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A review by solliereads
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is pure brilliance in my sincere opinion! It took me a while to get stuck into it, but once I managed to, I could immediately see why this had become a gothic classic and has been considered a masterpiece on Brontë's part.
I think the biggest mistake you can make when reading Wuthering Heights is to misunderstand the story of Heathcliff and Catherine as a love story - it is a tale of love, but it certainly isn't a love story or a romance in any sense of the word. It feels like a warning, more than a romantic story, that one will live a miserable and miserly life if one lets themselves become bitterly consumed by passion and regret, and real tragedy lies in what could have been of them if Catherine had pushed aside her thoughts of "marrying beneath her", or even what Heathcliff could have made of himself if he had let Catherine go in peace from his mind and his memory. I also appreciate the fact that we never see to in depth into the minds of Catherine Earnshaw or Heathcliff themselves - they feel more so like the performers in a play, that everyone around them reacts to with their own narratives full of bias. It's honestly genius.
I've seen reviews that the writing style is longwinded and dull, and had prepared myself for it but I personally found it incredibly gripping and I think it's more of an issue somebody might have personally with the genre and literary style. It's really no less longwinded or dull than other classics that I've read and loved, such as Crime and Punishment or, by another Brontë sister, Jane Eyre. Overall, I absolutely recommend this novel.
I think the biggest mistake you can make when reading Wuthering Heights is to misunderstand the story of Heathcliff and Catherine as a love story - it is a tale of love, but it certainly isn't a love story or a romance in any sense of the word. It feels like a warning, more than a romantic story, that one will live a miserable and miserly life if one lets themselves become bitterly consumed by passion and regret, and real tragedy lies in what could have been of them if Catherine had pushed aside her thoughts of "marrying beneath her", or even what Heathcliff could have made of himself if he had let Catherine go in peace from his mind and his memory. I also appreciate the fact that we never see to in depth into the minds of Catherine Earnshaw or Heathcliff themselves - they feel more so like the performers in a play, that everyone around them reacts to with their own narratives full of bias. It's honestly genius.
I've seen reviews that the writing style is longwinded and dull, and had prepared myself for it but I personally found it incredibly gripping and I think it's more of an issue somebody might have personally with the genre and literary style. It's really no less longwinded or dull than other classics that I've read and loved, such as Crime and Punishment or, by another Brontë sister, Jane Eyre. Overall, I absolutely recommend this novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Child abuse, and Racism