Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

 "I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free!"

Full disclosure, this was our Book Club pick for the month of January. I have actually never read Wuthering Heights before now so it was an interesting take on a classic I heard so much about. I used to hear that this story was one of the greatest love stories ever written, and...I'm not sure I agree with that. 

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Started: November 28th, 2023

Finished: January 8th, 2024

Synopsis: The story follows Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw as they navigate their love in this gothic novel. Heathcliff, a ward of the Earnshaw's, grows up abused by the family who raised him and the only person who treated him with kindness was Catherine. After a new family, the Lintons move into Wuthering Heights, Catherine becomes enamored with Edgar Linton though she still has feelings for Heathcliff. Heathcliff leaves for some years and becomes educated, marrying another woman vowing revenge on the family that abused him. 

Review: I will be complete honest...I was confused solely by the names in this novel. By the time Catherine and Heathcliff had their children respectively, it seemed like their only purpose was to confuse the hell out of the reader. Heathcliff naming his son Linton, after the man who took Catherine away? Catherine naming her own daughter Cathy, but who is also sometimes referred to as Catherine? And then there are all of the H names. Hareton, Hindley, Heathcliff. When it comes to editing these gothic novels, let's just say that sometimes they weren't. 

But let's go back to the actual story. The actual writing is beautiful. Bronte describes the moors in this beautiful way, creating an image in the readers head of where Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange would be. I was also intrigued that this story was told through an outside perspective, which made it seem like everyone in the novel was interested in Heathcliff and Catherine like a dramatic soap opera. Everyone wanted to know all of the details of this love triangle, er square?

Going back to what I said earlier about this being a love story. I can see where some people might think it is, but maybe its because I'm older than when you are traditionally supposed to read this (high school), I have a more cynical view of it. Heathcliff has some issues. Mainly anger issues. Though he loved Catherine, he knew deep down that she could never be with him because of his status as a servant. And with Hindley out to get him from the beginning, there was no way their love would have been accepted. So when Catherine and Edgar meet, it seems like a socioeconomic match in heaven. Heathcliff later marries Isabella Linton, Edgar's sister and proceeds to treat her badly because she is not Catherine. Talk about red flags. 

It even gets to a point so bad that when Catherine dies in childbirth, Heathcliff wants his son, Linton to marry Cathy, Catherine's daughter as revenge for him not being able to marry Catherine. Like who does that? How is that romantic? This seems like a man who desperately wants to control things and that is normal for that day in age since men were in control of almsot everything in the 19th century. And who takes the brunt of all of that anger and control? The women in the story. Poor Cathy ends up marrying Linton, who then dies, and since the only other guy around is Hareton, she ends up together with him at the end and Heathcliff, on his deathbed, accepts the marriage and dies and is plotted next to Catherine. 

Final Thoughts: The thing that got me through this book was the language. There was a certain style that the Bronte sisters had in writing their novels and I admire the fact that they did so especially during the time when they lived. They wrote stories of intrigue and drama which would have been such a surprising feat at the time for a woman. But the fact that Emily wrote a revenge story? I still think that's kind of cool considering that this is mainly marketed as a classic romance. Way to subvert expectations, girl.