Paperback, 400 pages
English language
Published April 11, 2007 by Broadview Press.
Over a hundred and fifty years after its initial publication, Emily Brontë’s turbulent portrayal of the Earnshaws and the Lintons, two northern English households nearly destroyed by violent passions in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, continues to provoke and fascinate readers. Heathcliff remains one of the best-known characters in the English novel, and Catherine Earnshaw’s impossible choice between two rivals retains its appeal for contemporary readers. At the same time, the novel’s highly ambivalent representations of domesticity, its famous reticence about its characters and their actions, its formal features as a story within a story, and the mystery of Heathcliff’s origins and identity provide material for classroom discussion at every level of study.
The introduction and appendices to this Broadview edition, which place Brontë’s life and novel in the context of the developing “Brontë myth,” explore the impact of industrialization on the people of Yorkshire, consider the …
Over a hundred and fifty years after its initial publication, Emily Brontë’s turbulent portrayal of the Earnshaws and the Lintons, two northern English households nearly destroyed by violent passions in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, continues to provoke and fascinate readers. Heathcliff remains one of the best-known characters in the English novel, and Catherine Earnshaw’s impossible choice between two rivals retains its appeal for contemporary readers. At the same time, the novel’s highly ambivalent representations of domesticity, its famous reticence about its characters and their actions, its formal features as a story within a story, and the mystery of Heathcliff’s origins and identity provide material for classroom discussion at every level of study.
The introduction and appendices to this Broadview edition, which place Brontë’s life and novel in the context of the developing “Brontë myth,” explore the impact of industrialization on the people of Yorkshire, consider the novel’s representation of gender, and survey the ways contemporary scholarship has sought to account for Heathcliff, open up multiple contexts within which Wuthering Heights can be read, understood, and enjoyed. Source: broadviewpress.com/product/wuthering-heights-2/?ph=8b92cb992d105b178f714153#tab-description
You thought, there are Klingons and you understand "bortaS bIr jablu'DI' reH QaQqu' nay'" and then you read Wuthering Heights...
You thought, there are Klingons and you understand "bortaS bIr jablu'DI' reH QaQqu' nay'" and then you read Wuthering Heights...
How did I feel about this novel during my sixteenth summer? Too bad I didn't keep any sort of journal. I do remember liking it, and have vague memories of envisioning Heathcliff as some kind of suffering romantic.
This time, at more than three times that age, I still find it a compelling read, but not the one I'd expected. For one thing, I found Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw to be less than appealing, and felt very sorry for Edgar Linton, the man Catherine married. Their lives were fine after marriage, until Heathcliff returns to seek his revenge. He manages to ruin several lives and shorten the life of his beloved Catherine, in the bargain. His anger and hatred turn him into such a miserable, cruel villain that it is hard to retain any sympathy for him. Indeed, my sympathy was with everyone else.
However, after Heathcliff's unrequited love tragedy …
How did I feel about this novel during my sixteenth summer? Too bad I didn't keep any sort of journal. I do remember liking it, and have vague memories of envisioning Heathcliff as some kind of suffering romantic.
This time, at more than three times that age, I still find it a compelling read, but not the one I'd expected. For one thing, I found Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw to be less than appealing, and felt very sorry for Edgar Linton, the man Catherine married. Their lives were fine after marriage, until Heathcliff returns to seek his revenge. He manages to ruin several lives and shorten the life of his beloved Catherine, in the bargain. His anger and hatred turn him into such a miserable, cruel villain that it is hard to retain any sympathy for him. Indeed, my sympathy was with everyone else.
However, after Heathcliff's unrequited love tragedy has run its course, Emily Bronte does provide a happier echo for the ending with the next generation. The blossoming relationship between Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw is actually quite romantic.
At times, it seemed that the Earnshaws and the Lintons were the only families on earth, because whatever happened that did not happen between them or at one of their estates seems very remote. There is a nearby town and church, but they are barely described.
It seems unfathomable to live such a dull, circumscribed life, but then, that was the life of the Bronte sisters. I'm grateful that they had such vivid imaginations! I enjoyed the way the story is told in flashback, by an unreliable narrator, servant Nelly Dean. It's a thought-provoking tale that I would recommend to most.
