Bronte: Wuthering Heights

by Hilda D. Spear

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Romance, Literature, Historical Fiction, Classic Literature, Gothic

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 1985

Reviews

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I began this book at seventeen, during my high school sophomore year, I was more than ready for the stormy and unresolved tension in the relationships among the Main characters.

I think in particular of the tempestuous affair of the heart of Catherine and Heathcliff. My home environment, you see, had, though affluent, turned into a standoff between two contending titans - while we siblings were choosing sides. They were fractious times.

And I had already by the preceding August started slumming in my choice of friends. For as the friction was racheted up at home, I yearned to shed the tight image of a former high school Head Boy. I relaxed. A bit too much, maybe.

For by January I had caught a bad case of flu at a wild New Year’s Eve party. When your guard is down you’re more vulnerable. Delirious, I perspired bullets while shivering violently. My granddad’s radio fed my febrile delirium ever higher and the room swam.

My parents were worried. Knowing my love of music, Dad gave me a number of new Tijuana Brass records to ease my recuperation. A week later I started to notationally arrange these snappy tunes for small brass ensemble.

My creativity cemented my positive recovery, and restored my health. And as a returning gift to my school, Merivale, the Merijuana Brass was born. We were a hit!

In spite of my newfound positivity, the storm clouds remained over my home life. My fellow students were already reading Wuthering Heights, and I joined them - enchanted - for damaged by misery, I coveted company.

And this book was all it promised to be. The blackened moors of a moody teen were brought to life in Heathcliff’s wild, passionate sorrow.

Nowadays, of course, as in Lowry’s The Giver, most of us Heathcliffs have been weeded out and expunged from our shared and conditioned national social consciousness.

For having lost all memory of our mandatory sickness unto death -

All us citizens of our brave new world must forever wander lost, ungiving and blithe…

Wandering half-doped, half-duped, in the Eternal Sunshine of our Spotless Minds.

Strangely ignorant of the savage complexity of Catherine and Heathcliff’s undying love and anguish!

For that which does not kill me makes me stronger, but that which doesn’t strengthen us KILLS us, folks.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe I'm rating this 4 stars! The entire time I read it, I kept thinking, I can't stand this book, it's so bizarre, what's wrong with all these psycho characters, it's so dark etc.... But I couldn't put the book down! How often does that happen with classics? Not that often when I'm reading them! The book flowed, it was engaging and even gripping. It definitely cannot make the 5 star marking because there was not one single character that was inspiring. Unbelievable-- every character had somehow totally and completely lost it at one point or another. But, days after having finished the book, I can't stop thinking about it! Heathcliff is mad, evil, beyond bizarre, but- what a character! I can't get him out of my mind! I would love to know why Emily Bronte created the characters she did. They are crazy, but they are definitely developed. I'm really looking forward to discussing it at my book club in a couple days.

[Jessaka · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have wanted to read this book for 40 years, just because I loved the title. Well I picked it up and by this evening I was only 25% done. The entire family in this book were severely abusive towards each other. How can you live like that? I feel like I have been abused all day and if this was in the 60s I would've ran away from home hitched a ride to San Francisco, and put a flower in my hair. Then I would hav Crossed the Bay Bridge into Berkeley and stayed for a long time. Oh my gosh, that is what I did, but my life wasn't as bad as this book.

[Sandra Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the life of me, I don't see how this is considered a romantic story. Anti-romance, maybe. Unless you're really into abusive relationships. . .

All in all, I was totally squicked out by most of the characters and their interrelationships. Here is where my modern sensibilities get in the way - I simply cannot, for the life of me, figure out how Heathcliff and Catherine are considered romantic in any way. Apparently, I lack the "I'd die for you" kind of gene and don't aspire to have one, anyway.

I will say that the writing was pretty and there were many neat turns of phrases. They just couldn't cover up that seedy underbelly of life that I was supposed to think was a portrait of love.

[Shatarupa Dhar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some interesting facts I came to know while reading this study guide which I stumbled across in the library a few days after I started reading Wuthering Heights.

1. We get to hear Heathcliff's own voice in Chapter 6. Do we really? I'll have to go back and check.

The poetic power of Bronte's language transforms Heathcliff for us again into a man to be pitied, if not to be understood.

