Readings on Wuthering Heights

Literary Companion Series

by Hayley R. Mitchell (Editor)

The wild, reckless love of Cathy and Heathcliff has inspired motion pictures and rock songs. Yet this many-layered "Chinese box" of a book can prove daunting to its readers.

Genres: Nonfiction

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Linds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of liteary criticism and essays on Wuthering Heights by various grad students and scholars.

I really like this series, it's for people that are interested in books beyond what Cliff Notes has to say.

Some of the essays are interesting, especially the modern psycho analysis of character traits like Heathcliffe's megolomania and Cathy's anorexia.

Some is just ridiculous and pretentious.The essay claiming that Cathy and Heathcliffe's tortured love is the destined result of incest since Heathcliffe was raised as a foster brother or was possibly the bastard son of the father, making him her half brother.

Either way, the essays were all interesting.

[Dexter · Rating 4 out of 5]

It definitely does what it set out to do: provide an expansive overview of readings on Wuthering Heights for a high school age audience. You get a lot of different opinions and interpretations here, that often contradict each other. About half of the essays I disagreed with, but I think that's a good thing, especially for younger readers.

It also provides access to a lot of essays I probably wouldn't be able to read otherwise - scholarly journals aren't exactly easy to find if you're not active in that field, or if you don't have the money to pay for individual issues.

I will say some of it seems a bit dated - which is a weird thing to say when you're talking about a novel that's over a hundred years old anyway. But when you're approaching that novel through a modern lens (modern psychology, for example), it can actually make a difference. It doesn't invalidate anything, but it is something to keep in mind.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had great luck finding articles for a paper on WH in this book, after I thought I had run out of options (my teacher isn't letting us just Google things).