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elementarymydear 's review for:
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wuthering Heights may just be the most misunderstood classic (at least by those who haven’t read it yet). If you’d asked me two weeks ago what it was about, I would have mumbled something about Heathcliff, Cathy, Yorkshire moors and Kate Bush. As far as I was aware, it was a passionate tale of two troubled lovers who had lots of sad dinners. Having conducted an informal poll on my housemates, I was not alone in my ignorance. We all had in our minds that this would be like Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice but much, much sadder.
Read this and other reviews on my blog!
The difference is that Wuthering Heights – contrary to popular opinion, including the blurb on my copy – is not a love story. It is a story about a lot of very terrible people, two of whom have a passionate, brief and toxic romance that shapes the lives of the next generation. I cannot emphasise enough how many terrible people are in this book. Some have redeemable qualities, some do not. Some are born terrible, some achieve terrible-ness, and some have terrible-ness thrust upon them. From start to finish, everyone is making bad decisions. (Also, there are ghosts? Kind of. It’s ambiguous.)
And yet, somehow, I enjoyed this book. I loved this book. It’s incredibly atmospheric, with Emily Brontë capturing you and transporting you to the Yorkshire moors. You can hear Cathy calling at the window, feel the wind buffeting you from place to place. The setting grounds the story and the characters, and without it the plot would have no roots. It’s a tale filled with haunting moments and images, ones that have stayed in our collective literary consciousness for well over a century now. The themes of love (of all kinds), betrayal, otherness, and passion were wildly ahead of their time and are still relevant today. Also, it’s kind of a weird but great flex to punish your enemies by forcing them to take out a mortgage with you.
Wuthering Heights was unexpected in every way. Beautifully crafted, with a weird story about terrible people, I was consumed by it right until the very end. Will I re-read it? Definitely not for a while, but probably down the line. Will I still be reeling from it next week? Month? Year? Absolutely.
Read this and other reviews on my blog!
The difference is that Wuthering Heights – contrary to popular opinion, including the blurb on my copy – is not a love story. It is a story about a lot of very terrible people, two of whom have a passionate, brief and toxic romance that shapes the lives of the next generation. I cannot emphasise enough how many terrible people are in this book. Some have redeemable qualities, some do not. Some are born terrible, some achieve terrible-ness, and some have terrible-ness thrust upon them. From start to finish, everyone is making bad decisions. (Also, there are ghosts? Kind of. It’s ambiguous.)
And yet, somehow, I enjoyed this book. I loved this book. It’s incredibly atmospheric, with Emily Brontë capturing you and transporting you to the Yorkshire moors. You can hear Cathy calling at the window, feel the wind buffeting you from place to place. The setting grounds the story and the characters, and without it the plot would have no roots. It’s a tale filled with haunting moments and images, ones that have stayed in our collective literary consciousness for well over a century now. The themes of love (of all kinds), betrayal, otherness, and passion were wildly ahead of their time and are still relevant today. Also, it’s kind of a weird but great flex to punish your enemies by forcing them to take out a mortgage with you.
Wuthering Heights was unexpected in every way. Beautifully crafted, with a weird story about terrible people, I was consumed by it right until the very end. Will I re-read it? Definitely not for a while, but probably down the line. Will I still be reeling from it next week? Month? Year? Absolutely.