Wuthering Heights.

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights was published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell in 1847 because women don’t write books, only they do. Heathcliffe is the hero, or should I say anti-hero. He’s got a hint of gypsy in him, a man’s man that marries Isabella Linton to spite his childhood sweetheart Catherine Earnshaw (hints of incest here) hangs Isabella’s dog from a gatepost to show what kind of man she’s marrying and beats his head against the branch of a tree when Catherine dies. Catherine’s death occurs almost exactly half way through the book. The Grange is four miles from Wuthering Heights but it might as well be the moon. Edgar Linton is bloodless and bland. His sister Isabella’s son Linton, Heathcliffe’s neglected son, is described as a pretty boy but is so insipid and weak he makes Lemsip seem like a cure for cancer. Heathcliffe however contrives that Linton will marry Catherine and Edgar’s daughter, Cathy,  and he will inherit the Grange. Cathy is sixteen, but to today’s reader seems more like a wilful nine-year old. and Linton acts like a four-year-old brat. Women are objects to be married, locked up beaten and scorned. Heathcliffe’s great love for Catherine is to be mirrored in Cathy’s sick love for Linton. All of this is told in flashback by Nelly a housekeeper in both households to a guest at the Grange, Mr Lockwood. Heathcliffe for all his dastardly deeds and plotting, of course, never did more than snatch a kiss from his beloved Catherine Earnshaw. He might be a bit of rough, but sex with a Moor on the moors would have been a bit too much for a Victorian audience. He wants Catherine to haunt him. Ho-hum.

selling myself: http://unbound.co.uk/books/lily-poole

Comments

Agree with you about the cruelty, madness and violence, CM and the characters' wild claims of love when they have a bizarre way of showing it. Why would any sane woman want any of the lads in WH? Why would any sensible man want any of the girls? Best stay single like Nelly Dean. She doesn't own the houses as Heathcliffe organised his marriage and his son's marriage in order to own all the property in the book, she is the housekeeper, but she lives the longest! I've read WH more than once, it's brilliant writing and I used it as additional training material for myself as I used to volunteer at a woman's refuge.I love old Joseph the servant  he is so unhelpful 'Bathroom we doan't have bathrooms here'. Reality again, I once lived in a hostel for a couple of weeks where they only had a shower room and the manager was a Cockney version of Joe.

Live long and prosper Elsie. That's the secret.

 

It's my absolute teen favourite. Studied it and could read it any day of the week. Obsessed by the window symbols, often wonder if Bronte meant anything by her windows at all?! This was sharply written, Celt and I still think you should have a lit review site.