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Wuthering Heights
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Wuthering Heights
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Wuthering Heights
Audiobook12 hours

Wuthering Heights

Written by Emily Brontë

Narrated by Wanda McCaddon

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Published a year before her death at the age of thirty, Emily Bronte's only novel is set in the wild, bleak Yorkshire Moors. Depicting the relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights creates a world of its own, conceived with an instinct for poetry and for the dark depths of human psychology.

Emily Jane Bronte was born July 30, 1818 at Thornton in Yorkshire. Her father was a minister in the Anglican Church. Emily's mother died in 1821 and her two eldest sisters died in 1825, leaving Emily, her brother and two sisters to be raised by their aunt. In childhood, the daughters were introspective and, having read extensively for entertainment, they began composing a series of stories set in imaginary lands. Later all three daughters were to publish poems and stories. Wuthering Heights, Emily's only novel and one of the most passionately original novels in the English language, was published a year before her death of tuberculosis, December 19, 1847.

Brit, Wanda McCaddon, the narrator of A Room With a View, Wuthering Heights, and Aesop's Fables, has been a newspaper report, university professor and stage, film and TV actress, before beginning to narrate. She has narrated over six hundred titles, won thirteen Earphone Awards, and been featured six years running as one of AudioFile's Golden Voices.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 1, 1981
ISBN9781467610636
Author

Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights. The novel’s violence and passion shocked the Victorian public and led to the belief that it was written by a man. Although Emily died young (at the age of 30), her sole complete work is now considered a masterpiece of English literature.

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Reviews for Wuthering Heights

