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A review by rebecca_oneil
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
3.0
2020 Read Harder Challenge: Read a book that takes place in a rural setting. And how! "No more runnings away! Where would you go?" The isolation of the houses in this book really informs the plot. This was another book I read with my grandma during the 2020 pandemic, discussing every few days over FaceTime. This one was HARD, especially with the multiple generations, story within a story (sometimes 3 levels deep), and similar names (Heathcliff/Hindley, Cathy/Catherine).
I managed to get through school without reading this one, so my first read of it as an adult was...interesting. Somehow I thought this was a swoonworthy romance?? Oh Heathcliff...Catherine...the moors! And although I guess you could say that a doomed couple is sort of romantic in a Romeo-and-Juliet kind of way, I just did not find anything to root for here, other than some character getting out of this cesspool of cruelty. Heathcliff was especially horrifying, with his physical abuse, mental abuse, casual threats of death and "vivisection," and ability to take away any escape from those under his thumb. Blergghh. No good feelings about the characters, although I do admire Emily Bronte for writing it. Oh, and when I first put this on my To-Read list in 2017, it was because it had a new Twilight-esque cover: it's "Edward and Bella's favorite book." Whew, where to start??
Quotes:
"I'd be glad of a retaliation that wouldn't recoil on myself; but treachery and violence are spears pointed on both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies."
"Don't you think Hindley would be proud of his son, if he could see him? almost as proud as I am of mine. But there's this difference; one is gold put to the use of paving-stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver."
"You're not much, are you, Linton?"
[about their own personal ideas of heaven] "He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine, and began to grow very snappish."
I managed to get through school without reading this one, so my first read of it as an adult was...interesting. Somehow I thought this was a swoonworthy romance?? Oh Heathcliff...Catherine...the moors! And although I guess you could say that a doomed couple is sort of romantic in a Romeo-and-Juliet kind of way, I just did not find anything to root for here, other than some character getting out of this cesspool of cruelty. Heathcliff was especially horrifying, with his physical abuse, mental abuse, casual threats of death and "vivisection," and ability to take away any escape from those under his thumb. Blergghh. No good feelings about the characters, although I do admire Emily Bronte for writing it. Oh, and when I first put this on my To-Read list in 2017, it was because it had a new Twilight-esque cover: it's "Edward and Bella's favorite book." Whew, where to start??
Quotes:
"I'd be glad of a retaliation that wouldn't recoil on myself; but treachery and violence are spears pointed on both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies."
"Don't you think Hindley would be proud of his son, if he could see him? almost as proud as I am of mine. But there's this difference; one is gold put to the use of paving-stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver."
"You're not much, are you, Linton?"
[about their own personal ideas of heaven] "He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine, and began to grow very snappish."