Maura’s review of Wuthering Heights > Likes and Comments
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I told a Victorianist friend about your Cathy 3 idea and she asked me to thank you! 🫡
I think there's =definitely= a decent sequel there!!! :-)
I was telling a friend at lunch today how I had to study this for 'A' level at school and hated it. I thought it was just because it was too hard for me, with all its nested narrators, extended flashbacks, characters with the same name in different generations, and all set in another age, in another county far from mine that might as well have been a foreign country with its own impenetrable passions, mores and language.
I was the son of idiot Lockwood, in other words, and had a shrewd idea that was who I was.
Though I've since read two or three novels by her sisters, I've never felt moved to reread Emily's, beyond reading a chapter aloud to Susanna once, when she was needing help with research. Everything I have come across about the Brontes has always made me think they're not for me. I'm sure if I reread it now I shouldn't hate it, but I'd rather leave it securely in the hands of others with more patience than I.
That brief revisit, on Susanna's behalf, makes me feel sure your essay is absolutely right, Maura, every word, except "mildly" in para.10. I doubt any Bronte ever did or wrote anything mildly in their life. I can quite imagine Emily, as you portray her, lashing out at rudely and, for want of a better word, snobbishly at their social inferiors. You're quite right, they surely saw the locals in that way, if only some of them, most of them, sometimes, most of the time, and that's part of the passion that throbs through the whole throbbing book. I can't, won't, condemn it, but I'm even more convinced than ever, thank you, that I need to stay away from it.
"This is a book that has been poorly served by its many adaptations…"
I also wanted to say, but I had to come out of the tiny Comments box to do it, that I wondered if you include Kate Bush's famous song among them. Though I did love that, in 1978, and am still fond of it, I think we must, not least because it wasn't her response to the novel, which everyone knows she hadn't read, but to That Movie.
So strange to revisit a review I wrote almost five years ago, thanks to you and my friend Erin commenting on it. I certainly go carried away!! I LOVE Kate's Bush's song, and yes, I count it as an adaptation -- I knew the story that she'd never read the book before writing the song, but emotionally, I think it's the truest to the spirit of the book.
Well, that's not any of the things I supposed you might say, Maura. Truest to the spirit! 🤔
I was going to say there doesn't seem to be anything particularly horrific in the song – though, well, yes, I suppose it is sung by an undead lover… arguably even a succubus…
I love to surprise!! :-)
When I was growing up, my mom had a posh set of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, illustrated with woodcuts by an artist called Fritz Eichenberg (I had to look that up: sadly, Goodreads won't allow me to share the link where I found it. You can probably google it ... )
I remember being too young to read the novels, but I was fascinated by the illustrations (strange, strange child ....) and one in particular, the one of Lockwood's visitation from ghost Cathy .. well, it really lingered, shall we say ... (I'm going to try to copy it into a comment)
No, it won't let me paste in the picture-- but trust me, it's very gothic, very wild and frightening -- and the very first time I heard Kate Bush's song, it reminded me of those woodcuts ...
Sadly, the books themselves seem to have gone walkabout, after my parents passed away and after various housemoves. There's a lesson for us all -- never get rid of any books, ever ....
Goodreads link to the edition: not the image I was talking about, but gives you an idea of the style ... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I found Fritz E's Bronte pictures very easily, Maura, thanks. Eek.
I then wrote a whole pithy comment about illustrations & Getting Rid of Books, with links & everything, and pressed the wrong button. Deleted instead of posted. 😫
I'll reconstruct it some time. Not now, too tired.
Pressing the wrong button : the modern day version of the "person on business from Porlock" .... I look forward to your thoughts, whenever you feel up to it! ... or not! I can try to imagine what you would have said!! Your call!
I wrote yet another elegant comment, about illustrations, & pressed the right button, & was Forbidden because, as you remarked in one of yours, Maura, it contained a link to another site.
I thought that was the whole idea of the WWW. The Web, like web, webbing, hmm? Eh?
I suppose there's been a lot of hacking, phishing, whatever it's called. But I wish they'd disable the provision in the "some html is ok" section, rather than let you compose your deathless utterance & then block it.
After that, anyway, it wouldn't let me post anything at all. I just got error, error, error over & over. Seems to have calmed down now.
My suggestion, anyway, was:
Search "The Broken Binding", and then "Piranesi". Some marvellous eerie illustrations by Alice Cao.
This feels stupid, not being able to link to them. I've been thinking of moving my "reviews", such as they are, off GR onto some site where they're not just buried in a Comments section. I'm not likely to do it soon, but this blockage is another nudge in that direction.