Rating: 3.8068181818181817 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have the dumbest reason for picking up this book in the first place. I heard of it in Friends (when Phoebe takes literature lessons, it is the first book they read). I could not remember if I read this one in high school, so I picked it up. Also I want to read and own more classics in 2017 (one of my resolutions). I haven't got a big collection, but I am working on it.
    So I read Wuthering Heights at the end of last year and I enjoyed it immensely. I own the Barnes and Noble Classics edition, which came with an introduction, a short biography and a preface by her sister, Charlotte Bronte. I decided to read all of them, since I did not remember much about the Bronte's from school. I am quite confident that reading the biography and a preface made all the difference for me while I was reading this book. Reading Charlotte's description of her sister's only book, how it was rejected by the publishers, her sudden illness and her short-lived life set the right tone for this novel.
    This book is quite different from many that I have read, so I won't be using my usual template of reviewing, but will just share my thoughts instead.
    If this book could talk for itself, it would be screaming its head off with anger. I am simply astonished at how a book about very dull lives of regular people can be so frightening to the reader. It took me a while to read it, because I could only read so many pages a day before I have had enough of madness that were the two main characters. You know when in a book you usually pick your favorite character and then your least favorite one? Well, how about a book in which ALL of the characters are your least favorite ones? Characters so horribly selfish, arrogant, cross, indignant and spiteful that it makes you want to throw the book out of the window.
    Yet, you keep reading. If that isn't a sign of a great book then I don't know what is.
    Structure of the story line was quite odd, but somehow it flew very nicely. I felt like reading a memoir of a family (a very messed up family) starting with the grandparents and finishing up with the youngest of kids all grown up. Illnesses and death were woven into the story like they were as natural as a morning breakfast (which goes to show the state of living in the early 1800). Also all of this "marrying your own cousins" ordeal shook me a little bit, but then again, different times. Come to think of it maybe that is why they all were so feeble and sickly, because they kept interbreeding with each other.
    The only annoying thing in this book was the broken language at which one of the characters speaks, it was incredibly hard to read and follow, and it became very irritating, very quickly. Luckily, he wasn't that important in the book anyway.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Yet another book that I was sure I had read in full as a child but didn't. How was it possible for a reclusive figure to write such a book before the age of 30? How did she understand the passions and emotions that drive people to extreme behaviour and actions? Once I had sorted out the various Catherines, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and some Yorkshire dialect, I became engrossed. The remoteness and isolation of the setting provide the ideal claustrophobic context for the passions to burst forth and wreak havoc. Yet the passions and emotions are universal.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Classic piece of literature that reveals new treasures every time! The narrator was agreeable and kept the pace perfectly!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is like nothing I've ever read. Beautifully written yet filled with hateful characters and depressing scenes. Yet...yet, I loved it! Emily Bronte does what few authors are capable of doing successfully; compelling you to care for people and situations you otherwise would not. So unlike her sister, Charlotte, who created a likable, strong character in Jane Eyre, Emily creates Cathy, Heathcliff, and the rest of this brooding, spoiled, and somewhat selfish cast of characters driven to depression and madness by the pitfalls of love--both familial and romantic--and and makes you want to never stop reading about them. A true classic and one that everyone should read and keep in their library.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Catherine and Heathcliff are vindictive, manipulative, selfish and cruel characters. Despite, or perhaps because of, this their story makes for an incredibly engrossing tale of drama and revenge. It's also a little bit of a ghost story as well. Before the end of the third chapter, the reader has a sense of the melodramatic, gothic flavour of the writing. After a visitor to Wuthering Heights remarks on a nightmare he's had about a ghost clawing at his window:"[Heathcliff] got onto the bed, and wrenched open the lattice, bursting, as he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion of tears."Come in! come in!" he sobbed. "Cathy, do come. Oh do - once more! Oh! my heart's darling! hear me this time, Catherine, at last!" (p.33)The rest of the novel is told in the form of a maid relating the history of these characters to the understandably perplexed visitor.It is basically the story of two families: the Earnshaws who live at Wuthering Heights and the Lintons who live at Thrushcross Grange, and how Heathcliff manages to almost destroy both of them. Heathcliff was an orphaned child taken in by the head of the Earnshaw family. As a little child he was friends with Catherine Earnshaw, because the two shared a wild and reckless spirit. However, before they grew up, Heathcliff was reduced to a servant and Catherine married the wealthy pretty-boy Edgar Linton. Cue Heathcliffe leaving, only to return to Wuthering Heights as a strong and wealthy man with plans for an awesome revenge. One thing about Heathcliff is that he is totally honest about what a monster he is. When he sets out to marry Isabella Linton (Catherine's sister-in-law after she marries Edgar) he does it only to hurt and torture Edgar and Isabella Linton, whom he sees as namby-pamby snobs. But before she agrees to marry him, Heathcliff strangles her little dog in front of her! The fact that she is still stupid enough to run away with him does not make his abuse of her any better, but it does make Isabella a rather stupid and unsympathetic character in her own right. Catherine Linton nee Earnshaw is a selfish and manipulative woman who plays Edgar and Heathcliff off each other - teasing and tormenting each and mocking the other behind his back. She works herself into fits to manipulate them and eventually seems to kill herself from the strain of it. But one of the most dramatic parts of the narrative is her last meeting with Heathcliff:"Let me alone. Let me alone," sobbed Catherine. "If I've done wrong, I'm dying for it. It is enough! You left me too - but I won't upbraid you! I forgive you. Forgive me!""It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands," he answered. "Kiss me again; and don't let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderers - but yours! How can I?"They were silent - their faces hid against each other's tears. At least, I suppose the weeping was on both sides; as it seemed Heathcliff could weep on a great occasion like this. (p.192)If you want gothic melodrama - look no further. It's all richly entertaining - especially when Heathcliff actually digs up her grave and has a wall knocked out of her coffin. I have to admit that my interest waned a little in the second half of the novel, which deals with the next generation. Catherine's daughter, Cathy Linton is manipulated by a still vengeful Heathcliff into marrying his sickly son. Heathcliff even tortures and torments his deathly ill boy into the charade - but even the sick child is not a character one wants to sympathize with - being self-centred, malicious and sadistic. Heathcliff takes out his hatred on the Earnshaw and Linton families by trying to destroy both as thoroughly as possible - abusing, torturing and harassing even the children of those he perceived wronged him, and is only thwarted by his own insane obsession with the ghost of the dead Catherine. That there actually manages to be a somewhat happy ending for the two families is pretty remarkable. Catherine the younger, freed from her marriage to the sickly Heathcliff junior by his death, finds a surprisingly complex soul to love in that of Earnshaw's grandson, Hareton, raised as a brute by Heathcliff but willing to change for her sake. And the original Catherine and Heathcliff get to be ghosts together, haunting the moors and tormenting the poor villagers that they liked to terrify when they were living! Hey, it's a surprisingly entertaining classic - a dramatic gothic read that everybody should pick up at least once in their lifetime.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wonderfully Overwrought - Confusingly Incestuous

