Name: Vojtech's review of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Item: Wuthering Heights
Rating: 2
Author: Vojtech

Emily Brontë

Wuthering Heights

sharkie

My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind.

It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know I love him: and that, not because he's handsome Nelly, but because he is more myself than I am.

Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's only novel. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte. The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centres (as an adjective, wuthering is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.

Elizabeth Park

he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same.

Alexis Prowell

If I were in heaven, Nelly, I Should be extremely miserable. 

 Because you are not fit to go there I answered.'All sinner would be miserable in heaven.’

soph 

'I never told my love" vocally; still, if looks have language, the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears: she understood me

Stavros Kosmas

They are afraid of nothing, together they would brave Satan and all his legions. 

I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth. 

I am going to her; and you, darling child, shall come to us! 

He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine 

[…], or watching the birds, joint tenants, feed and entice their young ones to fly: or nestling with closed lids, half thinking, half dreaming, happier than words can express.

You said I killed you — haunt me then! 

Julie <3

… and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.

… he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire. 

Miranda Watson

 Be with me always-take any form-drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where cannot find you!

I Love my murderer but yours — how can I ?

Two words would comprehend my future — death and hell: existence after losing her, would be hell. Yet I was a fool to fancy for a moment that she valued Edgar Linton’s attachment more than mine. If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love us much in 80 years as I could in a day. And Catherine has a heart as deep as I have: the sea could be as readily contained in that horse-trough, as her whole affection be monopolized by him

It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but the honcysuckles embracing the thorn. 

Avarni B

It was a strange way of killing: not by inches, but by fractions of hairbreadths, to beguile me with the spectre of a hope through eighteen years!'

Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you –haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers

they may bury me twelve feet deep, and throw the church down over me, but I won't rest till you are with me.

I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free; and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them!

I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of our separation again

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same

'You needn't have touched me!' he answered, following her eye and snatching away his hand. 'I shall be as dirty as I please: and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty.'

Vojtech

miraj

introduce a horrible character, make them go through insane shit. introduce ANOTHER insufferable chacarter, make them burn in the pits of hell. ask for me to care about them and their relaitonships. if there was a 0 star option i would give this book -5. worst read of my 2022.

In nineteenth-century Yorkshire, the passionate attachment between a headstrong young girl and a foundling boy brought up by her father causes disaster for them and many others, even in the next generation.

Lynn

Solid 3.5 ⭐️ (rounded down for the dreary middle). This was an interesting one, I had to trudge through the middle, but quite enjoyed the beginning and ending. I definitely think this is a classic that I’ll come to enjoy more over time. This book is Drama central. A lot of it seems unnecessary in the first half of the book, but starts to make more sense in the second story. Although I did feel this book could have ended at various points throughout the story, and it might be longer than need be. I did enjoy the descriptions at times, although I am still getting used to Victorian English. My favourite character is either Isabella or Hareton due to their “I’m a side character but I have main character vibes” energy. I think this book might be better upon a re-read when tabbing & highlighting, and when I can ignore the blatant incest that is the bane of my existence in this book (why does everyone have to be cousins and fall in love??). Overall I enjoyed it more than I thought I would when at the halfway point.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Aimee Lou Wood (from Sex Education) & Kristin Atherton - they did a marvellous job. I also accompanied my reading experience with Course Hero videos. Although I didn’t always get the same feeling or stance on the book, it helped me understand and follow some of tht themes and symbols, as well as catch onto any plot events I might have missed.

Highly enjoyed. Can't wait to get stuck into some TV adaptations.

Genie Martin

Lacy W

Title: Wuthering Heights
Author: Emily Bronte
Genre: Classic Romance
Format: own leatherbound book
Series: N/A
Star Rating: 3 stars 

Please note that this is a review from 2016. At that time, I did not keep track of trigger warnings so apologies. Young Lacy did not know what she was doing back then. 

 this is an updated review. i am going back and editing these reviews as part of my throwback thursday posts on my blog. 

