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Wuthering Heights

by Emily Brontë

3.81 · Rating Details · 888,066 Ratings · 23,722 Reviews

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 retu ...more

Paperback, Fourth Edition, 464 pages

Published December 6th 2002 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published 1847)

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Community Reviews

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Dec 04, 2013 Chelsea rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: melodrama enthusiasts

Shelves: own, fiction, anti-recs, classic, romance, multiples, toswap, 2006

I've tried it three times. I know people are obsessed with it. I hate everyone in the book - and I just can't care about a book where I actually hate the characters.

And, sure, I get the interpretation that as terrible as Heathcliff and Cathy are, it's their love that redeems them, and isn't that romantic.

No.

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Jun 09, 2012 K. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: this-shelf-is-divine, brit-lit, the-gothic, own, the-victorian, the-romantics, goosebumps, 19th-cent, major-head-fck, identity-and-psychology, society-culture-and-politics

I understand why many people hate this book. Catherine and Heathcliff are monstrous. Monstrous. You won't like them because they are unlikable. They are irrational, self-absorbed, malicious and pretty much any negative quality you can think a person is capable of possessing without imploding. They seek and destroy and act with no thought to consequence. And I find it fascinating that Emily Bronte chose them to be her central protagonists.

When this was first published it was met with animosity be I understand why many people hate this book. Catherine and Heathcliff are monstrous. Monstrous. You won't like them because they are unlikable. They are irrational, self-absorbed, malicious and pretty much any negative quality you can think a person is capable of possessing without imploding. They seek and destroy and act with no thought to consequence. And I find it fascinating that Emily Bronte chose them to be her central protagonists.

When this was first published it was met with animosity because of how utterly repugnant these two characters were. The way they go about their business caring nothing for others but themselves was enough for me to shake my head in complete and total judgment, as if Catherine and Heathcliff could see me and are then effectively shamed by their actions.

Wuthering Heights is epic, in my humble opinion, because I believe that the scope of this story is monumental. Let me explain: it is a simple tale between two families that are bound in such a way that their fates are irrevocably linked. What affects one, affects the other. Its about Catherine and Heathcliff who fall in love and how their relationship ruins the lives of those around them. The book, all 400 pages of it, occur almost entirely at Wuthering Heights, the estate of the Earnshaws, and at Thrushcross Grange, the estate of the Lintons with only a couple of miles of land in between.

And yet it is not a small story.

The emotional magnitude of this book is great and far reaching. The provoking and unapologetic quality of Bronte's writing is seductive. The process of reading this story can feel so masochistic sometimes that its almost if she's daring us to stop reading and throw the book away. Like its a game of personal endurance to see how much we can take, how far we can go. She pushes at us, challenging us and all the while knowing that we have to keep reading because redemption awaits. It is nothing like its contemporaries.

The moors, the darkness of the moors, that curses the household of Wuthering Heights and its inhabitants is ever present. Nature is personified. It is its own character; its there, lingering and simmering ever so quietly, saturating every scene with its silent threats of doom...okay, I have to stop talking like this...what am I anymore?

There is poison in this book, but let me ease your mind by saying that it is balanced with goodness also. This isn't a perfect novel. There were still moments I found myself in perplexion (recently invented word). And while everything about Catherine and Heathcliff may be corrupt, there is hope in Wuthering Heights. If you can journey through the menacing forest of Emily Bronte's imagination, do it because the view is something to behold.

Ha ha ha, this review...what even is this? ...more

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Oct 30, 2007 Larissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2007, read-together

Certain novels come to you with pre-packaged expectations. They just seem to be part of literature's collective unconscious, even if they are completely outside of your own cultural referents. I, for instance, who have no particular knowledge of--or great love for--romantic, Anglo-Gothic fiction, came to Wuthering Heights with the assumption that I was picking up a melancholy ghost story of thwarted, passionate love and eternal obsession. Obsession turned out to be only accurate part of this pre Certain novels come to you with pre-packaged expectations. They just seem to be part of literature's collective unconscious, even if they are completely outside of your own cultural referents. I, for instance, who have no particular knowledge of--or great love for--romantic, Anglo-Gothic fiction, came to Wuthering Heights with the assumption that I was picking up a melancholy ghost story of thwarted, passionate love and eternal obsession. Obsession turned out to be only accurate part of this presumption.

Having an image of Heathcliff and Cathy embracing Gone with the Wind -style on a windy moor ironed in my mind, I was almost completely unprepared for the hermetic, moribund, bleak, vengeful, perverse, and yes--obsessive--novel that this really is. Don Quixote is not about windmills and Wuthering Heights is not really a love story. Heathcliff and Cathy's love affair (if it can be called that) is a narcissistic ("I am Heathcliff!" Cathy exclaims at one point), possessive, and imminently cruel relationship predicated on self-denial and an obsessiveness that relies not on passion, but rather borders on hatred. They are selfish, violent, and contriving people who have borne their fair share of abuses (mostly Heathcliff in this respect) and in turn, feel no compunction about raining similar abuses on those who they find beneath them.

Given this dynamic, it seems perhaps inevitable that these two characters would make not only themselves miserable, but everyone around them miserable--even after death. This is particularly easy to accomplish mainly because there are--with the exception of Mr. Lockwood, the tenant who rents a home from Heathcliff--no outside characters. Everyone in the novel (including the servants) is isolated, trapped between the same two homes, with the same two families, and have truly no chance of escaping any of the events and repercussions that occur.(One character makes a temporary escape, only to suffer all the more for it later.)

More important, however, is the fact that Heathcliff and Cathy don't even need be present (although they usually are in some fashion) for their influences to be felt by the other characters. The sins of the father, are literally, inherited and distributed among the next generation. The children of Wuthering Heights are not only physical doubles of their parents (At least 3 characters look like Cathy, and one resembles Heathcliff), but they are also spiritual stand-ins. They must suffer for past transgressions, and they must find a way to make amends for them. All, I might add, without the particular benefit of ever having the full story, the context that might be necessary to actually change their circumstances. Misery, it seems, is inevitable.

There is, of course, much more to be said about this novel. One could spend quite some time dissecting all the various repetitions and doublings, the narrative structure (the story is told by the housekeeper to the lodger who then writes it down as a diary entry), or the archetypal analogies and semi-biblical symbolism that seems to be implicit to every part of this story.

