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Wuthering Heights
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Wuthering Heights
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Wuthering Heights
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Wuthering Heights

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Mr. Lockwood, a rich man from the south, rents Thrushcross Grange in the north of England for peace and recuperation. Soon after his arrival, he visits his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, who lives in the remote moorland farmhouse called 'Wuthering Heights', but he finds the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights to be a strange group. After a nightmare, in which he sees a ghost trying to enter through the window, he asks his housekeeper to tell him the story of the family from the Heights.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherJPM Ediciones
Release dateFeb 20, 2012
ISBN9788415499008
Author

Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë (1818-1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights (1847). A year after publishing this single work of genius, she died at the age of thirty.

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Rating: 3.9018410404401354 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I originally reviewed this book on my blog - The Cosy Dragon. For more recent reviews by me, please hop over there.

    This is a classic novel that I have been assigned to study in literature. This is not something I would choose to read by myself by any means. I didn't love the language, I didn't feel for the characters, but I read it anyway! Do I think anything is good about this novel? Well, maybe.

    This novel starts out slowly, and painfully, and I had to entice myself to read onwards with not allowing myself to read anything else (or is that punishment?). The drivel that is written, complete with personal endearing terms that I'm sure the author felt added colour, but just irritated me because I had to look to the back of the book to see what they meant.

    Eventually the storytelling gets going, and it is focused on the past for a time, with Mr Lockwood being told stories by his housekeeper. This part did keep me reading to an extent, mainly because I was ignoring another task I needed to be doing.

    I have to admit I did not finish reading this book. I haven't locked myself in for studying the unit that this book is required for this semester, and so I have abandoned it in favour of other things I need to read first. If I do end up taking the unit, I will finish reading this book, and post another review of my feelings about the whole thing.

    I'm sure there are Bronte fans out there that are going to hate me for saying this - but I really didn't feel for Heathcliff. I felt that he brought so many of his troubles upon himself, he didn't deserve any sympathy, not matter how bad things were for him.

    I find the cover of this book visually appealing at least. It fits in with the storms that seem to plague the countryside now that Lockwood has moved it (or at least it seems that way!).

