Book Review - 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Brontë

2021 EDIT: I'm sure that, from reading other reviews and pages online, I would probably hate 'Wuthering Heights' nowadays. It has that narrative choice that classic authors liked to use, with the narrative within a narrative within a narrative (or further, deeper down the rabbit hole!), told to a passive first person narrator who nobody cares about. Multilayered "stories" from decades ago are told in great detail by people who shouldn't even have been present at the time. There are A LOT of characters and family trees to keep track of. Then there are the horrible, horrible, selfish, spoilt, insipid, flighty and stupid characters. Is it any wonder that Bella and Edward idolise Heathcliff and Catherine? 'Wuthering Heights' is apparently their favourite book. I'm not sure if Emily Brontë even intended the romances to be toxic and abusive (I remember I gave her the benefit of the doubt back when I read the book and believed I liked it). Was the destructive, narcissistic, obsessive and psychopathic force that is Heathcliff and Catherine misunderstood and distorted into a story of true love over time? The only tragedy in 'Wuthering Heights' is the damage and bodies left by those two monsters, alive or dead.

Additionally, Heathcliff is described as having dark skin like a Roma, and it is because of this that he is compared to a demon, or the devil himself. And he is blatantly villainous. So we can include racism as one of the reasons to be wary of 'Wuthering Heights'. The classy-ness of classics will never change.

Thus concludes my current and final thoughts on 'Wuthering Heights', one of the most misinterpreted, debated, controversial, and overrated classic novels ever written.

Final Score: 2/5





'Wuthering Heights' - I remember wanting to read it because of a book I love, 'Jane Eyre', written by another Brontë sister.

It's an unusual love story. No, not love - obsession.

The copy I got of 'Wuthering Heights' has written on its cover, "Bella and Edward's favourite book". Quite appropriate if you think about it, though perhaps not in a way the YA gimmick-following publishers intended.

"One of the greatest love stories ever told" - blurb of my copy.

Ha ha ha NO.

I've read this book years ago, and while I don't remember every single detail or plot thread - or every one of the abundance of characters for that matter - I remember the gloomy yet compelling atmosphere of it. I could picture the setting clearly. All is dark and dreary, but absorbing like dew drops. To use another odd simile, the writing and choice of words lurk on page after page like a spectre. There are no actual ghosts in this story, but the dead can cause as much great suffering to people as the living.

All the characters are flawed, and nearly all unlikeable. Heathcliff and Catherine are selfish, spoilt beings who, once attracted to one another, cause misery to others. The reader is not supposed to see their "love" as healthy or right. Theirs is accursed. It has good reason to be forbidden.

Practically every character in Wuthering Heights ends up with the wrong person, and they pay dearly for it. Emily Brontë's story is about a love that is negative and tragic, much like William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which is also misunderstood to be one of the greatest love stories ever.

Talking of negative, I remember that the narrative of this book could get very confusing, at least at first. It tells the POV of a future outsider/tenant, Mr Lockwood, of the house of 'Wuthering Heights', who hears the story of Cathy (senior) and old Heathcliff from their old nurse Mrs Dean, and the stories go back and forth from past to present. It's kind of like 'Inception' only no one's asleep. And the relations between the characters would require a very intricate family tree to fully grasp.

But over time, I thought this added to the intelligence and mysteriousness of 'Wuthering Heights'. Complicated, but brave and daring.

Maybe I'll reread it sometime and remember other details and themes that I should talk about in a review. But for now, I'll conclude that I fondly remember feeling that this story was lovely in a grim and macabre fashion.

Yeah I'm a little weird sometimes. Then again, so is this novel.

Final Score: 4/5