Now that I agree with. While Heathcliff's abominable actions didn't endear me to him, the writing definitely made me pity his life and from where he came. However Heathcliff behaved, I couldn't help but sympathise with him because of his lifelong loneliness and no sense of real identity, though his actions from time to time are deplorable. But, as I mentioned in my review of the book, I never could understand Catherine's behaviour. What prompted her to be the way she was. Is it because we always look for protagonists of a story to be inherently good, and not selfish like Catherine actually was.

2. It is interesting to note how one's surroundings are often the inspiration for the setting of place in a novel. Emily Brontë's life at Haworth Parsonage became the setting for Wuthering Heights, complete with the moorland and the gothic feel.

3. In Chapter 26,

Here, as so often in the novel, the weather matches the movement of the plot. The sultry, threatening day prepares us for the menace which seems to hang over Linton. The physical violence which we have witnessed earlier is replaced by unspecified violence, more frightening in that our imaginations run wild as we try to envisage Heathcliff's methods of dominating his sickly son.

4. This guide drives home the fact about the unconventionality of the protagonists in a novel that is at once unique in its creation.

5. While reading the book I never once had this strange feeling of everyone escaping the Heights and then finding their way back to it eventually as stated in the guide. To me, it was like a no-brainer, a kind of a prison from which the Earnshaws or Lintons could never escape, and the isolated setting reinforced that sentiment.

6. While this novel has the theme of love, it also ends in tragedy for all the pairs of lovers except one. And the following description rings true but is still amusing:

Lord David Cecil in his essay on Emily Bronte in Early Victorian Novelists describes the families respectively as 'children of the storm' (Wuthering Heights) and 'children of calm' (Thrushcross Grange).

7. I was amazed at all the references I had missed when reading the novel at the way Brönte connected both the timelines. Next time, I'll read the study guide simultaneously.

I'd definitely recommend reading a study guide which greatly helps in putting into perspective a classic novel, especially if your copy doesn't have any accompanying Notes to the Text.

[sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unpleasant characters behaving unpleasantly. I hated these people and I hated this book. But I love the Kate Bush song so maybe I'm missing something.

[hima saki · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is a house in which a tragic love story take place.heatcliff and catherin earnshaw fall in love but catherin marries another man,edgar linton
heatcliff get his revenge from linton family but cant find happiness without catherin...

[Jena · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never loved to hate a book so much!

This book was literally painful for me to get through. If it wasn’t for my determination to read the classics I would have never finished!

I tried so hard to like this book, I read so many people’s positive opinions trying to understand why people love this book or think it’s a great love story.

All I got from it was an obsessive toxic relationship that made me wish to never experience a love like that in any lifetime.

This book left quite a bad taste in my mouth, which maybe that is why it’s considered a classic? I’m honestly still in the dark on that.

[Adwait · Rating 1 out of 5]

It would have been more entertaining and better for my educational development to stare at paint dry. This book was filled with unlikeable characters, a mundane plot, and some of the worst symbolism I have ever read in my life. Please save 10-20 hours of your life by never reading this book.

[Elizabeth Gibbs · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like a single character in this book. The cover was very deceptive - the copy I have has the ghost of a girl on the front, but this was no ghost story. It's just a very long book about a lot of unhappy people. How on Earth it managed to become a classic is absolutely beyond me. I am so glad to be done with this one!

[Ali Lente · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book bummed me out and did NOT live up to the hype (aka Bella Swan’s hype). i read this as a teen, someone obsessed with a vampire book and wanting to understand it’s main character’s obsession of HER favorite book.

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply My favorite book of all time. I read it at least once a year.

[Marta Piccinelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Wuthering Heights” tells of Heathcliff’s destructive love and passion for Catherine Earnshaw. Heathcliff was adopted by Catherine’s father as a child, but upon Mr. Earnshaw’s death, he is bullied by Catherine’s brother. Under the incorrect assumption that his love for Catherine is not returned, Heathcliff abruptly leaves the household only to return years later as a wealthy man, poised to exact his revenge for his previous suffering. “Wuthering Heights” is a chaotic novel, beautiful in its complexity but terrible in its wickedness.
In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood writes down his recollections of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of Wuthering Heights. Nelly remembers her childhood. As a young girl, she works as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner of the manor, Mr. Earnshaw, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and returns home with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children. At first, the Earnshaw children—a boy named Hindley and his younger sister Catherine—detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly comes to love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the moors. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his own son, and when Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns with a wife, Frances, and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later a pampered and favored son, Heathcliff now finds himself treated as a common laborer, forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff continues his close relationship with Catherine, however. One night they wander to Thrushcross Grange, hoping to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children who live there. Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks, during which time Mrs. Linton works to make her a proper young lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become infatuated with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated. When Frances dies after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism, and behaves even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s desire for social advancement prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her overpowering love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and returning shortly after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage. When Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets about seeking revenge on all who have wronged him. Having come into a vast and mysterious wealth, he deviously lends money to the drunken Hindley, knowing that Hindley will increase his debts and fall into deeper despondency. When Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom he treats very cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth—she may take whatever form she will, she may haunt him, drive him mad—just as long as she does not leave him alone. Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to London and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She keeps the boy with her there. Thirteen years pass, during which Nelly Dean serves as Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid at Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her temperament is modified by her father’s gentler influence. Young Catherine grows up at the Grange with no knowledge of Wuthering Heights; one day, however, wandering through the moors, she discovers the manor, meets Hareton, and plays together with him. Soon afterwards, Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly, whining son even more cruelly than he treated the boy’s mother. Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors, and makes a visit to Wuthering Heights to meet Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely through letters. When Nelly destroys Catherine’s collection of letters, the girl begins sneaking out at night to spend time with her frail young lover, who asks her to come back and nurse him back to health. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Linton is pursuing Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to; Heathcliff hopes that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross Grange—and his revenge upon Edgar Linton—will be complete. One day, as Edgar Linton grows ill and nears death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering Heights, and holds them prisoner until Catherine marries Linton. Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death of the sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood. Nelly’s story ends as she reaches the present. Lockwood, appalled, ends his tenancy at Thrushcross Grange and returns to London. However, six months later, he pays a visit to Nelly, and learns of further developments in the story. Although Catherine originally mocked Hareton’s ignorance and illiteracy (in an act of retribution, Heathcliff ended Hareton’s education after Hindley died), Catherine grows to love Hareton as they live together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff becomes more and more obsessed with the memory of the elder Catherine, to the extent that he begins speaking to her ghost. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a night spent walking on the moors, Heathcliff dies. Hareton and young Catherine inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and they plan to be married on the next New Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes to visit the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.

No other setting could so perfectly embody the haunting, horrifying, operatically tragic destiny of nearly every speaking character in this book. In the opening paragraphs, the author explains the meaning of the word “wuthering” as a reference to the violent atmospheric disturbances among the high, heather-tufted moors, where a dark figure like Heathcliff can well be imagined roaming in the night, tormented by his doomed love for the headstrong Cathy, a torment which finally proves to be the only—and I mean only—redeeming feature of an otherwise scandalously cruel and almost unremittingly vicious monster. It is a setting ripe for a tale of ruined hopes, restless ghosts, perverted passions, fevers that prey on body and mind, and Calvinistically merciless manners and sentiments. It is the only conceivable site for a story in which the near-complete destruction of two generations of a pair of families can arise inevitably from one eavesdropping youth overhearing but the first half of a conversation, before slipping off into the night with unjust bitterness poisoning his heart.
And it is an astonishing work of literary genius, considering that its author was outlived by her masculine pen-name Ellis Bell, so short was her life and career. Despite this, the middle Brontë sister told her tale by way of a daring yet strikingly successful experiment in narrative structure. If, like me, you take in an audio-book edition of this novel, you will immediately understand. The version I listened to required two narrators, one of each sex. This is because the first-person narrative by Mr. Lockwood provides only an introduction, a few transitional passages, and a conclusion. Under this proscenium arch, if I may speak so—and this book is nothing if not an exquisite piece of theater—the main part of the drama unfolds in the words of co-narrator Ellen “Nelly” Dean, who bears a complex relationship to the characters in her tale and even, in her well-meaning way, may have influenced their fates. Be her account as reliable or unreliable as it may, it also encloses passages narrated to her (either orally or in writing) by at least two other characters. Emily B. could have continued this experiment in nesting narrators, like matryoshka dolls, to any number of levels, had she wished. Fussy book-editors may despair of ever getting the number of quotation marks right, but when read aloud (especially by one male and one female actor), it seems altogether clear. And somehow, by howsoever many narrators the events may be removed from us, the whole gut-twisting, hair-pulling, hand-wringing awfulness of the tale seems always to be immediately before the reader, or as close as any drama can be whose actors face us across the gulf of death.

