Emily BrontëWuthering Heights (Wordsworth Classics)

Firstly, regarding the physical elements; for the price, it's a win-win. There will be better prints out there, but it's so cheap for such a classic,... arguably the greatest classic of them all.The story can be quite difficult to start with, knowing who is who, what's happening, etc. especially with the way Emily directed the narrative (You may want to start over after a few chapters!). However, if you can stick with it, you're in for a wild ride. This novel, NOT A ROMANCE, will take you on an emotional journey, that will be difficult at times, harrowing even, but the journey is worth it.This is perhaps the first novel to remain in my thoughts for days and days after, and I am looking forward to rereading again soon, just to approach the beginning with a bit more awareness, and to understand the depth that is hidden within.so despite some challenges early on, the overall experience, and the 'after effect' make it a 5 star for me, it's just so impactful. Everyone should read it, but it does seem a little like Marmite. Just remember, it is not a romance, and you won't be in for a disappointment.

Everyone’s heard of Wuthering Heights - the love story of Heathcliff and Catherine - but do most people know that it’s not really a love story? I came to this book, having heard of it, and by extension the movie, for decades. I have always sterered clear of it, thinking it a slushy romance. I could not have been more wrong. If I were to sum it up it succinctly it would be that it’s about the obsession of loss, much like Hamlet. It’s written in the Gothic genre, so think Poe, but far more terrifying, because of how real it feels, yet completely surreal at the same time. As I read it I thought the characters could not get any worse but they kept surpassing my expectations. In fact, my husband asked me as I was getting towards the last few chapters of the book if there was any redemption and I had to say ‘nope, they’re all truly awful human beings’. It had peaked his interest so much that he’s even going to read it and he never reads books.The book itself is deliberately confusing. You gradually piece together who each person is, and their role, the further you go into the book. I advise keeping a pen handy and try to jot down a family tree, but even then, it’s still difficult to place everyone. The similarity in names leads to much confusion, and even Catherine’s name confuses, right in chapter 3 when you see three Catherines with different surnames.The book is full of biblical reference, reference to Greek mythology, Shakespeare and even Poe in the early chapters - ‘Thou art the man’. There is a lot of work to be done in reading this novel but it is absolutely worth it.This book is absolutely horrifying. The characters are for the most part absolutely detestable, particularly the main protagonists. Heathcliff is the devil incarnate, and Catherine is so utterly manipulative that she manipulates her own death - she and Heathcliff are well suited. I find little sympathy for most of the characters. Perhaps controversially, I do find myself more sympathetic to Hindley, usurped in many ways by an orphan/stranger taken off the streets. He is cast aside by his father and sister, in favour of the newcomer. He loses his horse, his son and home to the newcomer too. I find it understandable why he was cruel towards Heathcliff but he was still awful. I really feel mostly for poor Hareton, a complete innocent in it all and utterly oblivious to all going on, but this too is deliberate.Social class is writ large all over the book, and indeed, Heathcliff shows nothing but contempt for the middle classes, the people who took him in and wants to make everyone pay for the fact that he was of lower status. He does this by ensuring that he and his kin inherit all the land and belongings of those he detests, while ensuring those same people were brought low and made to toil in the fields. This is his revenge. Joseph said, when he was a a teenager that Heathcliff had his foot in the first part of the Broad Way to destruction, a warning and a biblical reference to what happens to those who take the easy path or the hard path in the life. The broad way is the easy path. It is the road to hell.It is no wonder this book was so shocking and controversial at the time. Sadly, it’s the type of book that would never get published today, and I would not be surprised if this book were to be cancelled at some stage.I had to laugh at someone’s comment who thought there were no themes, and plot, and no cohesion, and that they as a writer knew how not to write a book and felt that they could write better than Brontë.As horrible as the characters were, and the lack of redemption, it was utterly gripping and haunting. Not iin a ghostly way, althougn that is strongly prevalent in the book, but in terms of the impression it made on me. Certainly, one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life.

I believe that you don't just read Wuthering Heights, you live it. What can I honestly say about Wuthering Heights that could show my affection I have with the story? Since reading it for my English Literature A Level, I have lived the story countless times; thought about it everyday. It's a novel that leaves you either confused, saddened or emotionally connected with not only the characters, but the Yorkshire moors and the house that is Wuthering Heights. It won't leave you - it changes you. The story, so secluded in itself is nothing like the other books I have read, for it gives you what you want in a novel: characters, setting, plot, themes, all wonderfully developed, leaving them all in your imagination to flourish as you keep reading.The writing is simply beautiful, expressing the setting, character and plot perfectly in such a dire situation. Yes, this is one of the most extreme, horrid and liminal stories I've read, but the way in which the characters unfold, the Gothic overtakes and the ultimate downfalls of Catherine and Heathcliff is what subsidizes the experience of reading this phenomenal novel. No wonder Brontë is the "Sphynx of Literature": as she writes from the heart, mind and soul. The extremeness of Catherine's "Nelly, I am Heathcliff" and "My love for Edgar resembles the foliage in the woods: time will change it" also sticks with you and you question whether this love between Catherine and Heathcliff will be as strong as your love for someone else.It does not just deal with the love and eventual downfalls of Catherine and Heathcliff, it also introduces side plots, such as Hindley's drinking, Hareton's illiteracy and the overall themes of power, wealth and choice to co-inside superiorly. These are done throughout the book to lift it from a "love story" to a "domesticated tragedy", providing the minor characters with fulfilling roles that you can argue take centre stage at points in the novel. Perhaps these were themes Brontë knew well enough to pour such detail and corruption into such a typical novel that baffled critics when first published.I can't write how much I love this novel, for it is in itself a masterpiece of nature: a violent piece of beauty. It will be the novel I read over and over again, to myself, my children and my grandchildren. There is nothing I could say to express how I feel about this novel; I adore Emily Brontë for being such a daring human to explore the liminal, the Gothic and for the way it has truly impacted on my life. It will become my bible throughout life, and I will have pleasure in reading it time and time again, because it's a timeless classic.