I find it so very difficult to review classics. I feel like you either really love them or you hate them. There is no in-between. At least, that is how I feel. If you hate them, you get judged right away. If you love one, you get judged because it could be a terrible classic with potential racist, sexist, classist, etc ideologies in the book. I think the moral of this story is just not to read any classics and don’t tell anyone you haven’t read any classics. But then you have to deal with people saying “YoU’Ve NeVeR rEaD tHiS?!?” It’s rather annoying. 

Anyway, I've made a promise to myself to start reading more classics and ignore my own advice. I've read Pride and Prejudice which was very difficult for me. The wording was so different than what I am used to. Frankenstein was so much easier to read. I figured Wuthering Heights should be next which was a little easier than Pride but more difficult than Frankenstein

So now on to the actual review. There was seriously so much drama in this book. I think the basic plot was just drama. It was just so ridiculous, I could barely keep up with who hated who or who loved who. Most of the characters really just irritated me. The only one I truly liked was Nelly who was the narrator for a good portion of the book. She was so honest about everything. She kept nothing back. I feel like she would make a perfect friend if she had lived during this time.

Catherine (the older one) was beyond irritating. She was a major drama queen. I'm sorry, but if she wanted Heathcliff so damn bad, she should have married him. Instead, she acted stuck up and too good for him. I don't blame him for leaving after the things she said about him. And then when she got married to Mr. Linton, she basically disregarded all feelings for him. She continually chose Heathcliff over him. I felt bad for the guy (for a little bit anyway). Don't even get me started on her temper tantrums.

Heathcliff really was no better. He was a wild hooligan that was cruel. He basically kidnapped Cathy (the younger one) and Nelly and forced Cathy to marry his son. Who does that? Was that even acceptable back then? He was just a mean man. To be honest, Catherine and Heathcliff deserved each other because of how terrible they both were.

The plot itself was okay. I just can't understand how it's considered a great love story. Catherine and Heathcliff caused nothing but problems for everybody around them. There is no love at all; there is just constant toxicity. How anybody put up with that, I will never know.

Yes, I know that this review is a little negative. I...just couldn't really get into this book. I'm glad that I read it because I need to read more classics but other than that...meh. I hope that my review doesn't deter others from reading this book. I think other people will enjoy it. It just wasn't for me.

Linnéa Löfström

The passionate love of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff mirrors the powerful moods of the Yorkshire moors.

"i cannot live without my life! i cannot live without my soul!”
 

emily brontë’s novel ‘wuthering heights’ is a classic literature masterpiece, that is a story of both love, and revenge. this is the book that made me fall in love with literature, and for that, it will always be a favourite. brontë's ability to write a novel with such unlikeable characters and toxic relationships, yet still it make it one of the most extraordinary works of fiction to ever exist, should be (and is) studied. 


  “i have not broken your heart — you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”


this dark, haunting, and tragic tale follows the relationship between catherine and heathcliff as it turns from an innocent childhood friendship to a soul-crushing and all-consuming romance that inevitably tears them apart. too proud and stubborn to admit they love the other more than they love themselves, their fate to spend eternity without one another was sealed from the very beginning.

Zoitsa Diakoumis

— lae

i too like me some classic horror and unlikeable characters

Been a while since I’ve read a book with a cast made entirely up of despicable people. The framing device used was interesting though, and I’m glad I read it insofar as the benefit of reading classics I don’t enjoy go. (Aka, I like the history behind the novel and the many potential conversations I’d enjoy sparked from it… but I did not, in fact, enjoy the novel as I would like to enjoy novels.)

Brianna

A work of genius. Keep in mind this is a dark book, 

A work of genius. Keep in mind this is a dark book, not a romance. 

Charlotte Brontë

Emily

In a house haunted by memories, the past is everywhere . . . As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter at the strange, grim house Wuthering Heights. It is a place he will never forget. There he will come to learn the story of Cathy: how she was forced to choose between her well-meaning husband and the dangerous man she had loved since she was young. How her choice led to betrayal and terrible revenge - and continues to torment those in the present.