    I'm not sure why you would want to read this book, except that it is a classic, and therefore is probably worth reading just to say yo have. I know that there is a movie based on it, and on the parts I saw of it, it is relatively violent. I'd recommend this book for adults I guess. But really - there are so many other good things to read out there, you don't need to waste your time on this one!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    300-odd pages of unpleasant people being hateful to each other.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very few novels have intrigued me as much as "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë has, and I have read many great books in my life. It captures a significant theme of the Victorian Era, one that so many writers chose to overlook: death, destruction, and the melancholy gardens we sow. Among other authors, Emily Brontë transformed the faux pas of a bad ending into an approachable- nay controversial- subject. Her novel helped revolutionize the overall tone of pre-contemporary literature.“Wuthering Heights” was originally published in 1847, and authentically captures daily life in that time-period. There are scenes that many of us recognize as being entirely victorian: maids and manservants, ruffled dresses, and the diction of their everyday conversation; however, drops of reality sneak into this realistic portrayal of life as it was in the 1800s. Prejudice, abuse; premature death, hysteria; unseen killers hidden in the walls and beauty products. Each flaw has a story that has finally revealed by scientists with knowledge of lead and formaldehyde. In just the same way, every character has a purpose... which is why less than twenty people can be seen from the beginning to the end. Intentionality reeves in between the binding of this enthralling novel. "Wuthering Heights" is steeped in melancholy and draped in veils of woe. Readers follow Heathcliff across the moors of the UK. His story is much different than the romantic tale of “Pride and Prejudice”, where two people fall in love and eventually marry. Instead, the story is founded upon turmoil, which leads to inevitable failure, though it brazes the mark so often throughout its pages. It crafts an understanding of the phrase "too little, too late", which becomes the main focus of the entire story. Heathcliff did not stir this on his own, at least not entirely; he is abused and neglected after his adoptive father passes, outcasted and named a "g*psy" and "bastard" due to his uncertain heritage. He resents most of his house mates, excluding the girl who opened- and tore- his heart: Catherine Earnshaw. Readers learn and discover the truth about Heathcliff through memories recalled by Nelly, the house maid, a majority of the time. By the end, one is left wondering whether they pity, love, or hate Heathcliff, leaving many with a sense of familiar dread (this time, in literature rather than reality). The purposeful writing of Brontë is revealed again and again, but never more so than when one analyzes her incredible skill for building characters. This book is disturbing at times, and I admit it; but this aspect adds depth and truth to an otherwise perfect novel. It has become my favourite book, and one I will recommend to others as long as I have strength to speak. The year that I first read it was the year I reread it 15-16 other times. It truly has a certain magnetism that pulled me towards it, and for that reason, I give it a 5 star rating.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An excellent novel, and I really enjoyed it! I highly recommend this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    (Original Review, 1981-01-02)The “dog scene” does not exist in the book as some sort of sick foreplay; it’s actually an extremely clever piece of writing. Besides showing Heathcliff total disregard for Isabella, it’s a reality check for those girls with romantic notions about Byronesque “bad boys”. Isabella is so infatuated, that she cannot understand, although he flaunts it on her face ( that’s what makes the scene interesting) that what she takes for intensity and romantic darkness is actually plain cruelty. Isabella is selective in what she chooses to see, she wants to run away with this man everyone calls dangerous and not even the fact he hangs her pet dog stops her on her tracks. As we will see later in the book she does eventually find out he’s actually a plain domestic abuser, but by then she has been totally crushed.It’s not Emily’s fault people see Heathcliff as some sort of romantic hero, just like Isabella readers have been choosing what they want to highlight or disregard.The book has been adapted many times - mostly very badly and there a misunderstanding that this is a romantic novel so people are confused and disappointed in it. It’s also been lampooned many times. Actually it’s an extraordinary brilliant observation of the effect of neglect in early childhood, long before child psychiatry. There is no whitewashing and the damage done as an infant to Heathcliffe is permanent despite the kindness of the Earnshaws. He destroys what he loves and others with him. The character of Nelli Dean is also brilliantly drawn. She understands more than anyone but is forced to observe on the sidelines as a servant as the family and then another family is pulled into the tragedy. I love the story of her refusal to accommodate her precious piano pupils play time and her preference to the dog.The Brontës lived though a traumatic childhood and survived a boarding school which sounded like a pro type for the workhouses. Haworth at the time had greater social deprivation than the east end of London, with all the alcoholism, drugs, disease and violence that went with it and their brother brought home daily. Orphans and abandoned children were bought like slaves from London to work in the mill towns and as vicarage daughters were expected to help out with the night schools their father had organised. They weren’t sheltered - they saw the lot which is why no doubt Emily Brontë drew the character of an abandoned orphan child so well. Emily Brontë refused to admit to her consumption and was kneading bread the morning she died. Like Elizabeth, first she remained standing for as long as possible only finally lying down just before she died.Child neglect, for whatever reason, it was one of the themes in “Wuthering Heights” that stroked a chord with me, and I do not think it’s explored enough. The fact that Heathcliff decided to replicate his own abuse by inflicting it on Hareton, with the expectation that he would turn out as “twisted” as him as form of vengeance is quite interesting. Even more interesting is the fact Emily chose to make that experiment a failed one; even before that advent of child psychology, she clearly