The point being, I suppose, that while Wuthering Heights may not be the wistful romance one (or maybe just I) expected to be, it is a particularly satisfying one for all of its dark and layered surprises. ...more

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Aug 12, 2015 karen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: littry-fiction, smotherings, favorites

"all i care about in this goddamn life are me, my drums, and you"...

if you don't know that quote, you're probably too young to be reading this and isn't it past your bedtime or shouldn't you be in school or something?

but that quote, hyper-earnest cheese - that is romance. wuthering heights is something more dangerous than romance. it's one long protracted retaliation masquerading as passion. and goddamn do i love it. i can't believe i haven't reviewed it before - i mention this book in more than "all i care about in this goddamn life are me, my drums, and you"...

if you don't know that quote, you're probably too young to be reading this and isn't it past your bedtime or shouldn't you be in school or something?

but that quote, hyper-earnest cheese - that is romance. wuthering heights is something more dangerous than romance. it's one long protracted retaliation masquerading as passion. and goddamn do i love it. i can't believe i haven't reviewed it before - i mention this book in more than half of my reviews, i have a whole shelf devoted to its retellings, so why the delay?? but better late than never.

no, it's not a perfect novel; it's a flawed structure revealing the actions of seriously flawed people. the framing device-within-a-framing-device? totally awkward. having nelly dean tell the story even though where was she for most of the action? totally wrong move, bronte; it makes the beginning such a slog to get through. but that's just stale loaf - the good stuff is all the meat in between.

and oh, the meat... the swarthy stranger of mysterious origins being raised in a family of sheltered overmoist english mushrooms, all pale and rain-bloated, the running wild, two-souls-against-the-world adolescence...childhood indiscretions... vows and tantrums, bonding, unspoken promises, yes i will yes i will yes i will. oh, but wait, what's this??...it's blond and it's rich and it's whats expected of me. very well then. see ya, heathcliff...

it's just textbook gothic from here on out: revenge-seduction, overheard conversations, mysterious disappearances, murdered puppies, swooning, vindictive child-rearing, death, ghosts, moors, phoar...

but this to me, is a perfect love story, even though it's more like torture. the unattainable is always more romantic than the storybook. i don't like an uncomplicated ending, and a story is more impactful with nuanced characters, preferably heavily unlikeable throughout. (this is where i plug head-on - one of my favorite movies ever. do it.)this story just makes me feel good. and i'm well over my teenage fascination with the "bad boy"; i realized pretty quick that "bad boys" are usually pretty dumb. so i moved on to "emotionally disturbed", which is the same thing, really; plenty of drama, and they will leave you drunken "presents" on your lawn (road signs, carousel ponies..), but not complete burnouts, at least. but my teenaged dating pool is neither here nor there, the point is that heathcliff can be romanticized as this victim/villain without having to correspond to the ideal. it's about the level of passion, the size of the grand romantic gesture. devoting your life to destroying the people who kept you from your true love is an amazingly grand gesture. ...more

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Jul 02, 2008 Ellen rated it did not like it

I never expected this book to be as flagrantly, unforgivably bad as it was.

To start, Bronte's technical choice of narrating the story of the primary characters by having the housekeeper explain everything to a tenant 20 years after it happened completely kills suspense and intimacy. The most I can say is that to some extent this functions as a device to help shroud the story and motives from the reader. But really, at the time literary technique hadn't quite always gotten around to accepting tha ...more

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May 17, 2015 Emily May rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, favourites

This is my favourite book. I do not say that lightly, I've read quite a lot from all different genres and time periods, but this is my favourite book. Of all time. Ever. The ladies over at The Readventurer kindly allowed me to get my feelings of utter adoration for Wuthering Heights off my chest in their "Year of the Classics" feature, but I now realise it's time I posted a little something in this blank review space. I mean, come on, it's my favourite book so it deserves better than empty nothi This is my favourite book. I do not say that lightly, I've read quite a lot from all different genres and time periods, but this is my favourite book. Of all time. Ever. The ladies over at The Readventurer kindly allowed me to get my feelings of utter adoration for Wuthering Heights off my chest in their "Year of the Classics" feature, but I now realise it's time I posted a little something in this blank review space. I mean, come on, it's my favourite book so it deserves better than empty nothingness.

So, what do I love so much about Wuthering Heights? ~~Everything~~. Okay, maybe not, that wouldn't really be saying it strongly enough.

What I love about this novel is the setting, the wilderness. This is not a story about niceties and upper class propriety, this is the tale of people who aren't so socially acceptable, who live away from the strict rules of civilization - it's almost as if they're not quite from the world we know. The isolation of the setting out on the Yorkshire moors between the fictional dwellings of The Heights and Thrushcross Grange emphasises how far removed these characters are from social norms, how unconventional they are, and how lonely they are.

This is a novel for readers who can appreciate unlikeable characters, readers who don't have to like someone to achieve a certain level of understanding them and their circumstances. People are not born evil... so what makes them that way? What torments a man so much that he refuses to believe he has any worth? What kind of person digs up the grave of their loved one so they can see them once again? Heathcliff was not created to be liked or to earn your forgiveness, Emily Brontë simply tells his story from the abusive and unloved childhood he endured, to his obsession with the only person alive who showed him any real kindness, to his adulthood as an angry, violent man who beats his wife and imprisons the younger Cathy in order to make her marry his son.

It would be so easy to hate Heathcliff, and I don't feel that he is some dark, sexy hero like others often do. But I appreciate what Emily Brontë attempts to teach us about the cycle of violence and aggression. Heathcliff eventually becomes little more than the man he hates, by being brought up with beatings and anger he in turn unleashes it on everyone else. And Cathy is no delicate flower either. What hope did Heathcliff have when the only person he ever loved was a selfish, vindictive, little wretch? But I love Emily Brontë for creating such imperfect, screwed-up characters.

This is a dark novel that deals with some very complicated individuals, but I think in the end we are offered the possibility of peace and happiness through Cathy (younger) and Hareton's relationship, and the suggestion that Cathy (older) and Heathcliff were reunited in the afterlife. I had an English teacher in high school that said Cathy and Heathcliff's personalities and their relationship were too much for this world and that peace was only possible for them in the next. I have no idea if this was something Ms Bronte intended, but the romantic in me likes to imagine that it's true. ...more

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Jan 15, 2009 Eliszard rated it liked it

Ah the classics. Everybody can read their own agenda in them. So, first a short plot guide for dinner conversations when one needs to fake acculturation, and then on to the critics’ view.
A woman [1:] is in love with her non-blood brother [2:] but marries her neighbor [3:] whose sister [4:] marries the non-blood brother [2:]; their [1,3:] daughter [5:] marries their [2,4:] son [6:]; meanwhile, their [1,2:] elder brother marries and has a son [7:]. Then everybody dies, 1 of bad temper, 4 of stupi ...more

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Nov 25, 2014 Jake rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I first read this in AP English Literature - senior year of high school. This book is dense and thick and confusing, and with a class full of haters, it was hard to wrap my head around it. I subsequently read it three or four more times for classes in college and every time I read it, I loved it more. I always found some new, fascinating piece of the story I had never picked up on.

The last time I read it, I suddenly realized that there were many hints and clues that Heathcliff could, in fact, be ...more

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Feb 07, 2008 Kellie rated it did not like it

Shelves: books-that-should-cease-to-exist

I read this book for my AP Literature class. I loved the teacher, loved the subject matter, and loved pretty much everything else we had read, so I had high hopes for this book. I must say, I made a genuine and sincere effort to like this book, I really did. I got half way through with no hope in sight, yet I perservered, hoping the second half would show promise in the next generation. No such luck. Although nothing tops the finale "love scene" between Heathcliff and Katherine, with Heathcliff ...more

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Sep 21, 2007 Jackie "the Librarian" rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, gothic, hated-it

If you think that spitefulness is romantic, and that people destroying their lives is dramatic, go ahead and read this book. But don't say I didn't warn you.

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Mar 19, 2016 ❁ بــدريــه ❁ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, نسخ-ورقية, 2015, في-مكتبتي

" كوني دائمًا معي، على أي صورة تريدينها، إدفعي بي
للجنون ! لكن لا تتركيني هنا في هذه الهاوية، حيث لا يمكنني أن
أجدك ! يا إلهي ! هذا شيء لا يوصف ! لا أستطيع العيش بدون
حياتي ! لا أستطيع الحياة بدون روحي ! "

•••••••••• •••••••••• ••••••••••

كيف أصف هذه الرواية ..
هل رومانسية و شاعرية أم هي مزخمة بمشاعر الرعب و الموت
الكره و الانتقام المخيم في طياتها ؟

نحن نعلم أن الحب أسمى المشاعر و أجملها ، لكن إيميلي تأتي
بنا بالحب على هيئة وحشًا مدمرًا
يسوده الكره و الانتقام و الحقد الدفين
منتقمًا لكل تلك المشا ...more

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Jun 18, 2016 Bookworm Sean rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, horror-gothic, romance, 2-star-reads

This is a review I never imagined I’d write. This is a book I was convinced I’d love. I just have to face the facts, Emily is no Charlotte.

I’m going to start with the positives. The characterisation of Heathcliff is incredibly strong. He is a man who is utterly tormented by the world. As a gypsy boy he is dark skinned and dark haired, and to the English this rough, almost wild, look makes him a ruffian. He stands up for himself, and bites back; thus, he is termed a monster. In a very, very, Fran ...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Madeline rated it did not like it

Shelves: the-list, ugh

If you've been following my status updates as I read this book, you can probably guess what kind of review this is going to be. (answer: the best kind!) So let's get the good stuff out of the way first, and then I can start the ranting.

Good stuff: I liked some of the characters. Ellen was sweet, and seemed to be the only sensible person in the story. And lord, does she get put through a lot of shit. Girlfriend needs a hug and a spa weekend after all she's been through. I also liked Catherine II If you've been following my status updates as I read this book, you can probably guess what kind of review this is going to be. (answer: the best kind!) So let's get the good stuff out of the way first, and then I can start the ranting.

Good stuff: I liked some of the characters. Ellen was sweet, and seemed to be the only sensible person in the story. And lord, does she get put through a lot of shit. Girlfriend needs a hug and a spa weekend after all she's been through. I also liked Catherine II and Hareton - unlike their romantic predecessors (and believe me, we'll get to those two soon), they were likeable most of the time. Sure, they had their jackass moments, but considering their respective upbringings, can you really blame them? Also, they reminded me of Bender and Claire from The Breakfast Club. Like I said, kind of irritating and stupid, but sweet.
I also appreciated the incredible passion of the story (and the passionate emotions it raised in me) Sure, I hated Heathcliff, but even I swooned a little during his final scene with Cathy. Sure, Emily Bronte has written the most terrifying portrayal of a love story I've ever seen (Fatal Attraction? Pfft.), but she did it really, really well. Terrifying as it is. Which brings me to the next section of this review...

Bad Stuff: I cannot, for the life of me, understand why anyone thinks this is a love story. It's a horror story of love and passion gone horribly, horribly wrong, and Heathcliff is one of the greatest villains ever created in literature.
Notice I said "villain" and not "antihero." Heathcliff is not an antihero. He is a sociopath, and for the last fifty pages of the story I wanted to violently murder him so badly that my hands were shaking as I held the book. He is evil.
Cathy doesn't get my sympathy, either. She was a spoiled, unfeeling bitch during every moment she was present in the story, and it's only because she was dead by page 200 that she didn't make me as angry as Heathcliff did - she simply didn't have enough time.
But let's get back to Heathcliff - I cannot outline here all of the evil things he did over the course of the story, and to do so would probably be to give away spoilers. Let me just say this: I now understand completely why Wuthering Heights is being advertised in bookstores as "Bella and Edwards Favorite Book!". It should be. As I said in a comment on one of my statuses: Edward Cullen is good, but Heathcliff wrote the fucking book on Domestic Abuse Thinly Disguised As Love.
I don't know why so many readers get all fangirly over Heathcliff. He's an asshole, a sociopath, and even he knows how evil he is. As he says of Isabella, a girl he marries and then treats so horribly I can't even talk about it right now: "She abandoned them under a delusion...picturing in me a hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous devotion. I can hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature, so obstinately has she persisted in forming a fabulous notion of my character, and acting on the false impression she has cherished."

Hear that, Heathcliff fangirls? Even he thinks you're all morons for liking him.

And, just to end this on a good note: I've shared this webcomic before, but it fits here too because, let's face it, the Bronte sisters had terrible taste in men. ...more

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Jun 08, 2013 Nataliya rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reads

Not often do I decide to edit the review - and change the opinion of the book I initially detested - mere days after writing a 'why I hated it' opus. Emily Bronte, you mastermind!

In addition to learning truly horrifying things through the comments from my fellow lovely Goodreaders (people have told me that not only Heathcliff and Catherine's horrible story served as an inspiration for 'Twilight - a story that's paraded as a love story; and - brrrr - that "in almost all polls on most romantic lit
Not often do I decide to edit the review - and change the opinion of the book I initially detested - mere days after writing a 'why I hated it' opus. Emily Bronte, you mastermind!

In addition to learning truly horrifying things through the comments from my fellow lovely Goodreaders (people have told me that not only Heathcliff and Catherine's horrible story served as an inspiration for 'Twilight - a story that's paraded as a love story; and - brrrr - that "in almost all polls on most romantic literary figure, Heathcliff takes the lead") I read this comment from Teresa:

"I think I read somewhere -- maybe in this book: Emily Bronte: The Artist As a Free Woman -- that she was creating her own world (and the book does seem claustrophobic with its two framing narrators), her own mythos. If one sees that interpretation, I think Heathcliff could be viewed almost as a Zeus-figure, another petty and vengeful 'entity.'

... a comment that, combined with her observation in another comment that "the names Hindley/Heathcliff/Hareton all started with the same letter, not to mention having two Catherines -- an enclosed world that repeated itself" led me to realize that yes, in a mind-blowing turn of events this book is a genius take on the completely secluded, isolated world that lives only by its own rules, ruled by its own godlike creatures, and bears little resemblance to and has little influence from the larger universe outside of it.

Two Catherines in this book - and both of them take a journey between the stops of 'Catherine Earnshaw', 'Catherine Heathcliff' and 'Catherine Linton' - because what other options do they have? Even young Cathy, so seemingly close to possibly leaving this enclosed corner of the universe thanks to sudden fascination Lockwood (a man of the outside world) takes to her, ultimately remains tightly tethered to the place she knows, remaining with an Earnshaw - her first cousin (because who else is there?)

Heathcliff, who could have had the world, comes back to rule the little universe into which he was adopted, unable to leave the country of grey moors.

And everyone else is a Linton - another link in the chain that connects everyone else. And the little world of this novel takes no one else in who is not a Linton, a Cathy or an incarnation of Heathcliff/Hareton/Hindley. Everyone stays together, their fates tied only to one another, with disregard to the world outside. Only Isabella (who never seems to have fit into this world anyway) manages to escape - but remains tethered to this world by her child, Linton Heathcliff, who - thanks to his names - is powerless to escape being sucked into this little corner of the universe and become a pathetic little villain.

And this world, free from the influence outside, just continues to go in its own little circle, being its own little - and terrifying - universe.

Ok, mindblowing. Enough to up my star rating by a full star.

Emily Bronte, your mind was darker than I gave it credit for. Touché.

------------
------------

ORIGINAL REVIEW FROM LONG AGO (a.k.a. a few days - an eternity in the eyes of a fruitfly, however)
------------
Ok, I'll be honest - I decided to read this one really because the word 'Wuthering' had for a while been fascinating my non-native speaker brain¹

¹ Basically, brain insists it should be 'wIthering.'
Computer spellcheck agrees.
And both of them are wrong.

