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The characters in Wuthering Heights are uncivilized, disturbed, and repugnant. Although it is distinguished as a Victorian romance novel, it is impossible for these characters to genuinely love. They are manipulative, self deprecating, and pathological to the point of the readers amusement and wonderment. Very few readers will enjoy this novel, but many cannot help being in awe of Bronte's literary skill. It is intriguing that Emily Bronte, in her 20's, was able to articulate the depth of human depravity and psychopathology with such profound perception. Through her writing, we learn something about her; she is passionate and intense, but there is still so much more that I want to know about her...the author. This is one of my favorite parts of the narrative.... it beams with imagination, brilliance and eloquence. "Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy" (Chapter 9).
This story stands alone and withstands time. I did a high school book report in the 50's. I was enthralled by the beautiful love story of two star crossed lovers and mesmerized till the end. Suffice it to say I got an A+ on my report. It stands alone and in a class all by itself.
I found that the storyline was well written and kept the reader's interest but the charcters were very easy to dislike, and by the end of it I hated most the people involved. Also the whole incestuous relationships bugged me. But overall, I'm glad I read it.
I must say that when I first started reading this book it took me a while to get into. Mainly because they use a lot of old English in it (the book was written in 1847) and because Joseph's dialect was hard to decipher. As the book progressed I started to fall in love with the most heartbreaking and tragic love stories I have ever read. Talk about obsessive love. The ironic thing about this story is everyone consistently makes decisions that they think will bring them happiness or in some cases peace and it ultimately leaves them miserable and bitter. Even though this book was written well over a century ago and poorly received at first. It is one of the most amazing if not the best book I've ever read. She definitely knew the ingredients for a good drama. Bad Timing. Had it not been for the timing in most of the characters decisions things may have turned out completely different. I will say I will never forget one of the most compelling love stories of all time. That is Catherine and Heathcliff.
While much has been written about this novel I have long put off reading this novel until 2011 because I had seen film versions but they cannot compare to the novel itself. Emily Bronte was such a talent! The read is every bit as dark as I believed, perhaps even more so. I have never found myself hating a book character before I encountered Heathcliff in book form. One becomes so involved in this read. I suppose most classics deserve 5 stars but not for me. This one certainly deserves more. If you have not read it, do so soon.
I think this book was pretty good. I'm in eighth grade and read it just for fun, and i thought it was well written, but a bit hard to follow during some points. I think another thing I really like about this book is that the author only wrote one in her life, and its a good one. I also like how the story goes in generations, and in each one all the characters still hate each other...so yeah. That's my review.
Great book. I can't believe she was so young when she wrote it. It has a VERY slow start. I almost gave up on it for a second time before I pushed on. By chapter 3, I was hooked.
Emily Bronte is a major figure in the history of English literature. Old fashioned style but still entertaining and well worth reading if one wishes to consider oneself well-read.
This is one of the best books ever written, it is a must read Book.... Heathcliff, an orphan, is raised by Mr.Earnshaw as one of his own children. Hindley despises him, but wild Cathy becomes his constant companion, and he falls violently in love with her. When she will not marry him, Heathcliff's terrible vengeance ruins them all--but still his and Cathy's love will not die.
This was one of the worst books I've ever read. There are absolutely no likable characters and the book didn't peak my interest at all until people started dying. At several points during reading it I wanted to throw the book into a fire and I considered starting a different book and coming back to it. I don't understand in the slightest why it's considered a literary classic. It was boring and agonizing. I don't recommend it to anyone.
This is my favorite book of all time. It is intricate and compelling. It is a dark, love story, but has the capacity to sweep you away to another country, place, and time.
I read a lot of negative reviews about this book so I thought I wouldn't like it. To my surprise I really did like it. I really liked the way it ended. To me this is a must-read!
Considering lurid and shocking by mid-19th-century standards, Wuthering Heights was initially thought to be such a publishing risk that its author, Emily Bronte, was asked to pay some of the publication costs. A somber tale of consuming passions and vengeance played out against the lonely moors of northern England, the book proved to be one of the most enduring classics of English literature.
The turbulent and tempestuous love story of Cathy and Heathcliff spans two generations--- from the time Heathcliff, and strange, coarse young boy, is brought to live on the Earnshaws windswept estate, through Cathys marriage to Edgar Linton and Heathcliffs plans for revenge, to Cathys death years later and the eventual union of the surviving Earnshaw and Linton heirs.
A masterpiece of imaginative fiction, Wuthering Heights (the authors only novel) remains as poignant and compelling today as it was when first published in 1847.
I'm surprised that so many people seem to think this was a difficult read. I didn't feel it was, but maybe it's because I had a quiet space to get into it. My main take-away was that the characters seemed a bit unrealistic, but possibly that they weren't fully intended to be anything other than a thought experiment on morality.
