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Author: Emily Bronte

Number of Pages: 384

Publisher: Penguin Books

Release Date: 1847

“Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before: of the intense passion between the foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and her betrayal of him. As Heathcliff’s bitterness and vengeance is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.”

– Goodreads.com

Let me just start by getting this out of the way: THIS NOVEL IS NOT A ROMANTIC LOVE STORY. I’ve read so any reviews and heard so many people gushing about the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff that I honestly thought this book would be adorable. Wuthering Heights is anything but adorable.

This novel is dark, unsettling, dramatic, tumultuous- it reminded me of a storm, wild and intense. The drama of it all was very entertaining, and I felt like I was reading a strange, ridiculous soap opera. Nearly all of the relationships in this story- and certainly the one between Catherine and Heathcliff- are toxic because they don’t like each other for the right reasons. Or, rather, they seem to hardly like each other at all. Why would you want to be with someone that you hate more than half the time? I found myself wondering this throughout the entire novel because it really just didn’t make sense to me. The only character I actually liked in this novel was Nelly, who narrated the majority of the story. She was sort of just a bystander in the whole fiasco so I suppose she can be blamed for not stopping a lot of what happened, but she was pretty much the only one with any sort of common sense. The other characters are ones that you just love to hate, you know? You can’t stand them, but at the same time they’re so entertaining that you don’t really mind reading about them. (Umbridge comes to mind here. If you haven’t known the joy of disliking Umbridge, then you really haven’t lived at all.)

I really liked the ghost elements incorporated into the story, although I do wish that they would have been focused on more. Also, I thought it was very clever how the setting (Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange) and the changing weather played such an important role. Moreover, the way that Emily Bronte experimented with multiple generations of the same family was really interesting. It was neat to see how young Catherine was so much like her mother with her short temper and self-righteous attitude. One thing that disappointed me was the ending- I thought it was rather anticlimactic, especially since there’s such a build-up to it. It happens so suddenly and nonchalantly that I almost couldn’t believe it was the actual ending.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience reading my first Bronte novel. Although Wuthering Heights was quite different from what I initially thought it would be like, I nevertheless thought it was entertaining and extremely well written. One thing is for certain, though: I certainly won’t be shipping Catherine and Heathcliff anytime soon!

My Rating: :0) :0) :0) 3 out of 5 smileys.

Would I recommend it to a friend?: Yes! This is a great classic to read even if you’re just getting into the genre. It’s entertaining, really well written, and is a relatively quick read.

What did you think of this book? Let me know in the comments section below!

Yours,

HOLLY