Jamieson

FIRST OF ALL why were they hurting so many puppies ??

Honestly, this book just didn't work with me. I like classics but I found this unbelievably boring, and I just didn't feel anything for any aspect of this novel. I was filled with apathy reading it and I just couldn't immerse myself in the world enough to care about what was happening at all. 

I do think Emily Bronte has a genuine gift for writing, and I think I possible just read this at a bad time (I am considering I may reread it another time) but the whole story just wasn't working for me. 

I thought I would find some vicious satisfaction in Heathcliff's return and his grand plot of revenge but I just found his character whiny and annoying. I hated the way the accents were written out because I had no idea what anyone was saying. 

I liked Cathy 1 & 2 as characters, and Hareton as well but beside that I just felt pretty meeeeeh toward the whole thing

Catherin Earnshaw's passionate declaration is the focus of a novel in which relations between men and women have never been more powerfully depicted. When young Heathcliff comes to live at Wuthering Heights he forms an intense bond with Catherine, who loves him but cannot tame his rought and uncouth ways. When she seems to spurn him, Heathcliff plans a terrible revenge on Edgar Linton, the man who has usurpted him, and on everyone connected with Linton. Only through the next generation can the promise of redemption be encatcted.

Emily Bronte's extraordinary novel has a haunting intensity forever linked with the grave-defying passion of Catherine and Heathcliff. Its ingenious strucuture, vivid evocation of landscape, and startling depction of men and women at their most depraved and exalted, have given it a unique place in English literature. This edition explores the novel's many interpretations and reproduces the authoritative Clarendon text.
(back cover)

Lilli Anderson

This book was not at all how i thought it would be, it’s a story about abuse and obsession. Who in the world thinks this is a romance?? Heathcliff is such a horrible and abusive character, it could be argued he’s a result of his nurture. It was weird af and i hated basically every character apart from Nelly.

Sade A

🖤
Colour me suprised, impressed and wow because hand to the book gods, never in my wildest dreams did i think Wuthering heights would suck me in and keep me up till 1am raging about characters'.

Emily Bronte's imagination must have been wild because this story had me ready to spill blood. I basically wanted to murder Heathcliff. What an absolute despicable shit of a human being. If anyone ever says i will love you like Heathcliff please run. The absolute horror of it.

🖤🖤
Also this is me to anyone that looks favourably on whatever Heathcliff and Catherine had going on:
 
 

especially on Heathcliff's part. That dude was pure evil.

P.s: The life of women really was absolute shit (I mean it's still shit but less shitty than before) because everything that happened could have been avoided if women could inherit.

🖤
All in all, i really enjoyed this book and would totally recommend it.

Certainly the best Brontë book and my all time favourite book. A truly timeless read where the language is so sophisticated. I could not get enough of this masterpiece.

Selina 

Jasmine Stanway

So- this book is a roller coaster. It is completely amazing, but I cannot believe it’s been categorized as a romance novel for so many years. Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw are psychotic, and literally deserved everything that happened to them. As much as I enjoyed reading all of the craziness, I was equally shocked and appalled at the actions of these two characters. I was definitely the most invested in the characters in the second half of the book, after Cathy Linton is born. You could empathize with her, Linton and Hareton and like them so much more than our original cast of characters from the first half (excepting Nelly and Edgar of course). This book is intelligent, well written, thrilling and pretty much everything you’d expect from a Bronte. But it is not a romance and should not be glorified as one. If anything, it’s a psychological thriller.

Dark and gloomy read, but undeniably beautifully written and I'm glad I stuck through with it until the end.

Genevieve Hayes

esma

Joshua Line

premise: first-person/omniscient view of domestic squalor meets abusive states in hallucination. Death, ghosts, goblins, metaphor.