I started this book 3 times and still I couldn't get through it... It is a very difficult read. I was surprised because I have read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, her sister and found it to be very entertaining and one of my favorite books.
very romantic style of writing, which i love.. but there was extreme amounts of detail in parts that would put me to sleep. the beginning and end of this book are the best parts because the middle seems to go on forever and was the most difficult part to get through. i am glad i can say i have read this book though.
Wuthering Heights is an amazing treatise of the depravity of man and the glory of God's good shining forth and prevailing even in the face of its mockery by man. The glorious and the awful passions for both good and evil are so poignant in this tale. What is written as a novel does not fail to be truthful to the general condition and sentiments of the time and place - such pride and prejudice and passions and their consequences as Jane Austen describes, only in a somewhat baser and isolated context that author Emily Bronte obviously knew well. Every emotion, though separated by characters in the story, the reader can find inside themselves, which drives one to desire the happiness of all, even for the vilest. I was riveted to the end.
I've read tons of classics and loved them, but this was a different experience. The story was so dismal and pointless that finishing it was more of a chore. I absolutely hated every second of this book.
This book is definitely a classic in its own right. It
tells of the love between Catherine and Heathcliff which
isn't a easy one. She rejects him for someone else, and
in despair, he takes vengeance on those who are her
descendants.
This is known as one of the great love stories of all time. Hmmm, well I can say it's an interesting love story. I'm glad I read it, but I've never experinced a book quite like it. Kind of a love, hate relationship. Not unlike the leading characters Cathy and Heathcliff. I would recommend it.
I am sure this is a great romantic story, however I couldn't finish reading it. It is a very challenging reading. I hope that someone has better luck with it then I did.
Still amazes how a socially awkward young woman, living in relative isolation, could write a novel that, technically and psychologically, knocks most other fiction into the long grass. Still amazes me how many people read it, and get it completely wrong.
This is one of the classic gothic novels, against which others are compared. To be socially literate, everyone should read WUTHERING HEIGHTS at least once.
The following review is from: Wuthering Heights (Bantam Classics) (Mass Market Paperback).
Published in 1847, WUTHERING HEIGHTS was not well received by the reading public, many of whom condemned it as sordid, vulgar, and unnatural--and author Emily Bronte went to her grave in 1848 believing that her only novel was a failure. It was not until 1850, when WUTHERING HEIGHTS received a second printing with an introduction by Emily's sister Charlotte, that it attracted a wide readership. And from that point the reputation of the book has never looked back. Today it is widely recognized as one of the great novels of English literature.
Even so, WUTHERING HEIGHTS continues to divide readers. It is not a pretty love story; rather, it is swirling tale of largely unlikeable people caught up in obsessive love that turns to dark madness. It is cruel, violent, dark and brooding, and many people find it extremely unpleasant. And yet--it possesses a grandeur of language and design, a sense of tremendous pity and great loss that sets it apart from virtually every other novel written.
The novel is told in the form of an extended flashback. After a visit to his strange landlord, a newcomer to the area desires to know the history of the family--which he receives from Nelly Deans, a servant who introduces us to the Earnshaw family who once resided in the house known as Wuthering Heights. It was once a cheerful place, but Old Earnshaw adopted a "Gipsy" child who he named Heathcliff. And Catherine, daughter of the house, found in him the perfect companion: wild, rude, and as proud and cruel as she. But although Catherine loves him, even recognizes him as her soulmate, she cannot lower herself to marry so far below her social station. She instead marries another, and in so doing sets in motion an obsession that will destroy them all.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS is a bit difficult to "get into;" the opening chapters are so dark in their portrait of the end result of this obsessive love that they are somewhat off-putting. But they feed into the flow of the work in a remarkable way, setting the stage for one of the most remarkable structures in all of literature, a story that circles upon itself in a series of repetitions as it plays out across two generations. Catherine and Heathcliff are equally remarkable, both vicious and cruel, and yet never able to shed their impossible love no matter how brutally one may wound the other.
As the novel coils further into alcoholism, seduction, and one of the most elaborately imagined plans of revenge it gathers into a ghostly tone: Heathcliff, driven to madness by a woman who is not there but who seems reflected in every part of his world--dragging her corpse from the grave, hearing her calling to him from the moors, escalating his brutality not for the sake of brutality but so that her memory will never fade, so that she may never leave his mind until death itself. Yes, this is madness, insanity, and there is no peace this side of the grave or even beyond.
It is a stunning novel, frightening, inexorable, unsettling, filled with unbridled passion that makes one cringe. Even if you do not like it, you should read it at least once--and those who do like it will return to it again and again.
This classic romance has fascinated readers for years. Heathcliff and Catherine, and their ill-fated passion leave a lasting impression, and Bronte's masterful scene-setting makes the reader feel as if he or she had just returned from a trip to wild and desolate moors. A must-read!
Heathcliff is quite a character ... violent and mean ... a person easy to dislike. I didn't feel any love from him until perhaps the end, and then it was so out-of-character that it was unbelievable. It was a good read, but not great.
