A review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

In the past, I have tried to read this book several times. As with many classics, I would only get so far and quit. I always blamed (I still blame, to be truthful) it on the fact that I am a Mom and don't have time to devote to dense books. With my busy schedule, I don't get much time to read and it drives me crazy to read the same book for more than about a week because I feel the need to move on to something else. But lately, I have not been as inclined to give up reading books that I have always wanted to read. I just have to accept that it will take longer to finish some books. It's a work in progress.

Anyway, I am very glad that I stuck it out with Wuthering Heights long enough to finish it this time. It's an amazing book. There were times where all I wanted to do was chuck it across the room and let it gather dust in the corner. But I couldn't. Once I had invested enough time and effort in it, I was hooked.

I can honestly say that I have never read a book that had themes so deeply woven into the story, the descriptions and the characters. I felt darkness, selfishness and desperation throughout the whole book. Truly, it is masterfully written especially once one knows a little about the author. How Emily Brontë could have possibly known enough about these themes in her time period is a mystery.

This may sound argumentative (and weakly so, I admit) but I would have denied this being a love story until about the last 50 pages. To me, everything before that was not love but some kind of evil, ill-fated obsession by some of the most self-serving and vain characters ever written. I decided and tried to see beyond the fact that Ellen Dean's narrative hindered knowing the characters personally. She reported the events as she saw them (or in some cases reported events learned from a third party) and interpreted them herself. How could we, as readers, know better ourselves?

Finally, while he was still horrible and monstrous, I was convinced of the intensity of Heathcliff's true love for Catherine. I finally believed that he was just incapable of managing those feelings in a humane fashion and I felt more connected to him than ever before. That was the point where I stopped wanting to chuck the book. I started seeing it as a truly worthwhile contribution to literature. However, unless I read it again someday with the point of view I had during the last fifty pages and enjoy it more, I will never include it among my favorites.