January is practically over, and I'm finished reading "Wuthering Heights." This post might be a little confusing because, at least for me, the book was confusing. Here's a quick summary for you:
Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries.
First off, I wouldn't say it was a "wild, passionate" story. More like a story of five children who weren't taken care of in their youth who went on to have a painful future. The book itself moved very slowly, but the intense foreboding leaking through the typed script had me reading frantically. Things couldn't end well, I knew. Little did I know how bad they could get!
Heathcliff. Before I started "Wuthering Heights," I figured Heathcliff was some roguish, but romantic guy. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Heathcliff was a total villain throughout. I kept waiting for him to be "saved."
He wasn't. And his death was so unsatisfying.
Believe it or not, Heathcliff didn't earn the "Emily's Least Favorite Character" slot. The maid, Ellen Dean did. She went along with things so easily and allowed them to spin out of control. If anything, a majority of the tragedies in the book can be linked back to her! I also didn't like Lockwood. He wasn't the "hero" I was hoping for.
The story weaved through different time periods in different point of views--which made the plot all the more interesting. It wasn't something I expected from an older novel.
All in all, "Wuthering Heights" is worth the read, just be prepared not to encounter any "real" heroes throughout. The characters are forced to make their own happy endings from what life gave them. Some of them succeeded and some of them succumbed to the darkness that's in all of us.
In the end, I suppose "Wuthering Heights" has human nature woven through it, which might explain why it's such a cherished classic today.
Up next, "Pride and Prejudice," just in time for Valentine's Day!
I've been super excited to write this post. Why? Well, I couldn't keep reading "Wuthering Heights" until I updated you guys, and I stopped at a really pivotol moment for the suffering characters in Ms. Bronte's story.
Hopefully from those few sentences above you can guess what this blog post is going to be about...
In case you can't read between the lines, I'll spell it out.
I'm LOVING "Wuthering Heights."
Which is really, really interesting to me because when I put it on the Classics Challenge list, I didn't expect to like it. In fact, I didn't even know what the book was about other than a vague awareness of brooding Heathcliff and "his" Catherine.
Oh, boy! This novel is bursting with insedoius plots, ill-begotten romance, and the good kind of frustration. I love it.
Of course, if you asked me WHY I like "Wuthering Heights" so much, I might not be able to tell you. There's just something scandalous and dark lurking between the finely crafted sentences. With not previously watching movie to spoil the ending (ahem, "Little Women..."), I can't help but rush toward the last page to see how everything plays out.
SPOILER ALERTS BELOW. READ AT YOUR OWN PLOT-RELATED PERIL.
I despise Heathcliff. Like seriously. The only literary character I might have disliked more than him might be Professor Umbridge. Or other archetypes of that ilk. UGH! He's just such a nasty, selfish, INSANE person.
Unfotunately I can't view him as the "villian" I'm sure he's intended to be. All I can think about it a Klondike Bar...
Ms. Bronte has pulled off the multiple POVs splendidly and the alternating timelines without causing confusion. I can't wait to jump back into "Wuthering Heights" and see if Heathcliff is successful with his revenge, or not...
I'm seriously hoping for the "not," but seeing how the book starts, things don't look good.
"Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves." ~Emily Brontë
The second author in our year-long Classics Challenge is another unmarried writer, Ms. Emily Jane Brontë. I was excited to delve into the background of this famous woman. First because we share the same name. And second because her older sister, Charlotte, and younger sister, Anne, are other classic authoresses. Literary love ran in the family!
Despite their love for fiction, the Brontë family suffered their share of sorrow. At the age of three, Emily lost her mother to cancer. In a few years her older sisters, Elizabeth and Maria, would die of tuberculosis. Charlotte, Branwell (brother), Emily, and Anne were the only surviving Brontë children.
Although tragedy burdened Emily in her early life, she enjoyed her life on the moors of Hathworth. She loved imagining stories with her siblings. Her fictional world of "Gondal," which she created with Anne Brontë, was a key setting in many of her early stories.
As "Ellis Bell," Emily wrote and published her only novel Wuthering Heights. Readers weren't sure what to make of Wuthering Heights and it wasn't until Emily's death in 1848 (of tuberculosis), that the novel obtained literary acclaim.
Emily Brontë lived to be 30 years old.
Writerly Things to Learn from Emily Brontë
1. It's okay to be shy. Emily tried going to a school where her sister Charlotte taught, but returned home after only a few months. She was a definite homebody.
2. Stretching and sharing your imagination makes it stronger. Emily spent her childhood imagining with her siblings. No doubt it helped her grow into a wonderful writer!
3. Dabbling is fun. Emily didn't just write novels. She created poetry and short stories as well. Don't confine yourself to a box.
4. Not everyone will get you. Critics didn't know what to think of Emily's Wuthering Heights. Even today people read too much into the plot. Write what you love, regardless of what "critics" claim.
Now onto Wuthering Heights! You're welcome to join in. The more, the merrier.