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Erin
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Jan 28, 2026 10:03AM
I told a Victorianist friend about your Cathy 3 idea and she asked me to thank you! 🫡
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I think there's =definitely= a decent sequel there!!! :-)
I was telling a friend at lunch today how I had to study this for 'A' level at school and hated it. I thought it was just because it was too hard for me, with all its nested narrators, extended flashbacks, characters with the same name in different generations, and all set in another age, in another county far from mine that might as well have been a foreign country with its own impenetrable passions, mores and language.I was the son of idiot Lockwood, in other words, and had a shrewd idea that was who I was.
Though I've since read two or three novels by her sisters, I've never felt moved to reread Emily's, beyond reading a chapter aloud to Susanna once, when she was needing help with research. Everything I have come across about the Brontes has always made me think they're not for me. I'm sure if I reread it now I shouldn't hate it, but I'd rather leave it securely in the hands of others with more patience than I.
That brief revisit, on Susanna's behalf, makes me feel sure your essay is absolutely right, Maura, every word, except "mildly" in para.10. I doubt any Bronte ever did or wrote anything mildly in their life. I can quite imagine Emily, as you portray her, lashing out at rudely and, for want of a better word, snobbishly at their social inferiors. You're quite right, they surely saw the locals in that way, if only some of them, most of them, sometimes, most of the time, and that's part of the passion that throbs through the whole throbbing book. I can't, won't, condemn it, but I'm even more convinced than ever, thank you, that I need to stay away from it.
"This is a book that has been poorly served by its many adaptations…"I also wanted to say, but I had to come out of the tiny Comments box to do it, that I wondered if you include Kate Bush's famous song among them. Though I did love that, in 1978, and am still fond of it, I think we must, not least because it wasn't her response to the novel, which everyone knows she hadn't read, but to That Movie.
So strange to revisit a review I wrote almost five years ago, thanks to you and my friend Erin commenting on it. I certainly go carried away!! I LOVE Kate's Bush's song, and yes, I count it as an adaptation -- I knew the story that she'd never read the book before writing the song, but emotionally, I think it's the truest to the spirit of the book.
Well, that's not any of the things I supposed you might say, Maura. Truest to the spirit! 🤔I was going to say there doesn't seem to be anything particularly horrific in the song – though, well, yes, I suppose it is sung by an undead lover… arguably even a succubus…
I love to surprise!! :-)When I was growing up, my mom had a posh set of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, illustrated with woodcuts by an artist called Fritz Eichenberg (I had to look that up: sadly, Goodreads won't allow me to share the link where I found it. You can probably google it ... )
I remember being too young to read the novels, but I was fascinated by the illustrations (strange, strange child ....) and one in particular, the one of Lockwood's visitation from ghost Cathy .. well, it really lingered, shall we say ... (I'm going to try to copy it into a comment)
No, it won't let me paste in the picture-- but trust me, it's very gothic, very wild and frightening -- and the very first time I heard Kate Bush's song, it reminded me of those woodcuts ... Sadly, the books themselves seem to have gone walkabout, after my parents passed away and after various housemoves. There's a lesson for us all -- never get rid of any books, ever ....
Goodreads link to the edition: not the image I was talking about, but gives you an idea of the style ... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I found Fritz E's Bronte pictures very easily, Maura, thanks. Eek.I then wrote a whole pithy comment about illustrations & Getting Rid of Books, with links & everything, and pressed the wrong button. Deleted instead of posted. 😫
I'll reconstruct it some time. Not now, too tired.
Pressing the wrong button : the modern day version of the "person on business from Porlock" .... I look forward to your thoughts, whenever you feel up to it! ... or not! I can try to imagine what you would have said!! Your call!
I wrote yet another elegant comment, about illustrations, & pressed the right button, & was Forbidden because, as you remarked in one of yours, Maura, it contained a link to another site.I thought that was the whole idea of the WWW. The Web, like web, webbing, hmm? Eh?
I suppose there's been a lot of hacking, phishing, whatever it's called. But I wish they'd disable the provision in the "some html is ok" section, rather than let you compose your deathless utterance & then block it.
After that, anyway, it wouldn't let me post anything at all. I just got error, error, error over & over. Seems to have calmed down now.
My suggestion, anyway, was:
Search "The Broken Binding", and then "Piranesi". Some marvellous eerie illustrations by Alice Cao.
This feels stupid, not being able to link to them. I've been thinking of moving my "reviews", such as they are, off GR onto some site where they're not just buried in a Comments section. I'm not likely to do it soon, but this blockage is another nudge in that direction.
