Whutering Heights

by Emily Brontë

Genres: Classics

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1983

About the author

Emily Brontë was an English novelist and poet whose singular contribution to literature, Wuthering Heights, is now celebrated as one of the most powerful and original novels in the English language. Born into the remarkable Brontë family on 30 July 1818 in Thornton, Yorkshire, she was the fifth of six children of Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë, an Irish clergyman. Her early life was marked by both intellectual curiosity and profound loss. After the death of her mother in 1821 and the subsequent deaths of her two eldest sisters in 1825, Emily and her surviving siblings— Charlotte, Anne, and Branwell—were raised in relative seclusion in the moorland village of Haworth, where their imaginations flourished in a household shaped by books, storytelling, and emotional intensity.
The Brontë children created elaborate fictional worlds, notably Angria and later Gondal, which served as an outlet for their creative energies. Emily, in particular, gravitated toward Gondal, a mysterious, windswept imaginary land she developed with her sister Anne. Her early poetry, much of it steeped in the mythology and characters of Gondal, demonstrated a remarkable lyrical force and emotional depth. These poems remained private until discovered by Charlotte in 1845, after which Emily reluctantly agreed to publish them in the 1846 collection Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, using the pseudonym Ellis Bell to conceal her gender. Though the volume sold few copies, critics identified Emily’s poems as the strongest in the collection, lauding her for their music, power, and visionary quality.
Emily was intensely private and reclusive by nature. She briefly attended schools in Cowan Bridge and Roe Head but was plagued by homesickness and preferred the solitude of the Yorkshire moors, which inspired much of her work. She worked briefly as a teacher but found the demands of the profession exhausting. She also studied in Brussels with Charlotte in 1842, but again found herself alienated and yearning for home. Throughout her life, Emily remained closely bonded with her siblings, particularly Anne, and with the landscape of Haworth, where she drew on the raw, untamed beauty of the moors for both her poetry and her fiction.
Her only novel, Wuthering Heights, was published in 1847, a year after the poetry collection, under her pseudonym Ellis Bell. Initially met with a mixture of admiration and shock, the novel’s structure, emotional intensity, and portrayal of violent passion and moral ambiguity stood in stark contrast to the conventions of Victorian fiction. Many readers, unable to reconcile its power with the expected gentility of a woman writer, assumed it had been written by a man. The novel tells the story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw—two characters driven by obsessive love, cruelty, and vengeance—and explores themes of nature, the supernatural, and the destructive power of unresolved emotion. Though controversial at the time, Wuthering Heights is now considered a landmark in English literature, acclaimed for its originality, psychological insight, and poetic vision.
Emily's personality has been the subject of much speculation, shaped in part by her sister Charlotte’s later writings and by Victorian biographies that often sought to romanticize or domesticate her character. While some accounts depict her as intensely shy and austere, others highlight her fierce independence, deep empathy with animals, and profound inner life. She is remembered as a solitary figure, closely attuned to the rhythms of the natural world, with a quiet but formidable intellect and a passion for truth and freedom. Her dog, Keeper, was a constant companion and, according to many, a window into her capacity for fierce, loyal love.
Emily Brontë died of tuberculosis on 19 December 1848 at the age of thirty, just a year after the publication of her novel. Her early death, following those of her brother Branwell and soon to

Reviews

[Gloria Monserez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 sterren voor de eerste helft.

[Ellie L · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐️
I want to like this book, I love the way it’s written, I just don’t love it. I like it! But I don’t love it

[Elizabeth Manjarrez · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a pain to finish this book. I just didn't like it. It is full of hysterical characters, behaving in a spoiled way moment after moment.

[Maggie The Witch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the strong feeling that people that call this a gothic romance is because they never finished it.

[Anne-Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Beautiful writing, not easy for a native French but definitely good for my learning.
Not the love story I want to experience. It’s dark and shows how boring their lives were at the time.

[Zack Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not like Mr. Heathcliff

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Per quanto apprezzabile, dato che rispetto a romanzi del tempo in cui l’amore è rappresentato come elemento positivo e che porta poi al raggiungimento della felicità, qui invece l’amore rappresenta distruzione, vendetta, sofferenza e tutto ciò che di negativo può uscirne. Non l’ho trovato così travolgente come tanti hanno sottolineato, mea culpa magari sono ignorante, proprio perché i personaggi sono detestabili sotto molti aspetti e in generale, per quanto ci sia da aspettarselo dato il titolo, il fatto che il tutto avvenga tra le cime lo rende poco dinamico e molto difficile da seguire. Perciò non è uno di quei classici che consiglierei da leggere tra i tanti che ci sono, però sicuramente interessante come metro di paragone e confronto con altre opere

[Rafael Saints · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful work of art that deserves its fame. Don't let people fool into thinking this is not enjoyful because it is a classic, as a book written ages ago it has its fair share of intrincate vocabulary, however it is not a difficult book to get into and it has so much deep to it that even the most well read scholar and popcorn reader will see itself entertained.

To finish even in the end, with all that has happened, this is a romance book just no in the modern sense (even though I must say there is no better book to show what true love/obsession is).

[Adyasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely enjoyed the way this book is written, every chapter keeps you hooked and the complexity of each character truly makes you wonder. I personally love the way the two parallel timelines intertwine so seamlessly. Every single detail is very intentionally added. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this one!

[Aigin Yaghoubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was great.

[Aria Spradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm just excited about the movie

[Lucy! · Rating 2 out of 5]

all these people are the worst...

[Brenda S Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a whole roller-coaster. I liked it a lot though it did start off kind of slow at the beginning.

[Živilė · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely did not read like a typical clasic, it was fun and witty, although the second half of the book I found not as interesting as the first half of the book.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange book.. 4/5

[Pía Barraza · Rating 4 out of 5]

HEATHCLIFF ERES UN MALDITOOO

[x¡me · Rating 3 out of 5]

voy lentísima en la lectura pero, me tomé mi tiempo entre el trabajo y ser una chica adentrándose cada vez más en los clásicos

[Roos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerste helft ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, tweede helft ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[alberto estrada · Rating 4 out of 5]

a horror story.
i remember i was in high school when sold one told me that this was an epic love novel... what? f*ck u.

literally the more i read the more foam came out of my mouth from the courage: the characters are so detestable... heatclifft with the dog... God, it's horrible.

but leaving that aside, it's very good, i like the dynamic between Lockwood and Nelly gossiping about life in stormy summits, it's fun if you visualize it.