Plus, I have also been introduced to it by - of course! - pop culture, courtesy of Phoebe Buffay:

(In the remainder of this episode, Rachel ends up comparing 'Jane Eyre' to 'Robocop', to Phoebe's utmost delight.)
------------------------
Ok, back to serious now.

This book had one of the most promising beginnings in all the literature. No joke. The narrator's stumbling into Heathcliff's household leads to the opening chapter as surreal and creepy as a nightmare you really want to wake up from but cannot. Seriously, let's look back to the beginning of the tale - with Heathcliff, and the dogs, and the creepiest servant since Igor, and strange perplexing characters of Hareton and Cathy, all in the most gothic setting a 19th century mind could have conjured. Lovely, just lovely.

But then a meddling self-righteous servant sat down to tell the story of Cathy and Heathcliff and everyone else caught in the destructive hurricane those two left in their selfish wake - and something changed, the magic dissolved.

I was promised passion and wilderness. Instead I got a cold wearisome shower of egotistical, self-absorbed, shallow, destructive, prejudiced, reckless petty disregard for anyone else from everyone else, combined with clear cases of sociopathic, narcissistic, and spoiled to the core people damaging everything they come in contact with. It's not wild passion; it's self-absorbed selfishness and nothing more.

It's a spoiled brat in a grocery store flinging himself on the floor and throwing a raging, embarrassing tantrum because he just has to have that unnecessary piece of candy.

No, I'm not a fan of anger, revenge and possessiveness trying to masquerade as wild love and passion. Neither Catherine nor Heathcliff love one another; instead of love they might as well just selfishly scream, "WAAAAAANT!!!"

Heathcliff is not wild - he is a cruel sociopath. Catherine is not wild and passionate - she is a haughty and spoiled thoughtless creature.

And I cannot help asking, dear reader - What is the point?
--------------
Yes, I understand the ~~balls~~ ovaries needed for making such repulsive personalities be the center of your story (actually, that's not just Cathy and Heathcliff being repugnant; think of Hindley, and Hareton, and - brrrr! - Joseph, and young Linton, and even young Cathy, and to a point the ever-meddling self-righteous unsure-where-her-allegiance-lies-but-probably-with-whoever-the-current-master-happens-to-be Nelly Dean), and to systematically beat out any possible feel-good moment in this book. It probably was not an easy book to write, and definitely is not an easy book to read.

But because of all that I could not bring myself to care in the least. What's worse, the little cringeworthy details peppered throughout the story became even more obvious in the light of me disliking the book:

- Like the constant neverending out-of-character moments that all the action here seems to hinge upon (Heathcliff's sudden madness/death; Catherine's reaction to the argument between Heathcliff and Edgar; Cathy and Hareton's sudden feelings for each other; to name a few).

- Contrived happy-ish ending: a thought that young Cathy will end up with a man who has physically assaulted her in the past and be happy with him in a Stockholm Syndrome-like fashion - and for it (a) to seem like a good choice and (b) the violence presented as something she had coming for daring to have a 'saucy' tongue.

- Actually, constant violence, threats, marital rape - the stuff that would make even George R.R. Martin seem like a tender-hearted softie.

- Constant reminders of darkness of Heathcliff's character being tied to the darkness of his skin - while white paleness of the Lintons provides a contrast of civilization to the brute. Dark skin = evil, right? Ah, Miss Bronte, really?

- Constant nervous outbreaks and the destructive passion of feelings that after a while became much too repetitive.

- The predictable cycle of Heathcliff or Catherine wanting something --> rudeness --> physical violence to those they perceive to be their inferiors --> some contrived disease brought on by nervous exhaustion or something of the sort --> someone probably dies for no reason than the effects of wild passions --> rinse, repeat.

- Joseph's dialect. Need I say more?

And, all throughout, I realized that I just could no longer care about the story that brought two English families living on the wild moors to the state that the narrator observes in such a promising beginning of this book. I think I was too exhausted with this story to care. It tried too hard to unapologetically be dark and brooding and bleak - and succeeded in just wearing me out.

2 stars and valiant attempts to dodge the shower of rotten eggs and rotten tomatoes heading my way. ...more

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Aug 16, 2015 Samadrita rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: timeless-classics, cherished, masterpieces, romance, bygones-are-never-bygones, melancholia, european-literature, 1001-and-more, re-readable, britain, adoration, by-women-who-matter, 500gbbw

It is a testament to the overabundance of cliches clogging the realms of literature featuring romance, that readers widely associate the middle Brontë sister's tour de force with vindictive fury, abuse and emotional excesses rather than love. Because bestowing approval on an unnatural, obsessive love that devoured everything in its vicinity out of pure malice somehow throws our moral compass into a tizzy.

Last time I read this, Emily Brontë had cruelly crushed a child's enjoyment of a book much l It is a testament to the overabundance of cliches clogging the realms of literature featuring romance, that readers widely associate the middle Brontë sister's tour de force with vindictive fury, abuse and emotional excesses rather than love. Because bestowing approval on an unnatural, obsessive love that devoured everything in its vicinity out of pure malice somehow throws our moral compass into a tizzy.

Last time I read this, Emily Brontë had cruelly crushed a child's enjoyment of a book much like Heathcliff remorselessly causes the universe stretching between the extremities of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights to implode violently. She had sucked me into a vortex of dark, inchoate feelings for a week or so from which I found difficult to extricate myself.
But this time? The pages flew by. My spirit soared every time Brontë breached a boundary of what the voices in favor of the status quo label propriety, demolished a stereotype, let her heroine roam the outdoors as freely as she could with the one person who never sought to reduce her individuality to a compilation of 'feminine' attributes. And the romance? It made me swoon. So pardon me if I shun those patriarchy-approved alpha males who infantilize their lovers, their false sheen of dignity and restraint, the promise of domesticated happily-ever-afters, and righteous, unidimensional do-gooders. I crave for Emily's brutal candour instead, her courageous glorification of this earth-shattering, all-consuming desire to melt, to unite with the one you covet, with nary a care for what it may entail. The love that heats up your blood and is food for your soul and percolates every fibre of your being.

But, Heathcliff, if I dare you now, will you venture? If you do, I'll keep you. I'll not lie there by myself: they may bury me twelve feet deep, and throw the church down over me, but I won't rest till you are with me. I never will!

Heathcliff and Catherine's relationship was beyond their own control and comprehension, a storm which wreaked havoc in the lives of those who sought to throttle it, a force of nature which subsided only when both its initiators were reconciled in death free to resume their wild, unchecked peregrinations across the stretch of earth which they claimed as their very own - the moors, which divorced from worldly considerations of wars, Empire and inequality, became the only utopia which could accommodate their calamitous passion for each other.

I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped in the flags! In every cloud, in every tree-filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day-I am surrounded with her image!

Sartre in his preface (passionate endorsement) to Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth says -

"...he shows perfectly clearly that this irrepressible violence is neither a storm in a teacup nor the reemergence of savage instincts nor even a consequence of resentment: it is man restructuring himself."

And that's as concise and succinct a defense I can provide for Heathcliff, his rage that won't be quelled and its devastating manifestations. The Heathcliff without a second name, the perpetual outsider in a white-washed society breeding manifold evils, the other, the 'thing' which Nelly Dean, Mrs Earnshaw, Hindley and even the infant Catherine see as nothing other than a dirty, smelly, baseborn creature deserving of contempt. A person of color stranded in a world increasingly being cleaved into virulent polarities of light and dark, Occident and Orient, powerful and powerless, colonizer and colonized, white master and black slave, abuser and abused. Violence is the language of the oppressed after all, especially because the oppressor teaches him no better.

