Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

[Ooshie]

I think yesterday's migraine must have disturbed my brainwaves, because on starting to re-read Wuthering Heights last night, I found the first part of the book (up to the first change of narrators) laugh out loud funny!

 

*Ashamed* I can't remember thinking that when I read it the first time. Is it meant to be funny? Has anyone else felt that? Oh dear...

[Nollaig]

I generally find it rather amusing as well. I think it's meant to be in an Austenesque wordy kind of way. All the confusion about who the young miss is and so on.

[Kylie]

I find parts of quite amusing as well, particularly when Lockwood is desperately trying to make conversation with 'Mrs Heathcliff' about their pets and says:

 

'Ah, your favourites are among these!' I continued, turning to an obscure cushion full of something like cats.

'A strange choice of favourites,' she observed scornfully.

Unluckily, it was a heap of dead rabbits...

[Ooshie]

*Relieved* Thank goodness for that!

[Nollaig]

I think I'm going to watch the Ralph Fiennes adaption today if I can find it! I know I Have it somewhere...

 

My reading of Wuthering Heights has been slowed by reading another book, but I'm going to try finish it by, maybe, Monday evening.

[Ooshie]

I really took me about half of Wuthering Heights to get into it at all, but I think I should have read it in the winter during a couple of long afternoons by the fire rather than twenty minute chunks here and there in between doing other things.

 

For the first half of the book I would have said I wasn't really enjoying it at all but now, having finished it, I can find redeeming features in it and think that I will read it again some time and probably enjoy it more.

 

As some others have said, I did keep having to remind myself who some of the characters were (which I found surprising, given that there are relatively few characters). I found it hard to have much sympathy with the problems of any of the characters except Nelly Dean and Hareton.

 

If I read it again while I still remember the storyline and characters well, I think I will enjoy the humour and the descriptions in the writing more.

 

Overall, though, I just feel relieved to have finished the book!

[frankie]

I'm about halfway through reading Wuthering Heights at the moment and it is singlehandedly responsible for killing my reading mojo!

 

I'm thinking this is the best way to describe the book

 

We did have an interesting lesson on it today, though. A different teacher came in to teach us (our teacher likes having 'guest teachers' - she had her father in before) and she raised the question: what if Heathcliff is Mr Earnshaw's son by another woman? That would make him and Cathy brother and sister!

 

Wow. I can't believe a teacher said that. For someone to say it because it randomly occured to them - fair enough, the fact that they're raised as brother and sister easily leads to the question, but a teacher? They should know better. There is nothing to suggest that there was anything bad in Earnshaw's nature, nothing to suggest that there was anything bad between him and Mrs. Earnshaw, and everything to suggest that his own two children were too wayward to be of much use to him. He probably saw the child starving and alone and decided to make a go of raising a decent child, starting from scratch again. Heathcliff became his favourite because he was always picked on, initially because he was a gyspy (and Earnshaw probably felt protective because of that) and Earnshaw saw the abuse as, by extension, attacks on him and his views, especially as he got older (that is specificially stated in the text). For a teacher to conjecture something like that with NOTHING to base it on, beyond him randomly bringing a kid home, is quite shocking really.

 

I hear you Nollaig, I think the theory is too far out there. Still, I think that the teacher might have only been putting out ideas for the students, to get them to think about the novel and all the different contexts, not just the storyline. When one starts questioning things one might learn things they wouldn't have learnt otherwise. And there are as many different readings of a novel as there are readers.

[Dimitra]

Have you seen the new cover for the book?

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wuthering-Heights-Emily-Bronte/dp/0007326742/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_ttl_in_f

 

They have tried to get teenagers to read it and some are interested as it's mentioned in Twilight. Some people are not happy though

Oh dear, why did you remind us of this?

 

That ^ says it all about the standards of modern teen literature.

I was 14 when I first read Wuthering Heights, and it's been one of my favourite books since.

Same here.

 

My overall opinion on Cathy & Heathcliff as a pair (includes spoilers to end of novel):

 

Sure they're wreckless, spiteful, selfish creatures, but unlike everyone else in the novel they are utterly free in all ways that count to them. I like that their connection - not love, but an innate pairing, two parts of a whole - transcends everything (society, family, time, distance) and yet it cannot transcend the duality of two bodies. So to me, they were utterly free, unified beings, wicked or not; but physically divided and thus fundamentally seperated by the flaws (class, society) and miscommunications (e.g. Heathcliff hearing that it would degrade Cathy to marry him, but not that she needs him) of life - that was what really bound them, and destroyed them. Depending on your perspective, you might choose to believe their unity transcends death (the ghost of Cathy and whisperings of their haunting the moors), and that only the utter freedom of death could ever break the restraints of physicality and society, allowing them to be together at last. That portrayal of kindred spirits surviving as one at all costs is what I love, and I've always thought that such defiant spirts could never be wholly good from a mortal stance - that they saw nothing beyond each other necessitated both the complete apathy for everything but each other, and that seemingly-wicked detachment from morals or life, because what purpose do such things have?

