Reviews - Wuthering Heights

24k reviews for:

Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë

3.72 AVERAGE

sjstuart's review against another edition

2.75

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Nearly all of the characters in this book are awful people.

I don't usually subscribe to the view that a main character has to be sympathetic. I can certainly enjoy a book with flawed characters, antiheroes, or one written from the point of view of a villain. But reading this, I learned that I get very little enjoyment from a book where every character is self-centered, petulant, lazy, cruel, vindictive, or violent.

laurencelacroix's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Complicated

lk_dulac's review against another edition

3.25

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Why did I ever thing this was a gothic romance? This was depressing as all hell. Nearly everyone miserable and petty. It was great to read. Some characters I felt for more than others.

I started this read because I heard of the new Wuerthing Heights movie coming out and I heard about the casting choices......yeah after reading this, it's very clear that Heathcliff is not white. It's the literal text of the book. I will be doing my best to avoid this movie.

Once again, this deserves a reread but with a dictionary and a pencil for annotating.

natasha_efjg's review against another edition

3.25

emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

queenslayerbee's review against another edition

5.0

I read the book for the first time about 15 years ago, and only reread it now. I loved it even more than the first time. The atmosphere, the revenge tale, the love story between Catherine and Heathcliff, all the ways these families’ lives affect the others, how you have to parse through Nelly’s account of events… It's perfect.

I still wish I could hit Lockwood in the head with a stick lol. Just once. Not even too hard! But hit him in the head, I would.

darlingfarthings's review against another edition

4.0

is kind of a slay wait i’ll explain later

edit: miz bronte rly sat down and said it’s time for me to write some of the most intensely hideous depictions of love in human history that feel animalistic and savage while being deeply beautiful just like the wild, free beauty of the moors amirite ladies except i’m going to hide it behind some of the most boring intro chapters possible too so the literary wattpad slowly sinks in only later. also not love being our driving force with passion as our inner compasses being of either aesthetic or moral value even when in service of malignancy. i’m also going to have a lot of reality tv esque moments with hilarious takedowns and reaction shots that i probably didn’t intend but could totally make the novel feel like some sort of comedy.

Also this was better than Jane Eyre. Like duh. Fr.

carls00's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

vi4sions's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

chrisljm's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It is no wonder that Wuthering Heights has such a steadfast position in classic literature, and I am left in awe and deep admiration of Emily Brontë’s literary prowess and genius. Parts of the introduction that previews the novel describes it as a “literary force of nature such as you’ve never encountered before” and it “remains almost blindingly original, undimmed in its power to convey the destructive potential of thwarted passion as expressed through the unappeasable fury of a rejected lover”, and even to this day I believe it to still be true.

Despite the novel being told through a mostly second-hand account from the housekeeper, the events of the story is still so luring and alive it makes one forget that these are matters of the past. But what I loved most is how Wuthering Heights has set in its legacy a study of race, class, and revenge, and the powerful effects they place in contact with childhood. This book is grim, bleak, “full of violent acts and even more violent feelings”, and the way suffering and trauma has spun into an angry, vengeful tale.

It is impossible not to feel a level of sympathy for Heathcliff and what his upbringing has lead him to become, but slowly as characters become increasingly tangled, such sympathy and sorrow becomes much more complex as we see how generational trauma and abuse takes on two families.

What further fascinated me was that even for someone who never had much interest in the Bible, it was so interesting seeing all the stories that influenced Brontë’s prose and the allusions to stories from the Bible and other works of literature.

Content Warnings

telor_gulung's review against another edition

4.25

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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