understood that the experience of abuse and neglect is unique to the individual, and the way people react to it unpredictable. That’s something that bewildered Heathcliff, and in a way, the realisation that he could not make people as detestable as he was, even though they have also been victimised, contributed to, by the end to make him him even more unstable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This novel exists in two texts: that written and published by Emily, and Charlotte's revised edition. I can't remember which version I read first time around, but this time I read the original and I don't see anything in it that needs to be changed. That said, I did find the character of Joseph to be virtually unintelligible. I understand Charlotte partially translates his dialogue so get her version if you must understand everything he says, or get a copy with notes.Happily, someone has invented the internet since I last read this. I remember getting very confused as to who was related to who and how, and really, you need to know to realise the import of what Heathcliff is doing. These days you can find a variety of family trees on tinternet… though none that I found showed Heathcliff as being related by blood to anyone else. But come one, old Mr Earnshaw comes home with Heathcliff and a story about how he found him in the street. Pull the other one mate. Heathcliff and Catherine are obviously half-siblings.Lots going on in the novel. I can see why it's so richly studied. I get the impression it's one of those books that doesn't give up all its interpretations at one. What I found particularly interesting was the idea of the interloper that's played out again and again throughout. Not just Heathcliff, but everyone who comes to the Grange and the Heights, including the narrator; and also the way the servants intrude into the private lives of their employers.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
     Yawn. Truly uninspiring.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A great classic.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Krachtig verhaal, 2de helft iets minderGedragen door passies: liefde en wraakThema’s van de civilisatie versus natuur en instinct, romantiek-elementen (storm, park, moors, spoken en dromen)Donkere stijl door suggestieve bijvoegelijke naamwoorden; alleen op het einde: zon barst door de wolken.)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wonderfully Overwrought - Confusingly Incestuous
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An excellent novel, and I really enjoyed it! I highly recommend this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Loved it, Heathcliff is a wonderful broken villain. Incredible the atmospheric analogies between the landscape and the characters - everything's dark, hopeless and obsessive. Only the ejaculations of Joseph are a real challenge for a non-native speaker.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wuthering Heights has been in my consciousness ever since the 70's when Kate Bush was wailing out her high pitched ethereal lyrics -Out on the wiley, windy moorsWe'd roll and fall in green.You had a temper like my jealousy:Too hot, too greedy.How could you leave me, When I needed to possess you?I hated you. I loved you, too. I watched the TV adaptaion with Tom Hardy some years ago and still have vague recollections of it - mostly of Tom Hardy's brooding gorgeousness. And as I have said before seeing any tv or film adaptation before reading the book for me is a mistake. When I first started reading I found myself trying to link in the story to what I had seen and thought I already knew which detracted somewhat for allowing the story to unfold.What surprised me most on reading was it wasn't all about Cathy and Heathcliff as my memory had held it. So much of this tale is about the children of the initial characters. If there is any place for pathetic fallacy in literature then Wuthering Heights is the perfect venue. Not only does the weather provide the sometimes wild, sometimes brooding, sometimes oppressive atmosphere of the book but for me it is also a metaphor for the characters themselves. Many like myself come to the story thinking it will be a tale of love and passion only to discover that the pervading emotions are childish petulance and hatred and revenge. I have learnt much about life and love in nearly half a century on the planet and one thing I have learnt is that, when it comes to human relationships, hate is not the opposite of love - apathy is. So for me there is still more love in the story than hatred. It just manifests itself in an immature way. When I think of Heathcliff then the word repression comes to mind. I was once told that Wuthering Heights is best read when young and I can see why - there is for me is an immaturity in Cathy Earnshaw's behaviour in particular.The amazing thing for me about Wuthering Height's is held in the author herself - how on earth did a young woman in victorian England come up with all of this? The initial reviews of the book were not favourable and critics thought it morally reprehensible drivel. I need to find out more about Emily Bronte and her life and experiences - ooh a trip to Haworth when I am next back up in the Motherland. I have the 1939 film adaptation waiting with Larry O and Merle Oberon which I will watch with interest - although a more unlikely Heathcliff I cannot imagine. And a final note - having seen Tom Hardy digging up Cathy from her grave to embrace her again like a deranged lunatic ( my favourite scene ) I was eaer for it to come up in the book - it was there at last, so very near the end although the writing of it a very different less urgent account than the one I experienced in viewing.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This is one of those classics that I've never rread, and now I know why. I thought I knew the3 story since I've seen the 1939 movie starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon probably 50 times. But, of course, Hollywood left a lot out when they made the film.The movie is a Gothic tale of obsessive love, and maybe the physical beauty of the stars who played Kathy and Heathcliff, covered over what to me, is just a sick story of feminine submission and male abuse. The prose if over wrought and the plot, especially in the last third of the book just defies belief. Forget the novel & watch the movie.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Seldom must a book have differed between its commonly held perception and its actuality, as much as Wuthering Heights. I came to this book from the camp of the former with some reservations about some doomed love affair on the Yorkshire moors. Perhaps the realisation of how far removed any preconceptions were added to the subsequent enjoyment of the story.

