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Helpful Links & Tips

Meet All 19 Characters of Wuthering Heights (Spoiler Free). This post was very helpful to identify the character during my reading journey. As I was reading the book, all of the characters and the children of the main characters got mixed together, so it was nice that I had it all organized in one post.

How Carole Baskin and Heathcliff are Both Murders. I had so much fun writing this heavily sarcastic conspiracy theory.

Wuthering Heights Fuled Into Pop Culture. This is a very interesting post on how Wuthering Heights has been brought into pop culture today. 

Synopsis

Literature’s equivalency to Disney’s Maleficent, Wuthering Heights sheds a light into the dark tunnel of Heathcliff. One of literary’s epic villain, Heathcliff intense and wild obsession for Catherine Earnshaw turns into a revenge onto Catherine’s family and her husbands, Edgar Lintons family. Full of dark imagery, characters who come out the page, and a story of how dangerous love can be, this book is a classic love story like no other. 

Synopsis by the publisher

Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë, written between October 1845 and June 1846, and published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. It was her first and only published novel: she died aged 30 the following year. The decision to publish came after the success of her sister Charlotte’s novel, Jane Eyre. After Emily’s death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering Heights, and arranged for the edited version to be published as a posthumous second edition in 1850. Wuthering Heights is the name of the farmhouse on the Yorkshire moors where the story unfolds. The book’s core theme is the destructive effect that jealousy and vengefulness have, both on the jealous or vengeful individuals and on their communities. Although Wuthering Heights is now widely regarded as a classic of English literature, it received mixed reviews when first published, and was considered controversial because its depiction of mental and physical cruelty was so unusually stark. In the second half of the 19th century, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was considered the best of the Brontë sisters’ works, but later critics argued that Wuthering Heights was superior. Wuthering Heights has inspired adaptations, including film, radio and television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor, a ballet, operas (by Bernard Herrmann, Carlisle Floyd, and Frédéric Chaslin), a role-playing game, and a 1978 song by Kate Bush.

Do you recommend this book? Should I read this book?

If you are a huge fan of romance, tragedies, and gothic literature, this book is a must. Wuthering Heights has been known to inspire many romance novels, tv shows, and movies. 

But this book isn’t for everyone. You either love it or you hate it. Many people hate this book because of Heathcliff. Heathcliff is a dark character who has many flaws and enemies. It’s also important to note that in this book, Heathcliff has a past, and one of the beauties of this book is that it tells the reader about Heathcliff. He’s one of those characters that no matter how destructive he can be, it’s nearly impossible to turn away. 

I would read 50 pages of this book, and if you don’t like it, then you can put it away. 

Which Edition Should I Read?

My recommendation is the Norton edition, linked above. The Norton edition has introduction essays, definitions to vocabulary and phrases, and translations. Especially since this book uses old english, this edition really makes it worth your buck.

If you don’t mind the old English, and you think you got it, any edition works! Just remember that this book is in the public domain, meaning it’s free to read and to print and reproduce, so if any edition is charging you too much, they are scamming you. 

Things to consider before you choose to read the book:

1. This book uses old English.
2. This does show dark elements of animal cruelty, mental and physical abuse, and bullying. 
3. This book is narrated by more than one author so it may confuse the reader. 
4. The book moves back and forth in time. 

Favorite Quotes:

Do you mark those two lines between your eyes; and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched, sink in the middle; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil’s spies?

Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! . . . It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul

I’m tired of being enclosed here. I’m wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there: not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart: but really with it, and in it.

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