I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!

And Catherine? I disagree with Simone de Beauvoir when she asserts -

"She uses his words, she repeats his gestures, adopts his manias and tics. "I am Heathcliff," says Catherine in Wuthering Heights; this is the cry of all women in love; she is another incarnation of the beloved, his reflection, his double: she is he. She lets her own world flounder in contingence: she lives in his universe."

This certainly typifies heroines populating the wide spectrum of conventional romance novels in general. But I consider Catherine exempt from this pigeonholing. A few moments from her death she contemplates reverting to her sexless girlhood to be reunited with a childhood companion only with whom she had savoured true liberty, to travel back to a time when societal mores hadn't impressed upon her a catastrophic urge for conformity. And if Catherine finds herself to be interchangeable from her other half, then Heathcliff, too, wills himself to dissolve with her into the embrace of the earth which does not discriminate between the baptized and the heathen.

'...I dreamt I was sleeping the last sleep by that sleeper, with my heart stopped and my cheek frozen against hers.
'And if she had been dissolved into earth, or worse, what would you have dreamt of then?' I said.
'Of dissolving with her, and being more happy still!' he answered.

There. If Catherine is Heathcliff, then Heathcliff, too, is Catherine. Beings seeking to overturn the societal injunction against their individuation and find their salvation in each other. A salvation they could attain only when Emily ushers in the element of the paranormal, the much vilified, belittled 'gothic'.

So take away your insidious Rochesters and sanctimonious Jane Eyres and gentrified romances put on a pedestal. Give me Heathcliff and Catherine instead. Give me their petulant anger, their restlessness and their feral love. ...more

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Aug 29, 2016 Vessey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, drama, 5-stars, dark, deep-and-challenging

SPOILERS

Behold the wild, dark side of love.

“I am Heathcliff – he’s always, always in my mind – not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself – but as my own being.”

Passion. Desire. Love. Are they the same thing? If we are so intoxicated by someone as ending up seeing them as a mirror to our own self, is this love? It is. Sometimes. But sometimes it is sign not of devotion, but of egotism so strong that it stops us from seeing the actual person and we imagine a likeness that ...more

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Dec 30, 2015 Renato Magalhães Rocha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: the-novel-100, 100-best-books-world-library, kindle-ebooks, 2014, reviewed, 1001, brontë

I approached this book expecting to read about a beautiful and tragic love story: instead, I came across an intensive hate story, a revenge tale - but love was nowhere to be found. Actually, let me state this better: there was love at first... but it was the mere beginning, the catalyst. Love was there only to encompass all the hatred, to imprison it. It was not love itself, but solely a small and transparent bottle with a beautiful "love" inscription engraved on it - in a lovely calligraphy wit I approached this book expecting to read about a beautiful and tragic love story: instead, I came across an intensive hate story, a revenge tale - but love was nowhere to be found. Actually, let me state this better: there was love at first... but it was the mere beginning, the catalyst. Love was there only to encompass all the hatred, to imprison it. It was not love itself, but solely a small and transparent bottle with a beautiful "love" inscription engraved on it - in a lovely calligraphy with hearts and flowers decorating it -, and once love was thrown away and fell to the floor, it broke, and its content - hate itself - was set free like a dark red smoke spreading slowly but surely, like a poison or a curse, intoxicating those around who dared to breathe.

Emily Brontë was very masterful in her writing by using shifts in time - through flashbacks - and different and unreliable narrators to tell the story of the Earnshaws and Lintons. The book begins in 1801, when a man called Lockwood rents a house known as Thrushcross Grange from a weatlhy man named Heathcliff, who in turn lives in the Wuthering Heights. While paying his landlord a visit, Lockwood is forced to spend his first night there due to a snow storm and, while in his designated bedroom, his attention is grabbed by the name "Catherine" that's written in many books that are just sitting around. Too affected by her diary entries on those books and the whole dark atmosphere of the Wuthering Heights, he ends up having a nightmare with a girl named Catherine; waking up scared, he screams until Heathcliffe barges into the bedroom to see what the fuss is all about - and what follows is a very impressive scene. In the morning, Lockwood finally left to the Thrushcross Grange where he met Nelly Dean, the housekeeper who's been in the family for decades. Still not sure that what he saw was just a dream, he asks her about Catherine and Nelly starts to tell him her account of the events.

Back in 1771, Mr. Earnshaw (father of Hindley and Catherine) comes back from a trip bringing home Heathcliff - a "dark-skinned gypsy in aspect" - whom he decides to adopt. He then becomes Catherine's best friend over the years. Almost ten years later, Heathcliff overhears Catherine saying that it would be degrading to marry him and that she was going to marry neighbor Edgar Linton instead. Deciding to escape and run away, Heathcliff is absent for three years and comes back rich and powerful with a plan of a vengeance: to be the sole tormentor of both Earnshaw and Linton families not only for one, but for two generations.

It's known that Emily Brontë and her sisters started exercising their imagination as children by playing with some wooden soldiers for which they created stories. Wuthering Heights was written in her late twenties, but the novel still carried an atmosphere of little soldiers being toyed with inside of a small box. Like them, Emily's characters seemed to live isolated in a gloomy and dark box - almost like an experiment - where it was unlikely that they wouldn't become a product of that unsettling environment and impossible that their emotions and feelings wouldn't be taken to extremes making everything turn into matters of life and death.

Like Emma and Madame Bovary - novels from the same period - I had a hard time feeling sympathy for the story's protagonists, especially the main couple as Heathcliff was too bitter and hateful towards everyone, and Catherine as she chose another man to marry, not the one that she really loved - not that there's anything wrong with considering status and reputation while deciding on whom to marry but, as far as love stories go, it was difficult to care for both of them - well, not only for them: it seems not even one character was truly likeable. However, the young Catherine - Cathy Linton - is an amazing, vivid character. I kept expecting her to jump out of the pages - in this case, out of my Kindle - and start running around in my living room and flipping through the pages of my books.

It was precisely through the spirited Cathy - and Hareton, her cousin - that the author inserted some hope into her story. Destined to repeat the fate of the previous generation, they ended up breaking Heathcliff's revenge ties and found some comfort and love in each other when it seemed all matters were lost. Had the Brontë sister not died so soon after publishing her biggest accomplishment in writing, maybe then she would have written a true love story: that of Cathy and Hareton.