    Wuthering Heights is a story of revenge fed by obsession crossing over the generations of two families. And it is much more gothic than romantic. The plot rolls along with the drama rising and falling. Ok, few if any of the characters elicit much sympathy but they are complex and so well drawn that it is difficult not to be drawn into their isolated world or to anticipate what happens next.

    Ultimately it's all madness. Grave tampering madness.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a story of the Earnshaw and the Linton family who are quite isolated in their homes of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The homes represent the opposition that exists throughout the novel. There is a lot of death in the book but there is also the hopeful happy ending. That being said, I did feel the ending was a little bit off for me. The sudden decline and death of Heathcliff didn't make sense as it was presented. I see the need for the author to kill him off, I just didn't feel that the way made any sense. The novel is also told through the voice of a stranger who takes up a temporary residence and observes this dysfunctional family and the servant who has lived since childhood with these children.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This book has so much hype so I expected it to be amazing. Boy was I let down! I didn't really care for this book at all. And people say Heathcliff and Catherine's love was so epic, but he was a horrible person who did nothing but torment others. I don't know, maybe I just didn't get it, but I wasn't impressed in the slightest.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I love classic literature, and finally decided to give this one a try. It was awful - such a terrible book! I couldn't even finish it. About halfway through I declared myself done with it. Clearly not all the Bronte sisters should have been writers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    > In Lord John and the Private Matter, Lord John opines that honour sacrificed on the altar of love renders the love dishonourable and the lesser of pure lust. Heathcliff’s love for Catherine is an example of just such dishonourable love and is hardly the stuff of any romantic sensibility nor of the philosophical bent of Nietschze (“Beyond good and evil there is love.”) Heathcliff’s feeling for Catherine is egocentric, destructive and, a fearful thing not unlike the wuthering moors. Like the twisted tangles of brush that somehow manage to survive on the moors, the people that come into contact with Heathcliff are bowed and bent under the sheer force of his will, passion and temper. The idea of such an unrelenting, aggressive and unsparing devotion is both shocking and frightening. Beyond the linear narrative, this novel merits re-examination (re-reading) for its dense language, its allegorical associations and, the ideas about human nature itself.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I still consider this one of my favorite books, possibly of all time, and that just further solidifies with each reread. One of the easier 'classic' novels to read, at least in my opinion. Cathy Heathcliff are my model couple for crazy love, and then Cathy 2.0 Hareton are a prime example of opposites attracting. Ahhhh I seriously just love this dark, twisted little book, plain and simple.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Wuthering Heights tells the tortured story of Catherine Earnshaw, the orphan Heathcliff, and the people who surround them. The story depicts a stark environment that surrounds the two soul mates and the passion that destroys almost everyone.

    Wuthering Heights, published in 1847, was the only novel written by Emily Bronte. It is classified as a Victorian Gothic novel, with a strong leaning toward Byronic Romanticism. Indeed, this novel is the epitome of a Gothic Romance- tortured souls, regret, a love that surpasses time. At the time of its publishing, it was met with mixed reviews. However, in the 20th century, it was deemed a superior classic.

    Emily Bronte was a masterful writer, who seems almost more in line with modern writers than those of her day. Wuthering Heights is the true model for the tortured love stories that seem to dominate the media these days. Heathcliff and Cathy are the ultimate tortured soul mates- one of the most well-known lines is when Cathy declares she is Heathcliff- meaning that they cannot live without the other.
    Heathcliff proves this when his life becomes a shell when she is gone. He allows the worst parts of himself to take over and treats everyone around him worse than he was treated as a child.

    I wasn't expecting to like this novel as much as I did. I tried to read it in high school, but couldn't get very far. I'd seen the movie with Laurence Olivier and thought the characters were insipid. A friend of mine and I were talking one day in April about classics and she wanted to read this, so I agreed to try it again. Boy, was I surprised. I literally couldn’t put the novel down. This book proves to me that everything deserves a second chance.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    No book has made me more grateful to have been born in the latter half of the 20th century. The writing was fine, and the story moved along, but good lord, I wanted to slap every single character upside the head at some point in the novel. Nelly, 3 weeks in bed after a walk that got her shoes and hose wet?? Catherine, who swoons, then rebounds, then swoons again based on a raised eyebrow or not very sharp word?? Don't get me started on Linton.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the most incredible, yet disturbing novels of the 19th century. What was unique for it's time is now the Lifetime Movie Network, however, no story or movie of such horrid characters will ever match the beauty and horror of Emily's Wuthering Heights.In a novel full of rich, truistic characters that show the realities of humanity all too well, the only ones who could be even close to lovable are the young Hareton and Cathy along with the all-knowing narrator, Nelly Dean. Even the listener of her tale, Mr. Lockwood shows little valor in his enlightenment to Heathcliff's character by leaving the youths to their desolation under his rule. This novel has the brilliant underlying moral that revenge and hatred can only make your life a living hell. It also shows the destruction that can be brought on by obsessive, selfish love.Emily Bronte's novel also brings to light the ever controversial argument of Nature vs. Nature. Would Heathcliff, Linton, Catherine, and Hindley have different temperaments and fates if they had been exposed to better environments? Especially in the case of Linton who was a sweet lad until exposed to his father and he turned selfish and vile.A wonderful, brilliant, original, classic that is one of those rare novels I can see myself re-reading many times.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Reading the book a year after my pilgrimage to Haworth last year reminded me of the bleak Yorkshire landscape that drives sheep into suicide. As Juliet Barker so memorably noted in her stellar Brontë biography, the sisters would be quickly "plowed under" by the unhealthy living conditions. The protagonists of this novel suffer from the same condition. Marriage and death are its two constants which occur, like in a soap opera, amidst a tiny cast who fall for and over each other.Large doses of misery and small potions of happiness are in store for the occupants of Wuthering Heights and the Grange. To me, their hate is understandable, the cast featuring singularly obnoxious personae. The love stories I found less believable in their almost Stockholm syndrome like variant. The 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded for "the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design". The Wuthering Heights marriage market clears fast thanks to the paucity of contestants, happiness does not ensue.A remarkable aspect of the novel are the stark gender contrasts. While the women are mostly passive-aggressive, the men are divided into extremely violent and meek types. There is not much space for the normal in the Yorkshire moors.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is beautiful, ugly, and upsetting. It's probably best to read over a rainy weekend with lots of comfort food... I'm not usually a fan of historical romances, especially in this time period, but Wuthering Heights is the exception. This is no prim and proper story about high society goings-on; these characters are broken, mistakes are made, and pride and anger really do have consequences. She chooses society over love (or perhaps over her own nature); he chooses revenge and pride. Both suffer for it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I refuse to review this title, but I can say its one of my favorites and not just because of twisted dark romance, but the sheer elegance of the writing and the topic which was shocking for the time period.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A most unusual novel. Dark tale of wretched and unlikable characters, of a tormented and bold - yet unable to change his fate subjected to his time (the Victorian England) - tragic soul and his other-worldly passionate and dark love relationship, with vengeful, selfish or pathetic actions, obsessions and great tragedy, which is irritating and painful while reading; but somehow turns into a fluffy(?!), moderately sunny and comforting ending.

    Not quite pleasant and easy to read but definitely one of the most thought-provoking after: it is compelled to read it more than once.

    No. It's not about love. And it certainly is not a romance! Cathy and Heathcliff's relationship is much more complicated, messy and profound than a simple romantic love.

    On another note, has anyone been "vexed" by the narrative of this story as I was? The choice of the narrator has left much to be desired, too ambiguous and unrealiable to my liking, which, in a positive way, gives the readers the freedom to interpret as well, obviously.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wuthering Heights is known as a gothic romance. I do not consider it a romantic story. It is dark, and "disagreeable", and utterly fascinating. It is difficult to feel sympathy for any of the characters, yet the story stays in your mind long after you finish it. What was this character's motivation? Why did that happen? What if.... Could it be.... One is compelled to reflect on human nature and the author's goals in telling the story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "Wuthering Heights" is a writer's novel. The twists and turns of its frame narrative style, along with the reincarnation of Heathcliff's love and vengeance on so many different (but similarly named) instantiations of their initial targets, leave the reader constantly wondering who is talking, who is being talked about, and why more of the characters don't just speak for themselves. In a masterful way, this confusion calls out the subjugation inherent in Brontë's own society. The author shrieks back at a world that relegated women to subservience, and that on occasion dismissed her own and her sister Anne's writing as likely the product of their sister Charlotte's imagination, by voicing the eternity of her characters' hearts through the words of others. This, metaphorically, is what her writing did for her, and what all great writing does for its author. On first reading, the narrative structure consumed all of my attention, but left me entranced by its power. On second reading, ten years later, I vowed to focus on the characterisation of the novel and discovered some of the most unlikeable and least relatable personalities that literature has ever produced. This is not a book club read for gabbing with your girlfriends, but a manifesto on the power of words to haunt the minds of generations. I linger on Brontë's writing, and wonder how any one could ever imagine quiet slumbers for an author who continues to speak so powerfully today.The Barnes and Noble edition of this book contains a selection of famous quotations, a timeline of Brontë's life, an introduction by Daphne Merkin, a note on the text and dialect, a genealogical chart of the characters, the original biography of Ellis and Acton Bell and the editor's preface to the 1850 edition of the book written by Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë), footnotes (of dialect and translation) and endnotes, an exploration of works inspired by the novel, a set of critical opinions and questions for the reader, and a suggested bibliography for further reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Masterpiece of English literature. Gothic, mysterious, enthralling. Unforgettable characters (Heathcliff and Catherine), unforgettable landscapes, violent love. First got it as a gift, in Portuguese, but waited to buy it in English and read the original. I usually avoid translations whenever I can - and, in this case, it would have been a crime to read a translation.