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    (Original Review, 1981-01-02)The “dog scene” does not exist in the book as some sort of sick foreplay; it’s actually an extremely clever piece of writing. Besides showing Heathcliff total disregard for Isabella, it’s a reality check for those girls with romantic notions about Byronesque “bad boys”. Isabella is so infatuated, that she cannot understand, although he flaunts it on her face ( that’s what makes the scene interesting) that what she takes for intensity and romantic darkness is actually plain cruelty. Isabella is selective in what she chooses to see, she wants to run away with this man everyone calls dangerous and not even the fact he hangs her pet dog stops her on her tracks. As we will see later in the book she does eventually find out he’s actually a plain domestic abuser, but by then she has been totally crushed.It’s not Emily’s fault people see Heathcliff as some sort of romantic hero, just like Isabella readers have been choosing what they want to highlight or disregard.The book has been adapted many times - mostly very badly and there a misunderstanding that this is a romantic novel so people are confused and disappointed in it. It’s also been lampooned many times. Actually it’s an extraordinary brilliant observation of the effect of neglect in early childhood, long before child psychiatry. There is no whitewashing and the damage done as an infant to Heathcliffe is permanent despite the kindness of the Earnshaws. He destroys what he loves and others with him. The character of Nelli Dean is also brilliantly drawn. She understands more than anyone but is forced to observe on the sidelines as a servant as the family and then another family is pulled into the tragedy. I love the story of her refusal to accommodate her precious piano pupils play time and her preference to the dog.The Brontës lived though a traumatic childhood and survived a boarding school which sounded like a pro type for the workhouses. Haworth at the time had greater social deprivation than the east end of London, with all the alcoholism, drugs, disease and violence that went with it and their brother brought home daily. Orphans and abandoned children were bought like slaves from London to work in the mill towns and as vicarage daughters were expected to help out with the night schools their father had organised. They weren’t sheltered - they saw the lot which is why no doubt Emily Brontë drew the character of an abandoned orphan child so well. Emily Brontë refused to admit to her consumption and was kneading bread the morning she died. Like Elizabeth, first she remained standing for as long as possible only finally lying down just before she died.Child neglect, for whatever reason, it was one of the themes in “Wuthering Heights” that stroked a chord with me, and I do not think it’s explored enough. The fact that Heathcliff decided to replicate his own abuse by inflicting it on Hareton, with the expectation that he would turn out as “twisted” as him as form of vengeance is quite interesting. Even more interesting is the fact Emily chose to make that experiment a failed one; even before that advent of child psychology, she clearly understood that the experience of abuse and neglect is unique to the individual, and the way people react to it unpredictable. That’s something that bewildered Heathcliff, and in a way, the realisation that he could not make people as detestable as he was, even though they have also been victimised, contributed to, by the end to make him him even more unstable.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    How can I find and put together the suitable words and write a review about one of the most iconic creations in World Literature? One of those books that provoke such intense feelings that either you worship them or you utterly hate them. There is no middle ground. Every year, I revisit Wuthering Heights for two reasons. First, it is one of my personal Christmas traditions and secondly, I prepare extracts to use in class for my intermediate level students. This year, I finally felt confident enough to write a text. I will not call it a review, but a summary of what this masterpiece means for me, what I feel each time I gaze upon its title.I was 12 when my mother made me a special gift. (I have a mother that gave me a book about self-destructive love and a father that gave me Crime and Punishment a year later. I know, they rock!) It was a thick volume with a dark cover. A cover as black as the night scene it depicted. A young couple running in the moors against the wind, and a black, foreboding mansion looming in the background. To this day, that cherished Greek edition of Emily's only novel is the most beautiful I've ever seen. I read it in a single day. I remember it was a windy day, a summer torrent rain that lasted all afternoon. It left me speechless. It shaped me. It shaped my reading preferences, it shaped my love for eerie, dark, doomed, haunting stories with twisted anti-heroes. It even shaped the choice of my profession.When I was 15, one of the best teachers I've ever had gave us a project. She divided us into groups and asked us to make a presentation of our favourite book. She put me in a group with two classmates. Such kind and charming souls they were but would never open a book if their lives depended on it. I didn't care, I was happy because I'd get to choose the book. We left our teacher crying buckets in the classroom, marking a heroic A+ on our papers. During the 3rd year in university, we had to complete individual assignments. I'll let you guess the theme and the book I chose. My professor had to interrupt me at some point, kindly but firmly. ''Yes, thank you, Amalia, this is great, but there are others waiting, you know.'' Were they? Anyway, you get the point. My level of obsession with this novel equal Heathcliff's obsession with Cathy.Emily Brontë's novel may not be for everyone. It doesn't matter. Nothing is for everyone. But, she has created an eternal tale -or nightmare- of a love that is destructive, dark, twisted and stranger than all the other sweet, lovey-dovey stories that have been written. She has created one of the most iconic couples in Literature, she has provided the first and finest example of the Anti-hero in the face of Heathcliff. She has ruined many girls' expectations, because who wouldn't want to be loved as fiercely as Cathy was? (For years, my notion of the ideal man was Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff in the 1992 film. The best adaptation of the novel, with Juliette Binoche as Cathy) How many writers who have written only one novel can claim to have accomplished all these?One of the reasons I became a teacher was to have the opportunity to teach this book. It is my greatest satisfaction when I see its impact on my teenage students. They are familiar with the bleak and twisted tales of our times, nothing shocks them anymore. They love it unanimously, it is a rare case where boys and girls love the same book equally. So, mission accomplished.''I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!'' For me, this book is my soul. It lies there, making the question ''What is your favourite book?'' the easiest ever.P.S. Please, God, when I die, put me in a sector where I can meet Emily. You can keep Shakespeare, Austin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I prefer long talks with a disturbed, fragile, wild girl...

