they were cruel, or soft, or cloying, or delicate, or mean, or some combination thereof.

I really appreciated Brontë's writing style. There seem to be few "literary" novels from the 19th century that speak in plain language (and yes, I mean "plain" as a complement). This may be because Bronte wrote this way naturally, or it may be because most of the narration comes from Nelly Dean, a servant, but a pretty well-educated one.

And this leads me to Nelly, who is our narrator for most of the story. Of all the characters in the book, I found Nelly to be the most interesting. Whether this was intentional on Brontë's part or not, I don't know, but I became more and more intrigued with her as the story continued. She is fascinated with death, superstitious, and doesn't seem to hesitate to be a tattle-tale. She works all sides, always making sure she comes out on top. In many ways, this all-too-unreliable narrator is the most brilliant part of the novel, and I found myself wondering just how much of the story was "true" (none, of course, but since Nelly basically admits she'll do what she has to to ensure she keeps her employment, one wonders).

Overall, Wuthering Heights is a good book. One wonders what brilliance Emily Brontë might have shown if she had lived past the publication of this, her one and only book. Too bad we'll never know. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1339222...

I have to say that I don't quite get Wuthering Heights. Yes, I suppose the destructive psychological relationship between Heathcliff and the elder Cathy is rather grimly fascinating, as is a train crash; but that takes up only the second quarter of the book. There are elements which are difficult to accept for today's reader - the appearance of Cathy's ghost at the beginning, the almost nonchalant violence perpetrated by Heathcliff throughout. The descriptive passages, both of the human relationships and of the natural environment, are vivid and memorable, but I find the repeating pattern of destructive and inescapable family relationships rather depressing and, frankly, not terribly interesting. ( )