Rating: I was torn between 3 and 4 stars while deciding on my rating for this book. I ended up going with 4 as I enjoyed Emily's prose very much and I think she excelled in writing characters with such conflicting and interesting human's emotions, even though I wouldn't take them with me to my toys box. ...more

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Apr 28, 2016 Henry Avila rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Cathy and Heathcliff, a love story? At the beginning of our narrative Mr.Lockwood, a tenant of Thrushcross Grange, visits his landlord Mr.Heathcliff, at Wuthering Heights, four long miles away, across the cold, eerie, moors, people back then walked a great distance, they had few options, without much complaining, troubled Lockwood, wants to get away from society (he came to the right place). The setting is northern England, 1801, in the Yorkshire Moors, a vast, remote, desolate, and gloomy grass Cathy and Heathcliff, a love story? At the beginning of our narrative Mr.Lockwood, a tenant of Thrushcross Grange, visits his landlord Mr.Heathcliff, at Wuthering Heights, four long miles away, across the cold, eerie, moors, people back then walked a great distance, they had few options, without much complaining, troubled Lockwood, wants to get away from society (he came to the right place). The setting is northern England, 1801, in the Yorkshire Moors, a vast, remote, desolate, and gloomy grassland, beautiful and ugly at the same time, a haunting locale. Lockwood is the only person who likes Heathcliff, " a capital fellow", in the area, he sees something no one else does, on his mournful face, sadness, maybe even regret ? ( like himself). Later he learns the story of his landlord's tragic life, through Mrs.Nelly Dean, his servant at Thrushcross Grange, for three generations there, she tells him about the life of Heathcliff, found in the streets of Liverpool, hungry , crying, dirty, all alone, without anyone caring, at the tender age of two, but the compassionate Mr.Earnshaw, a wealthy man , Catherine's (Cathy's) father and takes him home. They never discovered the boy's true identity, but because of the child's dark complexion, everyone calls him a gypsy. The two, Catherine and Heathcliff, grow up as brother and sister, at Wuthering Heights, always together, Cathy and the unwanted orphan, playing on the lonely moors, they are soulmates . Resented by Cathy's older brother, Hindley, (who beats him many times) in fact everyone does, but the gentle Mr.Earnshaw, who loves the boy. Morose, showing no emotions, he can't afford to, still very angry underneath, because of how others treat him, as an inferior, Heathcliff, was never given another name. When teenager Cathy decides to marry Edgar Linton , from a respected, well off family , and Heathcliff hears about it , he disappears to parts unknown, the penniless man feels betrayed....Years pass and Heathcliff comes back from America, rich, nobody learns how, and he doesn't say either, probably not quite honestly, and seeks vengeance. The children of each estate, the Linton's of Thrushcross Grange and the Earnshaw's of Wuthering Heights, inherit their respective homes, Cathy wants to maintain a friendship and maybe more with Heathcliff, the weak Edgar of course hates the gypsy, but can't stop the two from seeing each other, the attraction is too powerful. The triangle will soon dissolve, people come and go but the moors abide. Strong novel, with a bittersweet plot... Love or despise this classic, you cannot help but admire its quality. ...more

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Oct 03, 2015 Kiki rated it did not like it

This book was a fucking slog.

That probably sounds strange coming from someone who read the entirety of The Divine Comedy three times for sport, but damn; I'll take biblical poetry any day over this damn wreck.

My mother loves this book. So does one of my dearest writer friends. Sorry, ladies - it made me want to barf.

I understand the attraction, I do. The idea of being immersed in this world of secrets and following the dark, twisted lives of the ~~stupid~~ passionate characters can be incredibly ap ...more

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Jun 17, 2016 Diane rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, love-stories, movie-adaptation, gothic

I was not prepared for how bleak this book was. I had seen movie versions of Wuthering Heights, but this was my first time reading the novel, and it was much darker than I expected.

So many of the characters are utterly unlikable! Cathy is selfish and foolish and obstinate; Heathcliff is brutal and vengeful and psychotic; Hindley is spiteful and venomous and a drunkard. And when Edgar and Isabella Linton enter the story, everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

Why, oh why, did Cathy marry Edgar I was not prepared for how bleak this book was. I had seen movie versions of Wuthering Heights, but this was my first time reading the novel, and it was much darker than I expected.

So many of the characters are utterly unlikable! Cathy is selfish and foolish and obstinate; Heathcliff is brutal and vengeful and psychotic; Hindley is spiteful and venomous and a drunkard. And when Edgar and Isabella Linton enter the story, everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

Why, oh why, did Cathy marry Edgar when she admitted she loved Heathcliff? As a reader, I wanted to shake her and scream at her that she was making a disastrous choice. Let's hear it from Cathy herself:

I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heatchliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.

Yes, I know Cathy felt she couldn't marry Heathcliff because of his low birth and lack of education, but considering how isolated they were in Yorkshire, did it really matter that much? Was that Bronte's point -- that disobeying one's heart by following the courtship rules of one's social class caused suicidal and homicidal ravings?

I agreed with Heathcliff when he later scolded Cathy for her decision:

You teach me now how cruel you've been -- cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry; and wring out my kisses and tears: they'll blight you -- they'll damn you. You loved me -- then what right had you to leave me? What right -- answer me -- for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart -- you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.

There was such violence in this book! Women are beaten and locked up; children are bullied and abused; punches are thrown, shots are fired, and even dogs are kicked and hung. Egad. I can imagine how shocking it must have been to the good folks of England when it was published in 1847, learning that not only did a woman write it, but that she was a clergyman's daughter, and the story involved a married woman having a tryst with another man. Wowsers.

Despite not liking the darkness of the novel, I thought the writing was good and the structure was interesting: the servant Nelly Dean relates the history of the doomed love affair to an outsider. The servant was an interloper and kept informed on events in both houses. I can't imagine a more effective way to tell the story of the love triangle. I wouldn't trust either Heathcliff or Cathy or one of the children as a narrator, they might only tell their parent's side of things. Of course, it's also interesting that Nelly Dean may not be a reliable narrator either. She often edits and omits what she tells the master; why should we believe she'd tell an outsider the whole truth?

It took me twice as long to get through this novel as it should have -- it was so bleak that I was hesitant to pick it up. The only other Bronte sister book I've read was Jane Eyre, which I liked very much, but that love story at least has some warmth in it. In contrast, Wuthering Heights left me feeling cold and bitter. I'm glad I've read it, but I don't think it's one I'll be rereading anytime soon. ...more

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May 22, 2012 Whitaker rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: canon, recommended-unreservedly, e-book, united-kingdom, 2012-read, get-hardback

My goodness, but doesn’t Emily Brontë get to have her cake and eat it too. On the one hand, the story is underpinned by deeply bourgeois morals; on the other hand, she gets to flirt with wildness and nature. It’s like going on a luxury safari: you get to pretend you’re out in the wild but it’s wilderness with a champagne breakfast and air-conditioned tents.

Here you have Heathcliff, right, the stand-in for the forces of nature. And this is nature “red in tooth and claw”, Hearne the Huntsman, the My goodness, but doesn’t Emily Brontë get to have her cake and eat it too. On the one hand, the story is underpinned by deeply bourgeois morals; on the other hand, she gets to flirt with wildness and nature. It’s like going on a luxury safari: you get to pretend you’re out in the wild but it’s wilderness with a champagne breakfast and air-conditioned tents.

Here you have Heathcliff, right, the stand-in for the forces of nature. And this is nature “red in tooth and claw”, Hearne the Huntsman, the faery changeling that usurps the place of the son. Like all good faeries, Heathcliff upends the natural order: good is made bad, the low are made high, love is made indistinguishable from hate. He ousts the gentry out of their hearth and home and becomes lord of the manor, and the world is turned topsy-turvy.

But in the end, he is defeated. The changeling is ejected, and the land reverts back to the gentry again as both the Grange and Wuthering Heights revert to the care and custody of the Lintons and the Earnshaws. The unity of Catherine and Hindley, the bond of brother and sister that was broken with Heathcliff’s arrival, is restored with the marriage of Hareton Earnshaw and Catherine Linton. Chaos and disorder are cast out, and the rightful order of nature is restored.