This book is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. I truly recommend it to people who really appreciate love stories that can have a tragic end as described in Wuthering Heights. It shows how people are attached to material things and do whatever they can to not lose their privileges, even marrying another man that they don’t love.

[Arlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the format in which the narration is structured, where the story was shared between Ms. Dean and Lockwood. Bronte did a great job of balancing the narrative in a way where I was never confused on who was telling the story. At times, I sensed Nelly's biased toward certain characters, but her detail and recount was thorough and engaging. Telling it in Nelly and Lockwood's perspective allowed me to see more into the characters and their desires, motives and struggles, even after the climactic event of Catherine's death. This could not have been possible if it was told in Heathcliff or Catherine's perspective.

I noticed throughout the novel how Bronte used parallel elements to compare and contrast people, places and things in her story. For example, Wuthering Heights was painted as an unrefined and dark home, where Thrushgrove Grange was described as polished, gentle and inviting similar to the inhabitants of each residence. In addition, Cathy and young Catherine were different, yet very similar in many ways. She used this style throughout her novel; these are just two examples that help paint a well-rounded picture of the events and the overall storyline.

Most of all, the novel is such a passionate tale of a doomed love between two people who can never be together in their life time. Even though Heathcliff is portrayed as a malicious and vengeful person, my compassion for him never wavered. At times, I found myself being a proponent of his efforts, especially when enacting revenge upon Hindley. He was my favorite character throughout the novel despite his acts because I could sense Heathcliff's passion and true love for Cathy even after her death when he was more determined to pose revenge on those who kept them apart. If it were merely lust for Cathy, his efforts would have ended when she died. This is truly a love story that cannot be fulfilled in their lifetime.

Overall, I was glad to see Bronte structure a happy ending by joining young Catherine and Hareton because in a sense it was like she joined Heathcliff and Catherine and gave them their happy ending.

This is a novel I will read over and over again!

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mother sat in the church at Haworth where Emily's father was curate and later told me everything made sense...the wildness, the close-to-nature, the weather...everything.

I reread this, looking for that atmosphere Mom recognized, and it's here. I always wondered how a sheltered young woman with no worldly wiles could invent these characters with all their over-the-top histrionics. How could sweet Emily imagine emotions like Heathcliff's? Wildness like Catherine's? I still don't feel close to an answer, but I did appreciate this so much more the second time.

I'm taken by the storytelling...almost all flashback, with characterization mainly accomplished through dialogue. Granted, there are some violent scenes, but they're being told after the fact, and somehow it removes us from the intensity. We know everyone through his or her words...Joseph and his Yorkshire accent, Catherine through her wild, fanciful words, and Heathcliff...oh, the malevolence of Heathcliff.

Two generations; two triangles. One happy ending -- we hope.

This edition -- introduction by Daphne Merkin -- was awesome. It included Charlotte's introduction to the second printing, long after Emily was gone, too soon, like Catherine and Isabella and Linton. The notes were especially helpful for the allusions...I recognized some of the Biblical allusions, but needed help finding PILGRIM'S PROGRESS and PARADISE LOST...and even FRANKENSTEIN. There was such criticism of Emily as being uneducated. Man, how wrong were they!

I was drawn to the descriptions of nature...such a romantic conceit. Charlotte matched emotions to landscape more closely, but the touching scenes between Cathy and Linton when they both described a perfect day were so beautiful. Their choices mirrored their persons so well.

I got lost in the chronology of the story, but a quick search online cleared it up.

As a character-driven reader, I had trouble finding characters to love. Nell and Lockwood at least weren't detestable. But Nell had her own motivations as she told her tales.

Loved the last scene...perhaps there will be peace at last.

Cathy and Hareton may break the curse.

[Katie White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Jane Erye several times but never Wuthering Heights until just now. And I am still under its power. What a strange family the Brontes must have been. Was it their Irish blood or the wild moors of the West Riding of Yorkshire that gifted them with thoughts and words exquisitely set down?

Wuthering Heights explores love, obsession, and vengeance, giving us a bird’s eye view of how these emotions trickled down from Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s great love. Although written in the 1800s it is vibrant and reads as well today as it did then.

