Wuthering Heights

I... I don't know what to say. This was a horrible book - not in that it was badly written, but because everything and everyone in it were just horrible. It wasn't depressing though, probably because it didn't touch very deeply on the human condition or society at large. It was just like a competition of how mean can people be to each other. Heathcliff probably now dwells amongst one of my most disliked characters in all literature. Still though, I'm giving this around 2.5 to 3 stars because despite the utter awfulness of everything going on in here, it was still fairly engaging to read. I'd have enjoyed it a bit more if there was actually just a single character worth rooting for but there isn't, and maybe that's a deliberate decision on Bronte's part.The story revolves around two families: the Earnshaws at Wuthering Heights, and the Lintons at Thrushcross Grange. One fateful night, Daddy Earnshaw takes in an apparently orphaned boy of unknown origins who doesn't seem to speak a lick of English. Eventually the boy comes to be known as Heathcliff as both his Christian and his last name, and though Daddy Earnshaw himself is partial to Heathcliff, almost everyone else treats him like dirt, especially the Earnshaw son, Hindley, and their neighbour, Edgar Linton. Heathcliff soon strikes up a strong alliance with the daughter of the Earnshaw family, Catherine, who is also surprisingly nasty.The first time I read this book, I went in expecting some epic romance as pop culture has led me to believe (thanks for nothing, pop culture). No. Wrong. That is without doubt hands down the worst way to read this book ever. I would strongly advise against expecting warm fuzzies or even any kind of ships you would bother rooting for. So this time, I went in expecting a tragedy, which... is slightly better but also not really quite the right expectations to have either. I'd say go in expecting a complete shitshow, something like a crazy soap opera but without any likeable or sympathetic characters. Shit hits the fan pretty early in the book anyway, so you would know what you're in for before you're 30% through. It's a bit juicy like [b:The Count of Monte Cristo 7126 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611834134l/7126.SY75.jpg 391568], but the vibe is different in that at least in COMC you have plenty of people and relationships that you wanted to root for. Here you're really just waiting for everyone to fade to black.So first up, Heathcliff was probably the worst character I've read in a while, and I'm already inclined to be generous because he had a pretty rough childhood and upbringing, being ill-treated and abused as he was by Hindley Earnshaw. His entire motivation in life was basically just Catherine, and to bring down all others who even remotely stands in his way. He cared for nothing else, neither religious redemption, nor any kind of empathy for his fellow human beings. He wasn't just an indolent, brooding misanthrope either - he was actively malevolent towards his neighbours and everyone he viewed to have done him wrong in his life. He's the sort of spider that weaves a web for years and patiently waits and waits until the people he seeks vengeance towards falls into his trap. He doesn't hesitate to use brute force and violence against anything and everyone, whether man, woman, animal, child, adult, etc. I don't know if this is remotely a redeeming factor, but his malevolence doesn't have sexual tendencies (at least as far as we know, although I'm pretty sure he would've had to rape Isabella to get her pregnant since they were estranged very early on in their marriage). It still doesn't remotely excuse him in any way though.Catherine was not really much better but then again she considers Heathcliff and herself soulmates so that ought to give us an idea of her true nature. She doesn't resort to as much physical violence as Heathcliff does, but she's incredibly bitchy, unfeeling, and ungrateful to most of the people around her. She at least shows some capacity for love and some form of sympathy, though remaining incredibly self-centered throughout it all.There were some characters who may be slightly less annoying than the two main ones, namely Mrs Dean, Mr Lockwood, Hareton, and the younger Catherine, although all of them were also at least mildly annoying at some point or other (I especially wasn't a fan of Hareton physically striking Catherine nearer the end of the book. Yes, she was being pretty snobby, but considering what she's been through and the fact that Hareton is also physically bigger and older than she is, that really raised a lot of red flags for me.).Do I recommend this book? Maybe if you were in a particularly masochistic mood and wanted something where everybody's at least a bit of an asshole and sometimes wholly without redeeming factors.

Every character is horribly selfish and cruel, and I found the whole book extremely irritating. The only reason I stuck it out was because my coworkers love it and I wanted to try to love it for their sakes.

****UPDATE**

Saw this article and it perfectly captures the essence of Wuthering Heights. Specifically, it's the first paragraph which is perfection, and I'll copy it here in case the link ever dies:

“Wuthering Heights is the story of a group of people who eat the most miserable meals imaginable, and cannot experience love as a result. Sometimes they have tea, but more often they are merely offered it, and decide they are too furious to have tea, and die instead. Here is every meal the characters of Wuthering Heights almost eat before being interrupted by sex-rage and dying.” -Mallory Ortberg, The Toast

Overall this book is amazing. It is written with a looming sense of suspense that makes it in many ways a thriller. the characters are written in a fully realized way that makes you wonder at there bruteness and sever honesty.They are overindulgent and at times insane, but their actions keep you on their side. The passion of Catherine and Heathcliff makes their relationship impossible to fulfill in life. But the satisfaction of the story comes from their future generations. The story is all in the characters. It truly captures the culture of the time.

