Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Incest, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Everyone in this book needs therapy, a Warmie, and a new book they've never read before.
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief
So let me say some basic and trite (but none the less true to how I feel) things about Wuthering Heights.
First and foremost, Brontë's toxic, passionate speeches from Heathcliff and Catherine (Sr.) about each other fuck severely. Catherine's "Nelly, I am Heathcliff" confession? Healthcliff's proclamation about the depth of Catherine's affection for him compared to Linton? The "You say I killed you - haunt me, then!" argument? All bangers. Go off, you absolute maniacs.
Secondly, and speaking of the haunting by Catherine of Heathcliff, the thread of her ghost trying to get into Wuthering Heights throughout the tale is sewn into the story with just enough detail to be compelling without being overwrought - from the early scene Lockhood witnesses all the way to Heathcliff's death under the open window. I especially like the lack of concrete proof of the ghost and the skepticism of the storytellers themselves.
And now, thirdly, the storytellers and the frame story in general have been fun to turn over in my head. From the beginning, I wondered, why are Lockwood and Nelly our narrators? I think there are dozens of valid answers to this question. Two of my favorites includeto create distance from the narrative to drop details & increase unreliability and to provide perspectives closer to the intended readers. I'm especially obsessed with Nelly Dean and the constant interjections of her opinions into her retelling.
Something specific to the audiobook version that I listened to - the Spotify version read by Billie Fulford-Brown - is that it was read fantastically. Fulford-Brown clearly had a great handle on the text, reading all the dialogue with accurate emotion. She also gave the characters distinct voices without being over-the-top. Her performance made Brontë's mid-19th century prose much more accessible.
Anyway. There's a lot more I could say about Wuthering Heights - for example, Brontë's descriptions of the moors are a masterclass in thematic use of setting - but I'll cut myself off here, lest I write a whole paper. Let me end by saying it's fucked up that Kate Bush managed to successfully summarize and convey the main storyline of such a complex book in a 4.5-minute song after only watching the last ten minutes of a movie adaptation.
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement, Racial slurs, Kidnapping
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Classism
Graphic: Emotional abuse
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Racial slurs
Also on this read, I was more interested in the structure and style. The use of two unreliable narrators is so brilliantly done, where Mr. Lockwood’s diary-style narrative depends entirely on an abbreviated version of Nelly Dean’s narrative, which depends entirely on her retelling of events that happened to other people nearly three decades ago. The layers of bias between us and the events of the story create a feeling of always viewing the action through a fun-house mirror, with the melodrama rendered farcical and the broodiness of the characters and the moors deepening into supernatural terror.
Ultimately, who but an isolated and introverted young woman confined to the English moors, writing under an alias, defying the strictures of her zealous Christian family members could have written a story even her own sister would later caution is maybe too dark? (Charlotte’s posthumous introduction to the novel is overly apologetic and explanatory to a degree that I really dislike, but her note that her sister’s writing was “moorish, and wild, and knotty as a root of heath” is perfectly said).
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent
Minor: Pregnancy
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Self harm, Stalking, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism
Minor: Animal cruelty