That's a great analysis Nollaig!

 

We did have an interesting lesson on it today, though. A different teacher came in to teach us (our teacher likes having 'guest teachers' - she had her father in before) and she raised the question: what if Heathcliff is Mr Earnshaw's son by another woman? That would make him and Cathy brother and sister!

This is just a little disgusting

[poppyshake]

We did have an interesting lesson on it today, though. A different teacher came in to teach us (our teacher likes having 'guest teachers' - she had her father in before) and she raised the question: what if Heathcliff is Mr Earnshaw's son by another woman? That would make him and Cathy brother and sister!

 

 

There is a popular theory isn't there (genetic sexual attraction) that brothers and sisters that have grown up apart or that are unaware of their joint parentage are attracted towards each other because of their physical and mental similarities .. it's rare in siblings that have always been brought up together.

I guess your teacher has a point because what Cathy loves about Heathcliff is that he is 'more myself than I am' but then he was a virtual brother anyway. I think she definitely viewed him as a brother ... and tbh I don't think they would have cared if they had been told they were half related ..their love was so all consuming and destructive anyway.

I'm not sure that we need to look beyond what Emily wrote though .. that Mr Earnshaw found him as a beggar on the streets of Liverpool .. it gets you thinking though.

[chrysalis_stage]

I just read a very interesting review by someone on visual bookshelf who said she read the book in highschool and fell in love with Heathcliff and thought Edgar dull but read it later on in life and disliked Heathcliff and preferred Edgar. She went on to say that at the time of liking Heathcliff she had a similar abusive boyfriend and now has a husband more like Edgar, it must say alot about the woman reader depending on which man she prefers. Women liking Heathcliff (as I do) may make excuses for men's behaviours (I like to think I do not tho) while others who disliked him may not stand for any similar traits in the men they date etc.....hmm definitely something to think about on a personal level and how your tastes evolve.

[Nollaig]

I can't stand Edgar because he's such a sissy. And I love Heathcliff because he's so passionate. Yeah, so it's a single-minded, destructive passion, but it's more than Edgar's got going for him!

[chrysalis_stage]

I have to agree, Edgar p*ssed me off, he was too tame.

[Nienna]

One of my favourite books of all time. Definitely the best love story I have every read and I think I ever will read in my life. I should hate every single character in the book, but I don't, I can't make myself - I love them for the fact that they have such character. It's Emily's writing that makes them so vibrant and believable and the story, the setting, the message all entwine to make it really ring true to something inside me. I can't understand how anyone could find this book boring!

[nursenblack]

One of my favourite books of all time. Definitely the best love story I have every read and I think I ever will read in my life. I should hate every single character in the book, but I don't, I can't make myself - I love them for the fact that they have such character. It's Emily's writing that makes them so vibrant and believable and the story, the setting, the message all entwine to make it really ring true to something inside me. I can't understand how anyone could find this book boring!

 

I second that! My absolute favorite of all time. I've been in love with it since I was thirteen. Love the passion, the longing, the hatred, the tortured souls...everything.

[Kate]

Waterstones Synopsis:

 

"Wuthering Heights" is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.

 

This is not the first time I have read this book, but I must admit it was the first time I enjoyed it. The first time I read the book was for my English Literature course and I really did not like it, but this time I read it for enjoyment and it made all the difference. This time was different also because I listened to it, which I found helped me get into the story.

 

Wuthering Heights is a great classic. A tale of love, jealously and revenge set in the Yorkshire Moors. Catherine and Heathcliff are in love, but Heathcliff leaves thinking Cathy does not love him. When he comes back he is angry and out for revenge. The story follows their families, they way they clash and how they each manipulate one another.

 

Oddly, even though I enjoyed this book, I didn't really like any of the characters. I found them all quite similar: selfish, grumpy and manipulative. Everyone was out for themselves, even Nelly the narrator. However, I think this added to the enjoyment of the book, because I was forming opinions about them instead of being indifferent to them all.

 

I liked how Emily Bronte wrote. The book was descriptive and it is a great story.

 

4/5

 

Audiobook: http://librivox.org/wuthering-heights-by-emily-bronte-2/

[Elin]

 

My overall opinion on Cathy & Heathcliff as a pair (includes spoilers to end of novel):

 

Sure they're wreckless, spiteful, selfish creatures, but unlike everyone else in the novel they are utterly free in all ways that count to them. I like that their connection - not love, but an innate pairing, two parts of a whole - transcends everything (society, family, time, distance) and yet it cannot transcend the duality of two bodies. So to me, they were utterly free, unified beings, wicked or not; but physically divided and thus fundamentally seperated by the flaws (class, society) and miscommunications (e.g. Heathcliff hearing that it would degrade Cathy to marry him, but not that she needs him) of life - that was what really bound them, and destroyed them. Depending on your perspective, you might choose to believe their unity transcends death (the ghost of Cathy and whisperings of their haunting the moors), and that only the utter freedom of death could ever break the restraints of physicality and society, allowing them to be together at last. That portrayal of kindred spirits surviving as one at all costs is what I love, and I've always thought that such defiant spirts could never be wholly good from a mortal stance - that they saw nothing beyond each other necessitated both the complete apathy for everything but each other, and that seemingly-wicked detachment from morals or life, because what purpose do such things have?