I felt extremely satisfied with the story, and the writing is immaculate, therefore I give this book 5 stars.

Just another boring story. The prose felt too old for me. The typical stereotypes revolving a unjustly mistreated child that grows up to be a mean old man holds no sway for my appreciation. This kind of unreasonable treatment of people without any consequence, just as a character building tool, is too annoying, specially when it is so long.

Read 1:58/12:19 16%

Listening to this as an audiobook was a VERY BAD IDEA. The orator doing the different voices for Heathcliff and Linton and UGH Joseph was just insufferable. Also it was like 12 hours long. I won't lie, by the end I picked it up to 1.75x speed and had to read some SparkNotes for the parts where I got distracted.

I had just finished watching Bridgerton and thirsted for more early 19th century romance and scandal. Alas, Wuthering Heights is not quite that. It's far more gothic and disturbing. And the fact that most of the book is told second-hand through the housekeeper Nellie, while an interesting literary device that leads to an equally interesting conclusion when the narration transitions into real-time, left me feeling unsatisfied. Like, cmon, she really remembered all of those details years and years later, and had the stamina to repeat them? I guess storytelling was the form of entertainment back then, so flourish would be common; so the natural conclusion then is that little of this is to be believed. Unreliable narrator and whatnot.

Maybe I'll revisit this in print sometime later, but I think I prefer the other Brontë sister.

I went into this book knowing that it is not a love story, that people either love it or hate it, and that the characters would all be despicable.

I hated it. It was not in the slightest a pleasurable reading experience and it felt like such a drudgery to keep turning pages.

The story did not draw me in and I did not like the writing style at all (not for a lack of appreciation for classics, because I am very much enjoying reading classics now as an adult; but I truly cannot understand why the people who love this book praise its writing style so much).

Every character is unlikeable, which I expected, but I also felt that the characters lacked depth and that their mental illnesses, evils, and overall character ???arcs??? were ill portrayed.

As for the descriptions of the moors, which seem to be an aspect of the book that some readers find especially awe-inspiring, ???I could never see anything extraordinary in them.???

I shan???t be recommending it to anyone else.

I didn't like this the first time I read it. I expected this to be the greatest romance of all time and then Katherine dies half way in and I didn't really know what to make of it. But reading it a few years later, when in theory, I was more mature, I was able to see the beauty of the story more.

From first read though, one of my all time favorite scenes has been Heathcliff “asking” now-dead Katherine to haunt him.

I kept hearing the eponymous song from Kate Bush but knew nothing about this book, so I wanted to give it a try. I couldn't imagine the depth of this story, the cruelty and lengths people could go to for love and revenge. I was really mesmerized by the story from the beginning to the end and couldn't let go of this book. And even if I hated Heatcliff with all my soul, I couldn't refrain myself from loving the poetry of this ending. A great and unique book!

I reread this novel for the first time since high school and LOVED it. During high school, I was very anti-Cathy. I blamed her for turning Heathcliff into a monster. During this read, I understand her better. Heathcliff was an angry guy who made bad choices. She didn't see him turning away from that, so she chose something more peaceful, Edgar. Heathcliff continued to make bad choices to cover up his feelings of sorrow. Because of that he just continued down a bad road and tried to take others with him. Emily Bronte is amazing! I can honestly say that this novel opened the doorway to my passion for Romantic and Victorian English novels. The Bronte sisters, Austen, Mary Shelley are among my favorites!

My first experience with Emily Bronte, and it was because this is required reading for my secondary school. It was probably wrong to introduce this story to a young crowd. The tale seems a tad dark. The obsessive theme coupled with the romance makes the tale somewhat confusing and difficult to connect with. Maybe I just need to re-read it now that I'm older.

Why Heathcliff has become one of our ‘great romantic characters' is beyond me. He is selfish, vindictive, abusive, moody and cruel. Now you can blame these character traits on his tortured and enduring love for Cathy, but really he is just a miserable sod.

As for Cathy, I have seldom encountered a more spoilt and mean character. The way she teases Isabella about her feelings for Heathcliff reminded me of school-girl bullying.

However, at least these two characters had a bit of fire and passion within them. The most detestable character in Wuthering Heights has to be Linton - Heathcliff's spineless, insipid excuse for a son.

I didn't really like any of the characters in this novel (Cathy Jnr and Hareton turn out ok in the end), but maybe that is the point. I respect that not all works of fiction need a ‘goodie' and a ‘badie', and applaud Bronte for not making these distinctions at all.

I found the majority of the book a bit of a chore to read, but admit that I was satisfied in the end. I understand why Wuthering Heights is a classic, but think I will rather side with her sister and the delectable Mr. Rochester.

Oh, and did anyone understand anything Joseph said?

It's taken a couple of attempts and some years but I finally appreciate Wuthering Heights. Yes, many of the characters are loathsome & this is no love to emulate, but I don't think any other book I can think of is quite like it in it's depiction of a savage, all consuming completely destructive love.

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. From everything I heard, I expected it to be a really sappy romance with really sappy characters and and a really sappy happy ending. It turned out that the characters who experience the central romance were actually very strong-willed and often very cruel. There are very romantic speeches, but the book is anything but smushy love. I found the story to be very well-written and interesting and it is certainly one of my favorite books.

This is the story of how Catherine Earnshaw ended up being Catherine Earnshaw.
This is a story of two men, of one who took everything the other valued, one by one.
This is a story of romance in two generations that are strangely mirror images, only slightly different.

For those who are looking for a light-hearted novel with fun and charm, stay away. This is far from it.
And you understand the relations only by Chapter 9. It's confusing; I think figuring that out is what made me stick to the book in the beginning. (Things don't get “pretty” until Heathcliff grows up.)
Many books have characters we grow to love, respect. Many books (unfortunately) have characters we couldn't care less about. Only a few books have characters, we develop a passionate loathing towards.
Every significant character in this book is AWFUL. Every single character we either hate or feel sorry for. The reading experience is like sitting wrapped in a wet blanket on a cloudy day. Everybody dies. It's gloomy, it's sad. Nothing good EVER happens.
Yet I enjoyed reading this book, being a passive observer, like Mr. Lockwood, of this queer couple families that by the end got mangled up into one.

Whatever happened in this book seems unlikely at first. But imagine having just one neighboring house 4 miles away, for your entire life, in an era of digital sophistication where, “call” means visit. With no external stimuli, literally a closed environment with semi-incestuous relationships, no wonder everyone was either psychotic or neurotic or dying probably of some disease.

It's amazing how everyone made everyone else miserable and themselves ended up being miserable.
Read this book for the sake of reading it. It's food for thought.

“Wuthering Heights” is one of my favourite novels and rekindled my love of classics after spending a long time reading crappy YA books. I thought at first this novel was just the greatest novel of the Bronte sisters, but upon re-reading it, it may be one of the greatest novels of the 19th century.  The sheer passion that comes out of Wuthering Heights makes it one of the most outwardly passionate Victorian novels and you can really see Emily's poetry in her writing but also in her ability to create these wonderfully troubled and dynamic characters- only Emily Bronte can make you actually like and feel sympathy for a man like Heathcliff. Although, upon re-read I found myself rooting and pining for Hareton the most.

 The main critics towards this book are that it is melodramatic. Though I do admit it seems like a Victorian reality show with the outbursts, crying and emotional distress that makes characters instantly fall ill, this melodrama emotionally guides the reader; Just like the weather in Wuthering Heights, the turbulent storms are balanced with bitter winds and kind skies. The second criticism is that it is a difficult read and hard to understand and although, yes, if English is your second language and etc. the language itself may be difficult but I find that in most cases if a book is looked at as a difficult hurdle that is only read to be ticked off a list, it is likely to seem treacherous and laborious. What books like Wuthering Heights need is patience, but I promise, once you get into the rhythm of the novel it will be passing by incredibly fast-paced, for it is a very exciting and drama-packed book. At times when I found scenes difficult I also recommend this particular audiobook which can be found on youtube; it is a dramatic reading of the novel on this channel called ‘The Greatest Literature'.

Some moments from this reading of the novel that really stood out to me are:
- The dream sequence at the start of the novel from Mr Lockwood may be one of the best gothic passages I have ever read.
- I've always wondered why Bronte choose Nelly, a meek and morally uptight maid, to be the one to narrate a novel primarily about destructive love and passion in the intimate relationship of Heathcliff and Catherine until moments in the novel made it clear why Emily Bronte choose this. The frame narrative allows for some deeply tense and greatly irritating moments of miscommunication such as when Catherine declares her love for Heathcliff just as Heathcliff leaves after hearing her insult him.  
- As mentioned earlier on this earlier I found myself sympathizing the most with Hareton who was probably my favourite character (when usually it would be Heathcliff)