Goodreads Summary: Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine’s father. After Mr Earnshaw’s death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine’s brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.
Review:
“I have not broken your heart–you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”
Love destroys.
Or at least that’s the message one can infer from Emily Bronte’s classic Wuthering Heights. The novel is far from a romance novel you might expect; instead, a gothic novel about the horrors and cruelty the wretched characters expect, and the doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and the villainous Heathcliff.
When old Mr. Earnshaw finds an abandoned baby on the streets, he brings him home, forever introducing a bleak presence to their home at Wuthering Heights. The novel explores the all consuming love between Catherine and Heathcliff, and how history has a way of repeating itself in the next generation Cathy’s struggles.
The most confusing part of the novel is how it is narrated. The story is told in first person narration from Mr. Lockwood. But he himself has very little to say; instead, he recounts all that his servant, Nelly Dean, tells him from her first person narration. Furthermore, many people tell Nelly stories that she then recounts from their first person narration.
Wuthering Heights is full of violence and cruelty. It shows just how wicked a person can actually be, and the insane things they might be driven to do by love. Within the first couple of chapters, the reader learns about a slew of dead characters, and their deaths are everywhere within the pages.
The integral part of the novel is the characters themselves, and their cruel and consuming personalities. I did not like a single character in the novel. Most of them I absolutely hated. They were cruel, violent, selfish, ignorant, and inconsiderate. Yet I still enjoyed the book. It was addicting to see the way they interacted, the horrors they brought on themselves.
For me, it’s impossible to decide whether Heathcliff, the main character in a way, is the hero or villain. He’s both. He’s ruthless and merciless, yet you know it’s because he’s hurting.
The ending was really satisfying. It ended with a bit of hope in all the devastation, and possibly the beginning of a new story, breaking out of the Wuthering Heights induced hell.
3.5 out of 5 bleak, black stars.
You can also read my review on Goodreads here.
Check out Wuthering Heights on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.
I also hated every character in this book. They were insufferable! I also didn’t like how all the characters in the second half of the novel were named after each other. It brought about a lot of confusion for me and that was bad considering I had to know the book inside out for my AS English Lit exam.
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Omg yes I feel you on the names! Can we have a moment of silence for Linton Heathcliff’s name…first name=moms last name, last name=dads first name 😂😱
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I’m curious to know what the hell Emily Bronte was thinking when she wrote these characters. Why did she think giving each character the same names was a good idea?
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I’m glad you enjoyed the conclusion! For whatever reason, this is one of my favorite classics of all time, and I love how morally ambiguous all the characters are! It made the book so fascinating! Great review!
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Thanks, Kelly! I was surprised by how much I liked it 🙂
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I hate this book and I hate the characters. They all need to be lined up and slapped 😀 I’m glad I read it though.
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The characters were definitely horrible. Might have trouble slapping them if they’re all dead haha xD
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This is one of my favorite classics although I do agree on the narration. Oh that Heathcliff, he is unforgettable. What I liked about him was the drama, and how there was such a thin line between love and hate. It is almost impossible to believe he could love anyone, but he did. I love the BBC mini series version of this one.
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Yep, Heathcliff is pretty remarkable. I kept hating him, hating him…and then being unable to really hate him. I haven’t seen the mini series but I want to!
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Confession: I’ve never been able to finish this book. I didn’t like the characters and thought the plot was overly dramatic!
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No shame; the characters were certainly horrible and I don’t know if I could have gotten through it all if it wasn’t for a class!
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“bleak, black stars” made me laugh! This is a really great review, I got really annoyed with the characters too! My Review: https://bettybookreviews.wordpress.com/2018/08/06/wuthering-heights-review/
Happy Reading! xx
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Haha thanks 🙂
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