 

Wow. That's absolutely beautifully said.

Wuthering Heights might just be the best book ever written.

[Booknutt]

Having recently re-read "Wuthering" I do agree that each character is shown in quite a selfish light, but it's amazing too how I tended to despise Edgar Linton for being so forebearing with the Cathy/Heathcliff relationship - I wanted to smack him for loving her unconditionally!

Imagine rushing to the deathbed of the love of your life,in your marital home - to find that their "soul-mate" had got there before you, and had your love clutched in his/her arms,having previously violated repeated attempts to keep him/her out of the marriage.!

 

I don't think I'd be so reasonable - would you? Yet I couldn't like him, either.

 

Aren't us people strange?!

[BookJumper]

Booknutt - please try to cover ending spoilers... I for one didn't know how WH ends .

[frankie]

 

There is a popular theory isn't there (genetic sexual attraction) that brothers and sisters that have grown up apart or that are unaware of their joint parentage are attracted towards each other because of their physical and mental similarities .. it's rare in siblings that have always been brought up together.

I guess your teacher has a point because what Cathy loves about Heathcliff is that he is 'more myself than I am' but then he was a virtual brother anyway. I think she definitely viewed him as a brother ... and tbh I don't think they would have cared if they had been told they were half related ..their love was so all consuming and destructive anyway.

I'm not sure that we need to look beyond what Emily wrote though .. that Mr Earnshaw found him as a beggar on the streets of Liverpool .. it gets you thinking though.

 

Wow, interesting! I had no idea that such a theory was popular and widely recognised but now that I think about it it does make sense. I still remember this Swedish TV-series where a woman and a man met by chance, the woman was engaged to another person. But those two felt such a strong connection right from the start, they couldn't help but fall in love with each other. I think it was later on in the second season or something when they found out they were twins separated at birth. I was gutted!! And so were they, as you can imagine.

[Dannysg]

Wuthering Heights is without doubt the best classic I have ever read,I love the setting of the story and the isolation the characters go through.I think it works so well because all the characters are there for a reason and each is so different.This book will definatly live long in the memory.

[AsiaJonelle]

Hah, I found the book a bit hard to read but once I was finished, I was amazed at how well I had understood what was happening. It is a bit confusing with all the names in the story seeing as how there is more than one Catherine and such. But you learn to tell them apart. It also helps to watch the movie after reading the book. Really gives a good picture of what you were reading and fills in any weird gaps that may have been there while you were reading. But it is a really good book, worth the read. If you liked Pride and Prejudice, then you will most likely like this book. Of course, that is my opinion.

[Delilah]

I love WH! When I was a teenager I loved it better than Jane Eyre. I lost some interest in Jane Eyre when she leaves Rochester and goes to live with the Rivers.The scenes between Rochester and Jane are so compelling that when they separate, I began to lose interest. Cathy and Heathcliff's love seems more primal and say less intellectual that Rochester and Jane. But it is compelling as a love that transcends death! The scene where Heathcliff digs Cathy's grave so he can see her is vividly etched in my memory!

[Mashunja]

I read all of the sisters and I particularly enjoyed Wuthering Heights. It is written so well, so life-like. And the plot is really brilliant. It's really amazing to watch the metamorphosis of the characters.

Jane Eyre has a predictable story and Agnes Grey is just interesting to read.

[historyfreak]

Wuthering Heights is one of my all time favourite books. I first tried to read it aged 11 but didn't finish it, I read it the whole way through aged 13 and fell in love with it. I can't really explain why I love it so much, I suppose, maybe, it is to do with the idea of love being stronger than anything, even death.

The way Cathy and Heathcliff are written it's so powerful, here are two characters who love each other more than anything or anyone yet because of Cathy;s decision to marry Edgar Linton they can not be together in live. You can almost feel Heathcliff's sense of betrayal and devastation at this news. Heathcliff, throughout the book, seems to be haunted by this decision and Cathy, in death, realises her mistake. I love the fact they finally come together in death.

[karen.d]

I have just finished 'Wuthering Heights' and I loved it. I have so far, never read a book with so much emotion and atmosphere within it. It was like being carried along on a whirlwind of torment with the characters.

 

Although most of the characters within this novel are totally unlikeable, I think that the characters are so complex and interesting, particularly Heathcliff. I felt that in some ways, Heathcliff's treatment is his youth, is the main contributor to his bitterness and anger. However, I can't also help think that this behaviour is just a part of who he is. What does everyone think?

Edited April 3, 2012 by karen.d