Wuthering Heights, first published in 1847, the year before the author's death at the age of thirty, endures today as perhaps the most powerful and intensely original novel in the English language. “Only Emily Brontë,” V.S. Pritchett said about the author and her contemporaries, “exposes her imagination to the dark spirit.” And Virginia Woolf wrote, “It is as if she could tear up all that we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognisable transparencies with such a gust of life that they transcend reality. Hers, then, is the rarest of all powers. She could free life from its dependence on facts, with few touches indicate the spirit of a face so that it needs no body; by speaking of the moor make the wind blow and the thunder roar.”

Source: http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780553212587&view=print

tina

Wuthering Heights was undeniably a dark read, which I had not expected at all. It isn't a dark read with a fantasy element in it. I can't clearly explain it. All I can say is that it was a different kind of dark to the other dark books I've read. It had ghosts, villainous characters, a picture perfect horror manor house, dark skies and grey clouds, you name it. Like I said, undeniably dark. This book was filled with unlikeable characters with unreasonable motives, but this doesn't mean I didn't like it. 

I had a bit of trouble getting into the story at first. But as I continued to read it, I've come to understand what the story's all about and where it's going. As for the characters, they were very unlikeable in my opinion. I left the book not even claiming a favorite. Each character either had a peevish or wicked characteristic or both. And it baffles me (in a good way) as to why Emily Brontë chose such characters for her story. 

Heathcliff, most especially, was wicked to the bone. And this was mostly because he was driven by revenge. It makes me feel sorry for him because he has wasted his time on seeking vengeance when he could've proved himself a better man than his tormentor. All throughout the story, I'm guessing Brontë wanted the readers to feel sympathy towards Heathcliff, but I failed to feel such emotion for him. Although I didn't despise him as well, mind you. 

The ending was intriguing, although at first I kind of just felt satisfaction because of what Mr. Lockwood states. But Brontë was smart enough to leave the ending to us readers, depending on how we understood it in our own perception now that we know the whole story. Mr. Lockwood states, in the end, that Heathcliff and Catherine will finally be at peace. But come to think of it, putting the names of Heathcliff and Catherine beside peace is unlikely. And it makes me wonder, are you sure about that Mr. Lockwood?

Honey 🍯 

I'd never had a love-hate relationship with a book before I read Wuthering Heights. I frowned in agony throughout its entirety. It was fast, tumultuous, dark and haunting. The moment I finished the book, I had just one question for the author: "Are you okay, Emily?" 

First published in three volumes under the masculine pseudonym Ellis Bell in 1847, Wuthering Heights is described as one of the most daunting gothic novels ever. With its unlikable characters, unsettling plot and the themes it explores, it is no surprise that it was highly controversial at the time of its release and is still so even today. 

I was totally blown away by the magnitude of Emily's imagination. How someone could draft such a grand storyline with such complex characters, and yet revolve the entire plot between two dwellings which are barely four miles apart, is beyond the scope of my brain. 

The book was exceedingly unique. The narration itself was the most unconventional part. The entire story being described by a servant to a guest was both absurd (can we trust Nelly?) and astounding (since it shows how important she was). Reading the various layers of this narrative was a challenge within itself but was immensely rewarding. 

I loved how it is no event or character but actually 'nature' which makes the changes and the storyline dance around. The way seasons are portrayed and each of their nuances is brought about, is jaw-dropping. It is as if you're actually a part of whatever had happened within Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. 

I perhaps did not like any character at all, except Hareton Earnshaw and Edgar Linton to some extent. Most of them were materialistic and shallow with intense emotions and passions. Heathcliff was too selfish and brutal. Catherine too full of herself. Emily's choice of an anti-hero lead for the sole novel she ever published is intriguing. 

The main takeaway for me was that whatever feeling was shared by Catherine and Heathcliff (I'm not sure if I can call it love), it was too much for this world. And perhaps they could find it only in the next.

i loved the quotes and the story was catching, but some of the characters (yes, i'm looking at you, heathcliff) were really insufferable (but i guess it was the point)

Nikola

Gayathri Jinesh

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.

