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Wuthering Heights: With Original Annotated
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights was published in December 1847 under the pen name Ellis Bell. This literary classic is Emily Brontë’s only novel, and the book is currently widely appreciated as an exemplary sample of British Romantic literature. At the time of publication, most critical reviews of Wuthering Heights were disapproving at best and scathing at worst, so much so that her sister Charlotte Brontë, who wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell, was concerned that it might negatively impact the literary brand Charlotte and her sisters were trying to develop. Only the year before, in 1846, with their sister Anne Brontë, author of Agnes Grey under the pseudonym Acton Bell, Charlotte and Emily Brontë had published a joint collection of poetry titled Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Despite the negativity of the early reviews, Wuthering Heights is now celebrated as a unique work of literature, intriguing scholars and fans alike with its complexity and high emotion.
Most of the novel is told in retrospective narration by Nelly Dean, the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights, and in Nelly’s story-telling, the reader may hear interesting echoes of Emily Brontë’s own voice; after a brief and unsuccessful career as a governess in Brussels, Emily Brontë returned home to West Yorkshire where she put herself in charge of domestics at the Brontë family home. The Brontës lived in a parsonage in Haworth, the West Yorkshire village set in a moorland landscape in north of England. Some scholars believe other autobiographical elements beyond this identification with the narrator-housekeeper can be found in Wuthering Heights.For example, it is possible that Emily’s own jealousy of her brother Branwell’s elevated status in the family inspired the competitive childhood relationship between Hindley Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff. As well, the possibility does exist that a young Emily Brontë herself was shut into a room that was haunted, much like Lockwood was forced to sleep in Catherine’s old bedroom one fateful snowy night. Some scholars believe that Emily cultivated in her own psychology a kind of misanthropic darkness that links her inextricably with the character of Heathcliff.
Wuthering Heights, a frame novel, contains clear evidence of the influence of second-wave Romanticism as exemplified by the poets Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats. Gothic and supernatural elements—such as ghosts and mournful whispers from the past—bring fantasy and fairy tales to clash with real life. The role of the landscape of northern England plays a significant part in the emotionally intense lives of the characters. The residents of both Wuthering Heights and neighboring Thrushcross Grange seek to rise above the doldrums of their daily lives with books, hard labor, and tense exchanges with each other. Much like other Romantic characters in literature, they are all complex individuals with complicated motivations.
Nosy Nelly recounts what transpired in Wuthering Heights between the Lintons, the Earnshaws, and the Heathcliffs to Mr. Lockwood, a new tenant of the area. Lockwood frames Nelly’s tale—which is colored with her own perceptions and bias—and presents the account to the reader, also interjecting his own ideas about the characters and events. The core conflict revolves around the romance between the beautiful Catherine Earnshaw and the brooding Heathcliff. Lockwood meets Heathcliff firsthand as an adult when Lockwood approaches Thrushcross Grange to rent the manor, which Heathcliff owns. During his stay in the winter of 1801, Nelly explains how Catherine’s father brought Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights as an orphan boy. Subsequently, Catherine and Heathcliff spent their childhoods together and developed an affection for one another. Catherine’s brother, Hindley, resented Heathcliff’s relationship with his father, Mr. Earnshaw, and treated the orphan with disdain and cruelty...
Most of the novel is told in retrospective narration by Nelly Dean, the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights, and in Nelly’s story-telling, the reader may hear interesting echoes of Emily Brontë’s own voice; after a brief and unsuccessful career as a governess in Brussels, Emily Brontë returned home to West Yorkshire where she put herself in charge of domestics at the Brontë family home. The Brontës lived in a parsonage in Haworth, the West Yorkshire village set in a moorland landscape in north of England. Some scholars believe other autobiographical elements beyond this identification with the narrator-housekeeper can be found in Wuthering Heights.For example, it is possible that Emily’s own jealousy of her brother Branwell’s elevated status in the family inspired the competitive childhood relationship between Hindley Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff. As well, the possibility does exist that a young Emily Brontë herself was shut into a room that was haunted, much like Lockwood was forced to sleep in Catherine’s old bedroom one fateful snowy night. Some scholars believe that Emily cultivated in her own psychology a kind of misanthropic darkness that links her inextricably with the character of Heathcliff.
