I always imagined this book to be a love story, after watching the wild, yet seductive Laurence Olivier play Heathcliff. Yet, I find it difficult to like any of the characters, even after reading it several times. It is essentially, to me anyway, a story of how love in it most pure form can lead to revenge and ruin.
Heathcliff. Has virtually no redeeming features, aside from his love for Cathy - and she treats him with contempt. I find her haughty and proud and subject to fits of cruelty - degrading Heathcliff for his baseness and low birth.
Yet, despite my dislike of the characters, I do love the book. It was hard work the first time I read it, especially Joseph's speech, but it has a raw intensity to it which, must have come as a shock to the literary world when it was first published. Needless to say; it's no Jane Austen and Heathcliff is no Mr Darcy.
The writing style, the imperfections of the characters, the cruelty of love and harshness in the deeds of Heathcliff are indicative of the cold York Moors themselves. The novel is an encapsulation of a time and place; haunting, wild and superstitious. For that, it is actually timeless. I was once told that to read, is to hear a voice from a time long gone and to feel it resonate in ones own soul. In Wuthering Heights that is certainly true.