EMILY BRONTE: Wuthering Heights
Read several times and listened on audio July 2009.
Raw, passionate, haunting, tender, brutal and unforgettable.
It seems as if, in her isolation, Emily Bronte seeks all that life has to offer, its good and evil, its pleasure and pain, through the writing of this book. Wuthering Heights was her only novel and it is such a masterpiece that it feels as if she put everything into it, or perhaps that that it extracted everything out of her.

When the master of Wuthering Heights brings home the street urchin Heathcliff he changes the destiny of his family and that of the neighbouring household at the Grange. His daughter Cathy develops a bond with Heathcliff that begins to deepen but, ashamed of his low position, she denies this growing passion and marries Linton, the heir to the Grange. Heathcliff goes off to better himself and returns to exact a terrible revenge.

One of Wuthering Heights strengths is its narrative technique- the story is relayed in the main part by Nelly (Ellen) Dean the nursemaid and Mr Lockwood, tenant at the Grange but the unfolding of the story includes letters, ghostly sightings, anecdotes relayed second hand and related conversations between other characters spanning three generations. This gives a sense of many people affected by one story thus heightening the strength of Heathcliff and Cathy’s passion.

The prose style is surprising direct and modern, vigorous to the point of brutal in its laying bare the themes of love; romance; passion; revenge; and violence; covering ideas about: nature; religion; superstition; death; and the social values of the 19th Century. Feminist ideas about the inheritance of land and money, and about marriage for social status underpin the plot.

This book can be quite confusing at times by the use of similar names such Catherine's daughter also being named Catherine and Isabella Linton calling her son Linton. Also having to travel through two sets of narration in a non-chronological order. However, Brontë deals with all these factors masterfully to produce a masterpiece of English Literature that is far removed from other novels of the period. ( )

You can definitely see where Bronte picked up the story again in part two. I am not a huge fan of this book at all, specifically because of the tacked-on feeling of part two. ( )

I enjoyed this book; however, I saw it more as a hollow parody of an epic love story than as the romance that many people seem to find in it. Still, it's definitely well-written and entertaining, and I'd recommend it if only for the classics points one gets for attempting to read anything written before 1940. ( )

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. ( )

This book has been hard for me to read. I don't know what it is about British novelists—from Dickens to Rowling childhood is always about torment, abuse, and innocence violated.

On the other hand Bronte was a gifted novelist with a solid grounding in classical drama. That Heathcliffe is such a godawful pr*ck is tragedy—for him and everybody who comes in contact with him. That he and the other characters cannot escape their fate is as old as dramatic writing.

There are plenty of other elements to this book that make it intriguing despite its fierce and unyielding vision. Bronte's understanding of her characters' psychology is breathtaking considering that she was only in her mid-20s when she wrote it and had spent most of her life in an isolated household. Anyone with an ounce of feminism can see how the unequal legal status of the characters plays into the tragedy. The men control the action but in a destructive manner that the dutiful women live with and try to mitigate whenever possible. Knowing the tragic lives of the Bronte sisters gives the story an overwhelming brooding and sinister aura. Glimpses of Bronte's family keep popping into the narrative, from her description of the dreary landscape to the whiny, doomed cousin so like her own brother.

I would recommend reading this book if you haven't been required to in some English class somewhere but beware that despite its happy-face ending it is about the extreme dark side of human nature.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, there's a representation of love that I'm not used to: a total, uncompromising love. On the other hand, the way that that love comes across is so, so abusive and sad. Ultimately, it's incredibly violent.

So I like the book, though I'm cautionary about saying that I like the characters. ( )

Suprisingly quite good. Not the sort of thing I would usually think to read but actually enjoyed it. Will have to try more books like this. ( )

This book is full of children who aren't raised correctly, so they have to figure things out for themselves, and when they do, things don't always go right. Many of the characters in this book love to get revenge on each other and try to make others as miserable as possible, only to regret it. I don't like this book because of how nasty the attitude is and how lonely the mood is, but it is good for showing the true character of people. ( )

If you look up "dysfunctional families" in a dictionary you should find the pictures of Heathcliff, the Earnshaws, and the Lintons. Neither of these families ever learned to play well together which, in and of itself, is a tragedy because they were the only families in their area.

Isolation plays a large part in this book. It's the Hatfields and the McCoys duking it out across the moors.