Wuthering Heights, a frame novel, contains clear evidence of the influence of second-wave Romanticism as exemplified by the poets Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats. Gothic and supernatural elements—such as ghosts and mournful whispers from the past—bring fantasy and fairy tales to clash with real life. The role of the landscape of northern England plays a significant part in the emotionally intense lives of the characters. The residents of both Wuthering Heights and neighboring Thrushcross Grange seek to rise above the doldrums of their daily lives with books, hard labor, and tense exchanges with each other. Much like other Romantic characters in literature, they are all complex individuals with complicated motivations.
Nosy Nelly recounts what transpired in Wuthering Heights between the Lintons, the Earnshaws, and the Heathcliffs to Mr. Lockwood, a new tenant of the area. Lockwood frames Nelly’s tale—which is colored with her own perceptions and bias—and presents the account to the reader, also interjecting his own ideas about the characters and events. The core conflict revolves around the romance between the beautiful Catherine Earnshaw and the brooding Heathcliff. Lockwood meets Heathcliff firsthand as an adult when Lockwood approaches Thrushcross Grange to rent the manor, which Heathcliff owns. During his stay in the winter of 1801, Nelly explains how Catherine’s father brought Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights as an orphan boy. Subsequently, Catherine and Heathcliff spent their childhoods together and developed an affection for one another. Catherine’s brother, Hindley, resented Heathcliff’s relationship with his father, Mr. Earnshaw, and treated the orphan with disdain and cruelty...
- GenresClassics
395 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 20, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 3, 2023
Everyone's a jerk and miserable and making everyone else miserable. The end.
December 11, 2025
Modern cynicism meets Georgian melodrama. The antidote to Jane Austen, not the supplement.
Hilarious to read all the furious, inarticulate 1-star reviews because people must have been expecting some sort of engaging 'historical mystery romance'. Yes, WH is confused/ing, yes, it is full of abusive people, yes, the story is pretty much told in chapter 2, but you don't have to know that it was written by a small, poorer, Emily Dickinson-type recluse doomed to die at 30, to appreciate its depth of razor-sharp, cold-eyed observation and timeless depiction of passionate, weak, and generally horrible people. Guess what? In the 1800s, families were just like us! Heroes? Pah!
As a romantic melodrama, WH fails completely, because it pulls no punches. As a description of human characters and their interactions, it's been the mine of countless tributes and imitations since it was published. The Bronte sisters were amateurs and pioneers, and like pioneers, were in the presence of death every day; you don't complain because an old forest trail that some lost explorer blazed isn't paved over.
Hilarious to read all the furious, inarticulate 1-star reviews because people must have been expecting some sort of engaging 'historical mystery romance'. Yes, WH is confused/ing, yes, it is full of abusive people, yes, the story is pretty much told in chapter 2, but you don't have to know that it was written by a small, poorer, Emily Dickinson-type recluse doomed to die at 30, to appreciate its depth of razor-sharp, cold-eyed observation and timeless depiction of passionate, weak, and generally horrible people. Guess what? In the 1800s, families were just like us! Heroes? Pah!
As a romantic melodrama, WH fails completely, because it pulls no punches. As a description of human characters and their interactions, it's been the mine of countless tributes and imitations since it was published. The Bronte sisters were amateurs and pioneers, and like pioneers, were in the presence of death every day; you don't complain because an old forest trail that some lost explorer blazed isn't paved over.
April 4, 2026
How this has been called a love story I will never understand. It is a story of abuse, revenge and madness, and makes the readers consider whether the abused are destined to grow up and abuse others. It was enjoyable and fairly fast paced, reminds me a little of Shakespeare.
January 28, 2025
Always 10/10
February 4, 2026
Luxe radio Theatre adaptation, February 2, 2026, absolutely did not follow the book at all, made this a love story.
March 30, 2026
I guess it’s partially my fault because I thought there was more love in the story. But omfg everyone sucks. Like I can’t believe how awful everyone was. Everyone.
March 29, 2026
This one is wild. It’s about family trauma and revenge, not really a romance contrary to popular belief. It’s unexpectedly funny, with complex characters you swear you’ve met before. Read it if you have time on your hands.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews