Sep 14, 2015 09:14 PM
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Wuthering Heights is a classic novel that has stood the test of time for hundreds of years, it has been adapted into movies and is popular even today, many years since it was first published in 1845. I dont say its an ideal novel that can be recommended to anyone and everyone. It has some gory, gothic dark and tragic elements. Heathcliff's character and his actions may not be morally correct many a times, yet you can empathize with him and understand him knowing the circumstances and prejudices he has faced. Heathcliff is not a hero, he is not even a villain, he is one of the greatest anti-heroes in the history of English Literature. Love him or hate him, but cannot ignore him.
Wuthering Heights is the story of the inmates of Wuthering Heights and their neighbouring residents of Thrushcross Grange. It's a story spanning three generations. But above all its a story of love, betrayal, the prejudices of society and class, revenge and retribution. Its a love story of Heathcliff and Catherine, the pangs of unrequitted love and Heathcliff's solemn goal in life, to be reunited with his love, if not in life than in death.
The narrative style is unique too of this unusual story, it begins Lockwood narrating the story, then the house-keeper Nelly tells him about Heathcliff and Catherine and Lockwood is the one who ends the story.
This is one of the best Gothic romances. It begins with the love-story of Heathcliff and Catherine, ever since they were children, and ends with Wuthering Heights being restored to its former glory with the blossom of love betweem Hareton and Cathy.
The description of the moors where Catherine and Heathcliff played in their childhood, and where peasants report to have seen their ghosts after their deaths, are fascinating and unforgettable aspects of the novel, and so are some of the dialogues like when Catherine says, "My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable."
This is the only novel ever written by Emily Bronte, but enough to have established her literary genius and to establish her mark on the footprints of time.
Its an unusual story not for the faint-hearted but there's some sort of magic in it which once touched will not be forgotten. I've read it twice and willing to read it again.