I am unable to let it go after the last page has been turned.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure where to begin with this novel. Usually when I rate a book it has to do with my liking or disliking it. But not this time. In truth I don’t think I did like it. Some words that popped into my head over and over while listening to and reading (I did both, having checked it out on CD, but frequently finishing out a chapter or more in my paper copy when I came home) were “overwrought,” selfish,” and “cruel.”

I actually found the beginning of the book funny but I’m not sure if it was the narration, with the accents and emphasis given by the reader, if it truly was funny, or if I was just shocked and uncomfortable to a degree that I was laughing out of nerves. I’d probably have to reread it to be sure, and maybe one day I will, but it won’t be today or tomorrow.

Probably the character I feel the greatest kinship with is Nelly Dean, the primary narrator. She’s bound to the main characters and to the story, but has very limited control over it. Mostly she just has to bump along and adjust herself to whatever cracked, cruel, ill thought out, selfish, immature, manipulative, or addle pated decisions the other characters make. Her life is a constant series of adjustments to changes in circumstance she usually can see or predict a hair better than the other characters, but has little to no ability to affect. And largely bumping along making mental adjustments is how I felt reading this book. And listening to it was somewhat exhausting, given the passionate emotions and outpourings of many of the characters, though this slowed some as the story progressed. I’m not sure if I began to adjust to the tempo and passion of the story, or if the death of one or two characters allowed for the introduction of a modicum of calm. Again, rereading might help me clarify that, but I don’t have a strong desire to currently.

I did want to keep going and to find out what happened next, and I did more or less like how it all ended. I also liked that there didn’t seem to be any moral, redemption, lesson learned, or any real judgement on any of the characters. They act for themselves and are acted upon by one another, but that’s about it. Considering how completely awful several characters were, I think it was an interesting choice on Bronte’s part.

Also, while I have no great desire to reread Wuthering Heights at the present, I do think I’ll probably peruse Eclipse from the Twilight series again now that I’ve read Wuthering Heights. The writing is better in Wuthering Heights. I think the characterization is better in Wuthering Heights as well. But I like the characters better in the Twilight series. Funny though, Eclipse is probably my least favorite of that series...maybe for drawing something from Bronte’s novel about selfishness?

One note, my paper copy isn’t actually the one pictured here. I didn’t see my copy in the Goodreads listing.

[Melanie-ann Diesel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautiful, tragic love stories ever written. Neither Cathy nor Heathcliff are very nice characters but the fact that they are deeply flawed makes it all the more interesting.

[Jack Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not a fucking love story, it's a fucking fuck story.

In all seriousness a true masterpiece and Ben a clown to describe it how he does.

Continuing the Peep Show references, Linton Heathcliff a true Gerrard character: always ill and uses that to garner sympathy with Cathy Linton (tbf who can blame him - and he gets some in the end so gotta respect that).

Hindley when Mr Earnshaw brings the founding Heathcliff back to Wuthering Heights: "That kid is not your kid".

[Daniela Chroboczková · Rating 2 out of 5]

Všichni jsou mean jenom for the sake of being mean, ale možná jsem jenom moc blbá

[Saba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wuthering Heights, A classic of English literature written by Emily Brontë. The novel best fits under the Gothic, Romance and tragedy genre.

The novel is narrated in first person by the two main narrators.one being Mr. Lockwood who has arrived to live at Thrush cross Grange for some time as he is struck by the beauty and isolation of that area and he is the primary narrator who acts as a substituted reader and describes events like an entry in his diary and the other central narrator is Ellen "Nelly" Dean who provides eye witness accounts of many of the events that she was deeply involved in herself to Mr. Lockwood.

'Wuthering Heights' is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling in Yorkshire, England on which much of the novel's action takes place. Wuthering is an adjective that refers to turbulent weather created by strong winds that accompany storms. The frequent storms and wind that sweep through Wuthering Heights symbolize how the characters are at the mercy of forces they cannot control.it represents the turbulent, raging and chaotic feelings they experience and mirrors their emotions which play huge part in the events that happen in the story.

even though no character in this book is likeable. they end up doing so much damage to others and let their negative emotions get the best of them despite that somehow you are still fascinated and wander what these flawed characters are gonna do next. every chapter keeps you asking questions and looking for answers. they were detestable and yet you could still feel sympathy for them which is mind-boggling because the reader does not justify their bad actions at all. maybe it was because how Emily wrote it and romanticized the characters.

this novel is full of wide range of symbolism and that is one of the reasons that makes it so interesting to read.