And how huge a role blood plays in this. You can’t escape your natural destiny: A gentleman will always be a gentleman regardless of how much you try to corrupt him, while the scion of a nameless urchin will be low and nasty regardless of how much gilt he is covered with. You could read the entire Shakespearean canon into this. It's Macbeth, King Lear, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream all rolled into one.

And yet, oh, the language! That deep love, and also terror, of the wild harsh beauty of the moors that sings out in her prose despite her eventual return to civilisation! The whole story trembles on this pivot between longing and repulsion. And right to the final word, she never quite resolves it: the ambiguity thrums to the very last. Wow!

...more

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Dec 30, 2015 Aubrey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star, reviewed, books-are-the-best-invention, reality-check, 1-read-on-hand, virago, r-2013, 500-wm, r-goodreads, r-2015, antidote-think-twice-read, antidote-think-twice-all

...I tell you, I have nearly attained my heaven; and that of others is altogether unvalued and uncoveted by me!

Perhaps it is because I have my nice and neat two years previous effort staring me in the face, but I find it difficult to settle on a catalyzing shade of feeling for this piece of now. Another possibility is, after reading this first in hate, second in love, third in awe (in all the blissful horror of that ancient word), further explication to myself of the qualities of this work see ...more

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Aug 08, 2016 Jason Koivu rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë

Vile people are mean to one another.

The End

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Aug 10, 2012 s.penkevich rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: The lovers

Recommended to s.penkevich by: Sparrow

Shelves: death, cold-and-dark, classics

‘Honest people don't hide their deeds.’

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a dark and enormously fervent tale of love and obsession. This is not love with lace, frills and flowers, but shorn of all the decorous notions to reveal an intensity more akin to beast than man.

It is no surprise that this novel was tough for early critics to swallow, with many citing unlikeable characters and going so far as to declare that the book ‘ presents such shocking pictures of the worst forms of humanity’ (from ‘Honest people don't hide their deeds.’

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a dark and enormously fervent tale of love and obsession. This is not love with lace, frills and flowers, but shorn of all the decorous notions to reveal an intensity more akin to beast than man.

It is no surprise that this novel was tough for early critics to swallow, with many citing unlikeable characters and going so far as to declare that the book ‘ presents such shocking pictures of the worst forms of humanity’ (from a review published by The Atlas, found on the wiki article). This is by no means a ‘pleasant’ novel, the atmosphere calls up gothic imagery and emotions with cold, dark, windy nights, gnarled scenery and hushed voices, yet this allows the novel to seize your heart strings and drive you into the madness. The characters are bawdy and cruel, and victims to their raging emotions. The love is passionate and violent and reveals the deep corridors of the heart to be a wild animalistic place.

Brontë’s use of language is fantastic. Some of the more powerful statements on love and obsession are to be found within her pages: ‘If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.’ Plus, she employs an interesting narrative technique that sets her apart from her contemporaries. The novel is told through an observer, who is relatively inconsequential to the actions at hand for most of the novel. Through journals and first-hand accounts of those around him, he pieces together a morbid family history. This allows for multiple voices and perspectives, and keeps the story fresh and flowing. There are slight issues, as a majority of the first half of the book is told through the housekeeper, who recounts the past in potent poetic prose, yet speaks plainly in actual speech. Plus one has to believe that she was able to remember word for word all the loquacious speeches and arguments of the characters. However, a little suspension of disbelief isn’t asking much and this technique is used all the time without complaint, plus I’ll believe in anything as long as it keeps the novel functioning well. And this novel functions with the best of them.

Wittgenstein’s Mistress points out that much of this book is just people looking through windows. That is totally accurate. This book will look into the window of the human heart and show you the true emotions of love.This novel is a classic, and rightfully so. It is such a shame that it was her only novel, as with a bit more polishing she could have turned out a shiny diamond of a novel. However, it is the unpolished intensity of this torrid affair that really shines brighter than any diamond ever could.

4/5
...more

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Oct 14, 2007 Russell rated it it was amazing

I have a confession: I never read this book in high school, so this is the first time I’ve read it.

This is a stellar book. Heathcliff is a ‘moral poison’ of the worst sort, and yet there is a part of me that can understand why he was so obsessed and why his obsession led to a hardness and a madness of mind and morals. I can almost appreciate his will, the desire to see his plan execute to the final end, regardless of the cost to others, or to himself. Almost.

His withholding of his hand to destro I have a confession: I never read this book in high school, so this is the first time I’ve read it.

This is a stellar book. Heathcliff is a ‘moral poison’ of the worst sort, and yet there is a part of me that can understand why he was so obsessed and why his obsession led to a hardness and a madness of mind and morals. I can almost appreciate his will, the desire to see his plan execute to the final end, regardless of the cost to others, or to himself. Almost.

His withholding of his hand to destroy Cathy and Hareton wasn’t because of a change of heart, but because he lacked the passion to keep going.

Heathcliff is not a Romantic Hero, despite all the ink spilled otherwise. He could have been, he’s set up to be, but his decision to cause pain and exact his revenge on his enemies and their children diverts him from that path.

After reading several essays about it (huzzah Google) I think something that is overlooked as to why Heathcliff acted they way he did wasn’t solely for revenge, or that he was so miserable he wanted to make those around him more so. Not just that, he wanted Catherine to haunt him.

In his madness I think he was hoping that the destruction of both houses would cause Catherine’s spirit to be moved enough to haunt him for his deeds.

Then again, maybe not. Nelly Dean confronts him at the end and tells him that he should repent of his wickedness. Heathcliff denies that he has done anything that needed repentance. Perhaps he merely saw this as fitting punishment for those that he felt had wronged him.

But in the end, Catherine apparently does haunt Heathcliff, haunts him to the point he dies from lack of interest in the living world.

Cathy and Hareton’s relationship and presumed marriage nullifies anything Heathcliff did. It was almost like he never existed. The two houses ended up intertwined, despite his scheming and plots.

The book was satisfying, and touched on far more themes then I am going to discuss. If you are like me and haven’t read the book, I recommend it. ...more

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Apr 26, 2016 Suzanne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-cd, gave-away

Alas, this is to be a re-read yet again, but paper back next time. Man do I have to stop being distracted! Audio books appear not to be the best format for me, but I did still enjoy. After reading this in high school, I chose to listen to this second time around in the car on my new 40 minute commute.

It was great listening about the brooding Heathcliffe, but it was very dark, I don’t recall it being quite so in high school. It also seemed shorter. So much death!

Excellent narration by Hannah Go ...more

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Mar 03, 2016 Γκέλλυ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, reread, gothic, everloving

Tα Ανεμοδαρμένα ύψη είναι ένα από τα αγαπημένα μου βιβλία. Το έχω διαβάσει αρκετές φορές, ίσως σε αυτό το βιβλιο οφείλεται η αδιαφορία μου στο romance ως genre, δεν μπορώ να φανταστώ ότι υπάρχει κάποια ιστορία αγάπης που να με συγκλονίσει τόσο πολύ.

Θα μπορούσα να πω αρκετά πράγματα για αυτό το βιβλιο. Ο πρώτος χαρακτηρισμός που μου έρχεται στο μυαλό είναι άγριο. Είναι ένα άγριο βιβλίο, σκληρό, συγκλονιστικό, με δυνατά ψυχογραφήματα και ποιητική αφήγηση. Παρουσιάζει απεχθείς χαρακτήρες που μόνο Tα Ανεμοδαρμένα ύψη είναι ένα από τα αγαπημένα μου βιβλία. Το έχω διαβάσει αρκετές φορές, ίσως σε αυτό το βιβλιο οφείλεται η αδιαφορία μου στο romance ως genre, δεν μπορώ να φανταστώ ότι υπάρχει κάποια ιστορία αγάπης που να με συγκλονίσει τόσο πολύ.

