Wuthering Heights...Finally

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Dear Reader,

Because this is a classic, I took the liberty of assuming most people have read it, so I talk about the book in its entirety. If you still want to read it without any foreknowledge of the plot, skip this disillusioned review.

Sincerely,
The Reviewer

“Wuthering Heights” is one of those books – the kind that academics and literary purists rave about. After all, it was written by a Bronte. I had always felt like I should read it. I was an English major after all, but I did not actually sit down and do it until my sister insisted that I should give in and find out why Heathcliff was actually crying on the moors.

I cannot pretend to have liked this book. The characterization is powerful and the scenery haunting, but the characters, themselves, are unlikeable. They are horrible to each other, not mention that they are beyond incestuous. I know Austen’s characters also married their cousins, but this was like dinner in Appalachia where you don’t know if your aunt is your mom or your sister or your grandmother.

My main question though is why do women talk about Heathcliff as a brooding romantic. Yes, he loved Cathy, and yes, he was treated cruelly as a child. However, his behavior probably killed Cathy, and that is just the beginning of his deplorable behavior. When he was starving himself, I just wanted him to hurry and die so the book would end.

Sorry Jewels. I will take through the English countryside with you though. I am sure it just as lovely Miss Bronte described.