All sinners would be miserable in heaven.
Title: Wuthering Heights
Author: Emily Brontë
First Published: 1847
My Rating: 2 of 5 stars (average rating on Goodreads: 3.79)
I would recommend this book to: The reader who enjoys his/her classics with a dash of melodrama.
The Beginning: 1801 – I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.
I was forced to read this for my English literature class back in 2002. I remember detesting it. I found it gloomy, melancholic and utterly boring. It took me forever to finish it as my mind kept wandering whenever I opened it. Some chapters were read without truly understanding what had actually happened.
More than ten years have passed and several other Brontë novels devoured and adored, and I decided I’d matured enough to give this a second chance, only this time I would kick back and try the audio book. I found it had somewhat improved. I particularly enjoyed the parts where we follow the upbringing of Catherine and Heathcliff. I felt this should have been a much more dominant part as it’s so vital to the rest of the story. And much more interesting than the rest of the story.
He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.
But still, I think I got it right the first time around: this story just isn’t for me. It’s freakin boring! The characters are greedy, vindictive and downright stupid. It’s 13 hours/300 pages of people making bad decisions and punishing each other for the past. What a waste of life and love! I guess my instincts were spot on the first time around, and I’m going to stick with my 2-star rating.
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. I believe–I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always–take any form–drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!
So many have read and loved Wuthering Height, but what about you, have you read this one? What do you think of it?
Thaaank yooou!!! Finally someone who understands me! Haha.
I really like classics and decided to give this book a try since a lot of people seem to like it and they say the love story is really good… I have yet to find the amazing love story everyone’s talking about. I didn’t like it. I felt the characters were selfish and cruel to each other, and in the end the whole story was just pointless to me.
I also wrote a review for this and I didn’t go easy on the book, poor thing.
The writing was really good though, that’s the only thing I liked 😛
lipstickandmocha.blogspot.com
I loved this book! My first reading of it was as a teenager and to me it was powerful, moving, tragic, but I was but a teenager with romantic notions. I re-read it as an adult and felt equally moved by it. I visited the landscape where the story was set and saw how perfectly they matched: bleak, wind-swept, almost treeless and forbidding. I could imagine the souls that inhabited such a place and thought that they could hardly be otherwise.
It’s funny how this book divides the waters, people either hate it or love it – I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say it’s just OK!
Thank you both for sharing your thoughts 🙂