Cime tempestose

Lia 

** spoiler alert **
           Mi stupisce il fatto di avere apprezzato questo romanzo, per il semplice fatto che ho odiato ogni personaggio, chi più, chi meno (forse salverei l'irrilevante Mr. Lockwood ed Ellen, che sembra l'unica ad avere un po' di buon senso). Eppure, sebbene i difetti di ognuno dei membri delle due famiglie che si vengono a confrontare siano di gran lunga maggiori rispetto ai loro pregi, ho spesso provato nei loro confronti non solo odio, ma anche pietà. D'altronde essi mettono a nudo una mostruosità che è propria dell'essere umano, e che fortunatamente sopperisce in nome del "bene". La storia poi -nelle sue innumerevoli sfaccettature- mi ha coinvolto come pochi altri romanzi, così come i purtroppo sporadici riferimenti mistici, che a mio parere, sarebbe stato apprezzabile approfondire.

Fleur van Ravesteijn 

I’d rather give 3.5 stars but I can’t so there you go. I love Emily’s writing style, but the story itself didn’t really do much for me. I enjoyed its darkness but couldn’t really relate to any of the characters and I missed feeling connected to them. Heathcliff was the only character I found truly fascinating and even he lacks some depth, to my taste.

Los mejores libros jam�s escritos. Una de las mayores historias de amor de la literatura y quiz� la mejor representante del Romanticismo ingl�s. Cumbres borrascosas, la �pica historia de Catherine y Heathcliff, situada en los sombr�os y desolados p�ramos de Yorkshire, constituye una asombrosa visi�n metaf�sica del destin o, la obsesi�n, la pasi�n y la venganza. Con ella, Emily Bront�, que se vio obligada a ocultar su g�nero publicando sus obras bajo seud�nimo, rompi� por completo con los c�nones del decoro que la Inglaterra victoriana exig�a en toda novela, tanto en el tema escogido como en la descripci�n de los personajes. La singularidad de su estructura narrativa y la fuerza de su lenguaje la convirtieron de inmediato en una de las obras m�s perdurables e influyentes de la historia de la literatura. Lucasta Miller, autora de The Bront� Myth (2001), analiza en el prefacio de la presente edici�n las diferentes interpretaciones que se han hecho de esta pol�mica obra. A su vez, la introducci�n de la profesora Pauline Nestor da cuenta de las influencias y los or�genes de Emily Bront� como escritora. Por �ltimo, esta edici�n incorpora la nota biogr�fica y el prefacio original, escrito por Charlotte, en el que revelaba su verdadera identidad, junto a un �rbol geneal�gico de los protagonistas de la novela. �Pero mi amor por Heathcliff es como las rocas eternas que hay debajo, un manantial de escaso deleite para la vista, pero necesario.� ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Wuthering Heights is Emily Bront�'s first and only published novel, written between October 1845 and June 1846, and published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell; Bront� died the following year, aged 30. 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 where the story unfolds. The book's core theme is the destructive effect of jealousy and vengefulness both on the jealous or vengeful individuals and on their communities.

Cumbres Borrascosas

Ana M

No esperaba que esta novela me atrapara del modo en el que lo ha hecho. Me acerqué a ella buscando un reposo solaz que me desconectará de las últimas zozobras que había leído. Sin embargo, debo reconocer que me ha sorprendido gratamente la escritura de Emily Brontë y su historia. Esta ha sido recordada como una novela de amor, pero más bien trata el odio, el rencor y la malicia del ser humano. Borrascosas son, sin atisbo de duda, las relaciones interpersonales de sus personajes. Asimismo, otro factor que debería destacar es que me horroriza cómo se ha romantizado la relación entre Catherine y Heathcliff, aunque, en parte, lo puedo llegar a entender.

Reading this must be a form of self-hatred. I did not enjoy this book. 

Vojtech &
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

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