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really liked this book. It was confusing though because it seemed like there were only 5 names for 20 characters. It could get confusing at times
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It's a good book but it's pretty depressing and during the second half I got a bit tired of most of the characters.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    While most of the population is lead to believe that this is some sort of fantastical romance novel, I have to crush those thoughts by speaking the truth: this book is not romantic at all and centers around an emotionally detached stalkeresque man whose only desire in life is to prove that he is worth something and has control. I have found that generally, people who enjoyed this book also extremely enjoyed the Twight Saga (which makes a reference to this book) because, well, Edward and Heathcliff are both (excuse my language) asses who are completely controlling and care only for themselves. While the writing style of this book was indeed enjoyable, I detested the story itself.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The characters in Emily Brontë’s novel are so extreme, so given over to their passions, so driven and wilful that you will, certainly, want to pull your own hair out. From the dissipated yet cruel Hindley, to the emotionally divided and divisive Cathy, to the mindlessly foolish Isabella, and her ineffectual brother, Edgar, to the stunted, brutish Hareton, it is a cavalcade of distasteful, even monstrous, types. But none compare to the fiendish Heathcliff himself, whose unrelenting vengeful monomania brings ruin upon them all. How Heathcliff’s perverse passion for Catherine came to represent any sort of ideal of romantic devotion in the many years subsequent to the novel’s publication is a mystery to me.If possible, it might be best to set aside the principal characters and their extreme emotions and actions, and turn instead to the descriptive prose with which Emily Brontë renders the wild moors, the relentless inclement weather, and the brief wonder of spring or a sunny summer day. Even more intriguing is the bracketed narrative technique, initiated by the loquaciously risible Mr. Lockwood and then, more prosaically, carried forward by Ellen Dean. That Ellen Dean at one point encourages Mr. Lockwood to pursue a possible marriage with the younger Catherine deliciously risks the confusion of narrative and plot, and Mr. Lockwood does well to get himself as far away from Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights as possible. His return later in the year rightly heralds the wrapping up of loose ends and the natural dénouement of the tale.Wuthering Heights, even today, seems so singular, so extreme that, if you still have hair at the end of it, you might wish to set it on its own shelf in your library, isolated and incomparable. A curious, dark masterpiece recommended only for the brave of heart.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The style of writing Bronteë has employed certainly made for an entertaining read, and i found myself completely immersed in the first four-fifths of the book. Unfortunately, I found the denouement to be trite and too hastily concluded. I found the psychological torment aspect of the book fascinating, so it was incredibly disappointed that the ending was a complete turnaround despite the years of turmoil in the preceding narrative. Overall a great read, and i'm definitely kicking myself for waiting this long to meet Cathering and Heathcliff!
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I found this 'classic' slow and distasteful. I could not identify with any of the characters and did not like a single one, except for possibly Mr. Lockwood, whom the story is being told to. The one redeeming quality was the death of the 'hero,' that his charges may have peace.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Okay, wow. This book made me realize that people are horrible. I basically hated almost all the characters in this book because they were such horrid human beings. Bronte used words STRAIGHT out of the thesauraus. My goodness. This book may be an intense love story, but it was more like a crazy one. I was in awe. And NOT in a good way.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I am so so behind on reading lately. I however just finished reading Wurthering Heights last week. I had never read it before and thought I should give it a go. I had a love/hate relationship with it until the end and then it was just a hate relationship. I was so happy to be doing reading it! Urgh! I hated everyone. Not once single character did I actually like. They were all just egotistic and annoying. Glad to be done with that one.....
