Am I never to be rid of Wuthering Heights?!
Only yesterday I was talking to my mom of how much I hate this book. Three times I’ve tried reading it, and all three times I’ve despised the characters and the style and just put the book aside. Mom was understanding but not really sympathetic. She hates the book too, she said, but it is such a popular classic that any one claiming to read classics ought to read it. Especially if they, like me, want to teach some day.
I am not at all enthusiastic about this. But Geoff’s comment on the novel in one of my posts had me off hunting for pictures of the Yorkshire moors. He said:
Go to the Moors, get lost on them! Then you’ll really begin to appreciate the Brontes (especially Emily).
Midst looking at pictures I came across a site whose writer had a lovely article on Wuthering Heights. She talks in detail about the moors and the effects it was bound to have on the writing of the Bronte sisters.
Several years ago, while in York on business, we had occasion to drive up to Edinburgh for some meetings. On the way up we enjoyed a breathtaking view of the moors, with beautiful patches of heather dotting the craggy hills.
That night, as we returned, the same scenery looked entirely different: eerie, foggy and forbidding.Clutching our new baby in my arms I peered through the window into the dark night and tried to imagine what it would be like to be raised in that wild, cold country. I thought of the four Bronte children, growing up in virtual isolation on those very moors, creating imaginary characters to fill their lonely existence, and it made sense that the characters they created would be as stormy and forbidding as the moors themselves. It was in this setting that quiet, serious Emily Bronte crafted the remarkable Wuthering Heights. Her sister Charlotte said of the book, “It is rustic all the way through. It is moorish, and wild, and knotty as a root of heath. Nor was it natural that it should be otherwise; the author being herself a native and nursling of the moors.”
All of this sounds so tempting. And yet I know what I’ve read of this novel and how much I dislike it. However, I’ll read it now till the end. Very very reluctantly I put Emily Bronte back on my to-read list, and I intend swallowing her like a nasty pill I just have to take.
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Yea! Your mother is a wise woman!
I agree with Joon*ann and my earlier comment
Maybe when you re-read it this time try not to think about it as Wuthering Heights or even a Bronte novel. Maybe that little bit of psyching out will help. Plus if you can make it through once you’ll be able to read it again and it gets easier (and SO much better) as a re-read.
I agree with your earlier comment, too, Geoff — in fact I love your earlier comment!
I thought Wuthering Heights was OK but couldn’t get on with the melodrama in it. I plan to try it again as part of my classics club list. I love all of the other Bronte books though, just not that one!
I hope you enjoy it more than you are anticipating
Oh yes. I like the other Bronte sisters. But this…ugh! I’m going to have to mentally prepare myself when I try tackling this again. I would be quite pleased if I ended up liking it even a wee bit!
I know quite a few people who have had trouble with the Brontes. My sister, for instance, did not enjoy Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. This is a bit odd because she and I tend to agree on literature – but I absolutely adore both of those books. I’m not sure what explains it, other than individual sensibilities. I apprecate a bit of darkness – the more gothic elements of Romance; but, it’s not for everyone. She does love Anne of Green Gables and such, whereas I am bored to tears with those.
I love Jane Eyre! In fact, I’ve read it so many times! I’ve also read Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey and liked her quiet style. But I’ve never been able to take to Emily. For one, I find her characters too melodramatic and unlikable, and for another I find her style rather stilted and annoying when compared to the writing style of both her sisters.
Oh, and I love Anne of Green Gables too!
I absolutely loathed Wuthering Heights
I was so excited to read it, after all the references about Cathy and Heathcliff and their epic, epic love. But the characters annoyed me and the writing did nothing to mitigate this – everything just seemed immature and underdeveloped to me. I love gothic and period novels, but this is one book that just didn’t strike a chord with me anywhere at all.
EXACTLY! That’s exactly how I feel about this book. You’ve put it better than I ever could have done.
I hated this book the whole time I read it. When I finished it, I felt like I’d been punched in the face. But I respected it — in the end.
Hmmm…what was it about this book that you respected?
That she didn’t fall into the “proper female Victorian writer” box.
Maybe try reading it looking for the narrative style and way she constructs the story? It’s a good example of multi layered narrators – Lockwood starts the story but then Nellie takes over for example – so at times you forget who is actually speaking.
If she does this well then maybe it will be a redeeming factor in the book. I’ll keep an eye out for this….
I’ve only read Wuthering Heights once, but I really enjoyed it (though, admittedly, I had trouble getting through the first few chapters). Actually, “enjoyed” isn’t quite the word – I found myself very much caught up in it. I think this may well be the only way to read the book. Good luck with this, and I must say that it’s admirable that you’re willing to go through a book you’ve already tried reading thrice before!
Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite novels. It has all the elements of the Gothic Novel and Heathcliff is the quintessential Romantic hero. There are also elements of the Victorian Sensation Novel in the book. It’s a deep novel which can be read from a variety of viewpoints: postcolonial, feminist, Marxist, etc. It’s not just a story about love gone wrong; there is so much more to it. Nelly Dean is such an unreliable narrator and Lockwood is fickle. How do we know Heathcliff is as bad as Nellie says he is? What part did she play in the relationship between Heathcliff and Catharine? We need to read between the lines and not take things at face value. Check out English Romanticism and the Gothic Novel before you start to read and things might fall into place for you. Bronte was writing out of various traditions, but she also wrote the only novel of its kind, so it really is something special.
I know most people loathe it though, because they expect a romance novel, rather than a Romantic novel. Big difference.