Θα μπορούσα να πω αρκετά πράγματα για αυτό το βιβλιο. Ο πρώτος χαρακτηρισμός που μου έρχεται στο μυαλό είναι άγριο. Είναι ένα άγριο βιβλίο, σκληρό, συγκλονιστικό, με δυνατά ψυχογραφήματα και ποιητική αφήγηση. Παρουσιάζει απεχθείς χαρακτήρες που μόνο περιφρόνηση σου προκαλούν με την απανθρωπιά τους. Ο μόνος χαρακτήρας που συμπάθησα και θεωρώ ότι είναι και ο πιο τραγικός είναι η Ισαβέλλα Λίντον, μέσα στην κουταμάρα της θεώρησε τον Χήθκλιφ ως ρομαντικό ήρωα και αυτό οδήγησε στην κακοποίηση της και τέλος στον θάνατο της.

Θα συνέχιζα λέγοντας ότι είναι μια ιστορία μίσους. Ο Χήθκλιφ, βίαιος και καταστροφικός, οι συνθήκες της ζωής κατέστρεψαν κάθε ψυχική αρετή και τον μετέβαλλαν σ' ένα διαβολικό άνθρωπο, με αισθήματα κακίας και εκδίκησης.

Τελειώνοντας θα έλεγα οτι η ερωτική ιστορία του Χηθκλιφ με την Καθριν κάθε άλλο παρά ρομαντική είναι. Είναι μια σχέση αμοιβαίας εξάρτησης και καταστροφής, από δύο εγωιστικά, αλαζονικά, ατίθασα πλάσματα που ενδιαφέρονται μόνο για τον εαυτό τους και που το πάθος τους καταστρέφει τους ίδιους και πολλούς ακόμα ανθρώπους γύρω τους.

Αλλά... Αλλά είμαι γυναίκα.

Για εμένα, πάνω από όλα τα Ανεμοδαρμένα ύψη είναι η πιο ωραία ιστορία πάθους. Η πιο ωραία ιστορία καταραμένου, καταδικασμένου, καταστροφικού έρωτα που μόνο δυστυχία φέρνει. Και τα λόγια που βγαίνουν από το στόμα του Χηθκλιφ είναι τα πιο ωραία λόγια αγάπης που έχω διαβάσει ποτέ.

5 αστέρια. ...more

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Jan 09, 2016 Stacey (prettybooks) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, read-in-my-twenties, adult-fiction, classics-challenge

This post is part of the 2015 Classics Challenge.

Spoiler alert: I found it impossible to talk about Wuthering Heights without saying too much, so don't read ahead if you would prefer to know nothing about the book!

WHEN I Discovered This Classic
I have no idea! Wuthering Heights would have been one of the first classics I ever heard about, surely? Or perhaps I first heard Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush as a young child. But it was one that kept cropping up as a book I had to read.

WHY I Chose to ...more

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Sep 15, 2016 Emer (ALittleHaze) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5stars, its-complicated, 2016-reads, books-everyone-should-read-once

Edit: 28/04/2016

See I knew something crazy like this would happen with this book. It has been 6 or 7 weeks since I read this and it has been on my mind on and off the whole time.
So at first I said I was gonna rate this two stars because it drove me so insane.
Then I thought maybe three....
until I finally settled on four.

SCRATCH ALL THAT
THIS IS GETTING THE FULL FIVE STARS!!!!!!!!

The more I reflect on this novel the more I think about its brilliance. It has just gotten under my skin and wormed i ...more

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Jan 28, 2008 Samantha rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This wasn't on my preordained Summer Reading Program list. It's an extra one, one I picked up from work a couple weeks ago after finishing Jane Eyre and thought I should give it another try. I write 'another' because I supposedly read this in Junior High, but really just listened in class and skimmed Cliffs Notes. I remember hating most of what Mrs. Edmondson made us read, especially The Scarlet Letter, but that's neither here nor now.

Wuthering Heights has been touted as a classic romance and He ...more

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Anyone else find humor in Wuthering Heights	7	229	Sep 02, 2016 05:19PM
Cathy the Witch the untold story	6	28	Sep 02, 2016 05:15PM
Heathcliff's Ethnicity?	412	1664	Aug 24, 2016 09:36AM
tension	2	7	Aug 14, 2016 07:14AM
Around the Year i...: Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë	4	42	Aug 11, 2016 03:43PM
I often wonder how Heathcliff, whose acts are often mean spirited bullying, is often seen as a Byronic hero, romantic in either the Byronic or the modern sense? (Polite note to avoid misunderstandings: I do know the differences between the two).	551	2089	Aug 06, 2016 02:50AM

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About Emily Brontë

Emily Jane Brontë was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. Emily was the second eldest of the three surviving Brontë sisters, being younger than Charlotte Brontë and older than Anne Brontë. She published under the masculine pen name Ellis Bell.

Emily was born in Thornton, near Bradford in Yorkshire to Patrick Brontë Emily Jane Brontë was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. Emily was the second eldest of the three surviving Brontë sisters, being younger than Charlotte Brontë and older than Anne Brontë. She published under the masculine pen name Ellis Bell.

Emily was born in Thornton, near Bradford in Yorkshire to Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell. She was the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë and the fifth of six children. In 1824, the family moved to Haworth, where Emily's father was perpetual curate, and it was in these surroundings that their literary oddities flourished. In childhood, after the death of their mother, the three sisters and their brother Patrick Branwell Brontë created imaginary lands (Angria, Gondal, Gaaldine, Oceania), which were featured in stories they wrote. Little of Emily's work from this period survived, except for poems spoken by characters (The Brontës' Web of Childhood, Fannie Ratchford, 1941).

In 1842, Emily commenced work as a governess at Miss Patchett's Ladies Academy at Law Hill School, near Halifax, leaving after about six months due to homesickness. Later, with her sister Charlotte, she attended a private school in Brussels. They later tried to open up a school at their home, but had no pupils.

It was the discovery of Emily's poetic talent by Charlotte that led her and her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, to publish a joint collection of their poetry in 1846, Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. To evade contemporary prejudice against female writers, the Brontë sisters adopted androgynous first names. All three retained the first letter of their first names: Charlotte became Currer Bell, Anne became Acton Bell, and Emily became Ellis Bell. In 1847, she published her only novel, Wuthering Heights, as two volumes of a three volume set (the last volume being Agnes Grey by her sister Anne). Its innovative structure somewhat puzzled critics. Although it received mixed reviews when it first came out, the book subsequently became an English literary classic. In 1850, Charlotte edited and published Wuthering Heights as a stand-alone novel and under Emily's real name.

Like her sisters, Emily's health had been weakened by the harsh local climate at home and at school. She caught a chill during the funeral of her brother in September, and, having refused all medical help, died on December 19, 1848 of tuberculosis, possibly caught from nursing her brother. She was interred in the Church of St. Michael and All Angels family capsule, Haworth, West Yorkshire, England. ...more

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Trivia About Wuthering Heights

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Quotes from Wuthering Heights

“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” — 6914 likes

“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” — 5652 likes

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