[Scarlett · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book sucks. Don't read it. It's dark, confusing, overly descriptive, creepy, and all around horrible. Every single character has something creepy and strange going on and they're all weirdly obsessed with each other and all have some weird and creepy attribute and some weird and creepy thing about them, but not in a good way. It's just all super weird and uncomfortable honestly. Every second I read it, I wasted a second of my life. It goes down as literally the worst book I have ever read. I had to read it for English class, and normally I love the books we read and get super into them, but not Wuthering Heights. WH whittled me down to my core and made me was to jam a letter opener into my eyeballs every single time I had to read it for class. I do not understand anyone who likes this weird creepy book, and they are all probably weird and creepy as all the characters in it. Like who names two characters the SAME thing and just gives one a nickname and thinks that that is sufficient?? Who thinks anyone cares about the mopey moors and depressing landscape that the Brontë's lived in???? Who thinks it should be legal for someone to force seniors to read this????? Do not read this book by choice, and if you're being forced to read it for English class, I hope you don't gouge your eyeballs out in the process.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book many times when I was younger- much closer in age to the main protagonists- and I got the urge to reread it recently. It was extremely interesting to read it when older. All the characters seem....well, so young! But also, the story looks much less like a romance (even if if a very dark romance) and more like a brutally realistic portrait of alchoholism, neglect, and abuse. Reading about all the early death was also extra sad, as I was more aware of Emily Bronte's own very early death.

Nelly is also a much more slippery and interesting character than I ever realized- younger, first of all (I had missed the she was only a little older than Catherine), and one can read through the lines to see how at times she more actively manipulates events than she wants to reveal. (Persuading Heathcliff not to make a will at the end was really the wonderful finishing touch).

I do find the ending of the novel to be perfect- what better result than for Heathcliff's revenge schemes to end, simply because the next generation doesn't want to play the game, and develops a healthy attachment/love instead? And for Heathcliff to will himself to death because he can find no way to give his life further purpose once his revenge is over?

[Judy Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so far from what I expected. Of course I knew this was an epic classic. I suppose ignorantly I thought it was her sister that wrote it. I thought it was a love story. A love story it is not. In fact it’s very disturbing. I closed it and thought “that was weird as hell”. Very dark and gothic. I had this idea that the novel was about “Heathcliff” and he was some great man. Heathcliff is a giant asshole that scared the hell out of me.
After I read it I was curious to the mind of Emily Bronte’. She died after the book was finished. She will never know the impact her book would have over a hundred years later. I became very attached to the character’s quickly, even Heathcliff. Then it just all went dark. This is a very rare classic. Written outside the normal framework of novels written in that era. It was despicable to people and loved by others. Please take the time to form an opinion.

[S7 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to put this down so many times, and I probably should have: because I’m sad to report that I moved from not feeling interested or engaged by around the half way mark, to active dislike by the three quarters mark. I developed such a strong distaste for all the main characters, not a single warm feeling about any of them, and it was hard to recover from that once it set in.

The worst thing is that I had no recollection of reading this before until I got to a scene near the end - and remembered, with a shudder. (That’s the real gothic horror for you right there.) Clearly it didn’t make an impression the first time round, nor the second.

[Abbey Pipkorn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly not my type. Glad I read this classic, and in context I get why it was so radical for the time, but I did not really enjoy it. Heathcliff and Catherine's love seemed more like madness than love (not in a good way) and the revenge was pretty sadistic.

[Zohar Lahover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone here said they don’t relate to any of the characters. The beauty in books and especially this one, is that you can relate to certain aspects of a characters personality. I was bewitched with heathcliff from my first read at the age of 8. Such beauty in so much pain.

[Emily Sams-Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I recognize and respect that it is a classic so really this comes down to personal preference, because this was a Did-Not-Finish. The overall story is good, just not one I could get in to

[Frances Shuttlewood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tiresome. They frankly deserve eachother.
No idea how this became a classic

[Emma Dougherty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can not stand -- I know it is deemed a classic I just don't agree at all