The story is told from two view points, Mr. Lockwood, a love sick visitor to the area who takes a one-year lease on the Grange, and Nelly (Ellen) Dean, a servant first to the Earnshaws at Wuthering Heights, then Lintons at the Grange, and then to Heathcliff and the Earnshaws again at Wuthering Heights. To say that these two families become close is to state the obvious. There's marrying between the families and then within the families as the marriage pool shrinks. Heathcliff, whom I found so romantic when I was young, makes a wonderful villan, adding fear to the depressing atmosphere of the moors. The plot has lots and lots of layers and the trials and tribulations of these families is nearly constant. A wonderful gothic read. ( )

It's easy to think of Hardy as the darkest of the Victorian novelists, but Emily Brontë certainly gives him a run for his money. The gloom arises from different sources. For Hardy, the universe is at best indifferent, if not actively hostile to humankind's puny endeavors. For Brontë hell is other people. There's not one character in Wuthering Heights who one would actually like to know. They are pathologically cruel (Heathcliff), selfish and self-absorbed (Cathy, senior and junior), snobs (the Earnshaws) conniving (Ellen Dean), or entirely ineffectual (Lockwood). This is not to say, of course, unless one is the benighted sort of reader who only appreciates characters who might make good real-life friends, that Brontë's tormented lot are ever less than fascinating to read about. The book is virtually unputdownable, not least because of Brontë's wit, a scalpel she uses to more sardonic effect, I think, than Trollope or Dickens. Perhaps Thackery is her equal here?

A note on the introduction: After learning a lot form Christopher Ricks's introduction to Tristram Shandy I turned eagerly to Geoffrey Moore's introduction to Wuthering Heights. I needn't have bothered. In the future I will pay the extra few pennies for editions of the classics better than those offered by the Signet Classics series.

(I've just noticed that Signet appears, in editions later than mine, to have dumped Moore's less than satisfactory effort in favor of an introduction by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer. Not having read it, I can't say whether this is an improvement.)

One of my favourite books of all time and yet if asked to explain why, I would struggle. Heathcliff and Cathy are both characters who are fundamentally difficult to actually like yet inexplicably the 'love story' between them is so compelling. Emily Bronte's originality and daring at writing such a novel is breathtaking given the age in which she was writing.
Heathcliff's character in particular is for me a masterpeice and I applaud the fact that Bronte turned away from archetypal heros and chose instead a man without redemption. The kind of love that Bronte explores in this novel is brutal and honest; an obsession not to be escaped by death and is so radically different from that which is portrayed in most Nineteenth Century fiction. Her writing is perfection and upon finishing the novel, I could only feel a pang that this was the only novel that remains of one of the (in my opinion) greatest writers in the English Language. ( )

Just re-read this book recently. Tougher than I remembered. Telling the story by way of third parties is really rather awkward, and at times distracting. Still, Heathcliff and Cathy are memorably romantic figures. ( )

Finally being able to read this unique and passionate novel for itself, without dissecting the writing and author from a literary angle, makes all the difference. Written a year before Emily Bronte died, 'Wuthering Heights' is a true classic.

The characters are vividly drawn and enduring, immortalising the destructive romance of Heathcliff and Cathy in both pale imitations and parodies ('I'm so cold!') I admire Emily Bronte all the more for not allowing her vindictive hero and a selfish heroine to be 'tamed' or redeemed, as demanded in most modern fiction - they are how they are, whether through nature or nurture, which is far more realistic. Heathcliff's behaviour is understandable, if not sympathetic, in the first half of the story, but the injustice and sheer extent of his vengeance renders him pathetic and far from appealing. He is not, as he warns Isabella, a romantic hero.

For all that, 'Wuthering Heights' is now one of my favourite romances - not because the hero and heroine live happily ever after, but because they don't. Heathcliff and Cathy's love consumes them both, dragging down others with them, yet their names are synonymous with the term 'romance'. The reason is captured in Heathcliff's heartrending speech to Cathy, 'Kiss me again; and don't let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer - but yours! How can I?'

The Yorkshire moors supply the gothic setting and atmosphere for this miserable tale, representing the wild and forthright personalities of the characters. Northern humour, droll, and dialect, largely unintelligible without endnotes, are also embodied by Joseph, the cantankerous old man servant at the Heights. For good or ill, this is the image of Yorkshire that still thrives in the popular imagination: bleak, windswept moorland, inhabited by dour and miserly 'folk'. From someone who lives next door to 'Bronte country', I can only say that the charm of Emily Bronte's writing for me is in its blunt honesty and the many shades of humanity she describes. ( )

I finally read a least one book by each of the Brontë sisters, and I have to say, Emily is my least favourite of them. I really disliked Wuthering Heights, and was glad to be done. It took me a while to read the book, as I trudged through it, hoping it would get better. But it didn’t. The blurb on the back of the book, made it sound interesting and engaging along with that and the expectations of Victorian style of writing I saw in the other Brontë sister’s work I had expectations that this would be the same. But it lacked in the style, and the story bored me to tears.

Not a single character was likeable. They were all selfish, boring and nasty human beings to each other. There is nothing romantic about Heathcliff and Catherine’s “romance” or lack there of. I read this book and am questioning why people talk about it as a romance? She was married to someone else, but loved him, they were never together, he disappears for a while but they’re madly in love with each other?

Even the style of writing didn’t have that same flow and elegance most Victorian literature has. I did like how the story was told, of having narratives within narratives. Emily did do a good job at that. She did it in a way, that you weren’t confused when reading it, and didn’t lose track of who the narrator was at the time. And having the house keeper be the main narrator retelling the story to another, made you feel almost like you where and listening in on their conversation, as a bystander (almost like overhearing another persons conversation in the coffee shop). Clever method there, I have to say. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything else I liked about the story. A disappointment for me, although I may try some of her poetry someday, Wuthering Heights just wasn’t for me.

Review also on my blog: http://juliebooks.blogspot.com/2009/0... ( )

I really, really wanted to but, I honestly did not like this book. I know, I know it's Wuthering Heights but I thought it was boring and silly. The characters weren't believable at all. The ending was the only good part for me. ( )

I love this book. It has some of the best and most complex characters ever in literature. ( )

A nearly complete mess of a book. Does a few intense things strikingly well, but the novel is mostly interesting for its weird and rather prominent shortcomings. Very little joy in the reading, which should be, after all, the first imperative for a writer. ( )

Wuthering Heights is alive with all the passion of Heathcliff, the most hated character and his beloved Catherine. On the whole I can not stand Heathcliff; but some how this book still managed to transfix me and I keep reading it again and again. There is the very strange love triangle of the parents which is then passed down to children...my fear of giving away the plot prevents me from saying much more. It is indeed a true classic of English Literature. ( )

I've read Wuthering Heights once before, but when I was seventeen, I suspect I wasn't quite capable of appreciating it. To be honest, I still don't think I do. What gets me are the characters-- blank, spineless milksops all. The best character is of course Nellie Dean, a fun, intelligent, determined narrator, and one of the few characters to show some backbone. But, of course, no one shows as much backbone as Heathcliff, and it was he who captivated my attention in this reread. He's fascinating-- he succeeds simply because he will not let himself not succeed, and because he is not constrained by the rules that stop everyone around him. When he wants to take his child back, all someone would have to do is stand up to him a bit-- but no one will. They are all too constrained by the "proper" way of doing things; never mind that being raised by Heathcliff is an awful fate, he is the father, and thus it is his right, and thus no one will stop him from doing it. No one ever stops Heathcliff from doing anything; he has learned the secret of society, that most people will allow themselves to be constrained by its arbitrary rules and restrictions, but he will suffer no such limitations. He's a force of nature, and I loved reading about him: he's arrogant, but justifiably so given the lily-livers who surround him. An human monster maybe, but also the most human character in the story.

Listened to this over a week travelling to and from work. Classic novel set on the Yorkshire moors about the passionate yet unattainable love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff and how destructive unresolved passion can be .This narration was superb and the dramatic music score enhanced the gothic and supernatural elements of the novel so well. ( )

This was a difficult read for me. For several months I would pick up this book become utterly disgusted with the characters and put it back down again. I'm really not sure why I finished it as the more I think about it the more I truly hated it. I wish I had returned it to the library unfinished.
This is the story of Heathcliff a gypsy boy taken in by the Earnshaw family and Catherine Earnshaw his only childhood friend. Let's just say that as events unfold and as the characters develop we come to know the evil Heathcliff and selfish Catherine will never be together. Since they truly love each other the only alternative seems to be to make life miserable for themselves and everyone around them. At this point I was really hoping for a rabid pack of wolves to attack everyone and end their misery. Unfortunately this did not happen.
On a more positive note this book was very well written and the character development superb. ( )