Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Wuthering Heights

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.

Content Warnings

captureeverychapter's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A dark, gloomy, destructive, tragic,manipulative love story of Heathcliff & Catherine Earnshaw.

This is the first classic book that I picked up. I was quite hesitant because let's be real classic books are intimidating. I had to put down the book for two - four days? 'cause I'm having a hard time understanding some of the words, it's prose but i strived and read back and repeatedly read all of the writings I didn't understand and then eventually with my trusty dictionary I got the hang of it. It wasn't easy going through it but no ounce of regret because this is a great story and I fell in love with it.

Content Warnings

autisticmisabel's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

eib_21's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

pysselfia's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.0

yikes my dude it did not need to be that racist

Content Warnings

courtneyfalling's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was my favorite book for a while in high school, and years later, it's still my favorite classic. It's so melodramatic (I've been jokingly calling it an original soap opera), with a lot of great quotes and open-ended angst. I also feel like it brings up issues of race, gender, childhood, literacy, and property ownership with surprising insight for its time period (though those moments can be jarring on their own).

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