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I finished it. Didn't love it. I hated the characters. I can't imagine why readers are attracted to the love of Heathcliff and Catherine. I struggled throughout the whole novel with the desire to take both of their egotistical, self centered beings to the moor and put them out of their misery in the deepest bog I could find.Yet.... The struggle payed off. I was transported by the language and plot. The inevitable circular turn of events that reminds me of 100 Years of Solitude. The abhorrent character failings (even in the "good" Ms. Ellen Dean) only seem to point out the many faults each of us have, and that goodness/grace can overcome our inner demons as shown in the end of the book.It was worth the read, but I still can't help but detest the characters. Was that the point Emily?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Surprised me with how good it was. Wasn't looking forward to reading it at all!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I enjoyed this book much more than Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre". The book is exciting from the very beginning and the story is never dull. Because a servant is narrating the story the book is full of dramatic dialogue and action.I find it interesting that "Wuthering Heights" was not widely accepted when it was released because of the brutality and violence of the characters. I loved this aspect of the book because the characters allowed human nature and passion to take over--no one tried to hide even a passing feeling as people always do . I don't think it's possible to find a character as unique as Catherine. Emily found no need to make her incredibly likable or beautiful. She seemed to me just a regular woman dealing with issues that were pressed upon her since childhood.Once Catherine was out of the picture and her daughter (and Heathcliff's son) became primary characters I wasn't so sure I was going to enjoy the rest of the story, but I did. Emily instills exciting traits in the new characters that she introduces into the novel. Not one character ever becomes boring.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Since the moment I was forced to start reading this at school I fell in love with this book. I can open it at any page and feel instantly drawn into the story. The book falls open at my favourite passages, and is stuck together with tape because I have read it so often. This is not just a love story. it is a tale of a love that burns so deep it causes all sorts of horrors to occur in the name of it. The passion of Cathy and Heathcliff tarnishes everything around them until they are consumed by it. Her descriptive prowess allows the reader to picture vividly the wild moors, and the darkeened rooms of the house. You feel a chill when Lockwood is woken in the dead of night to a tap tap and the window, and you can almost forgive Heathcliff his cruelty when you see how it is born from Cathy's treatment of him. A book written with great passion and skill.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I still consider this one of my favorite books, possibly of all time, and that just further solidifies with each reread. One of the easier 'classic' novels to read, at least in my opinion. Cathy Heathcliff are my model couple for crazy love, and then Cathy 2.0 Hareton are a prime example of opposites attracting. Ahhhh I seriously just love this dark, twisted little book, plain and simple.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There is something about this book that reaches me, something about the profound love that Cathy and Heathcliff feel for each other. Since reading it in college, I have seen every movie or TV miniseries adaptation I have come across.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A review.....still intriguing....still crazy after all these years.Don't forget the 1992 film adaptation (Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche)A perfect adjunct to this classical read.It gives an extraordinary vitality to Heathcliff and Cathy
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed the book as much as I enjoy a lot of 19th century literature but I can't say I warmed to the main characters Cathy and Heathcliff. I felt that they had no redeeming qualities whatsoever! The secondary characters are what made the book for me. I couldn't see the torid romance that everyone else describes.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was our token classic read for our January Book club meeting. I had read it as a teenager and in my angry, unsentimental, opinionated teenage way, hated it with a passion (I felt the same way about Romeo and Juliet- just didn't feel their actions were believable or justified and it bugged me more than I care to admit right now.) So I was very curious to see how the balm of years would have affected my opinion of this revered classic.Although I didn't feel the violent hatred against it, I still have to admit I was a little perplexed. It just wasn't that good. Oh, she creates a creepy scenario, and the Gothic elements (the wailing wind, the ghost of Catherine, the surly servants, the dark, foreboding Heathcliff) are played up, but still. One gets the feeling that if they just left their house, went to a ball or something, a lot of the drama could be avoided. I won't even talk about it being a love story, unless by love you mean creepy stalker man who needs to crush any spirit in his object of devotion and bring you home trussed and gagged like a pheasant killed on the ever present moors.The one aspect I did find interesting though, was Brontë's complete refusal to make any of her characters good. They were all deeply flawed, imperfect. The women in Wuthering Heights gave as much as they were given, were just as full of vindictiveness and anger as the men. No demure damsels for Miss Brontë, no sirree. In all a perplexing, but worthwhile read, if only to try and understand what aspect of the book as captured the imagination of a good part of the reading population for over a 150 years.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A great classic.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "Wuthering Heights" is a writer's novel. The twists and turns of its frame narrative style, along with the reincarnation of Heathcliff's love and vengeance on so many different (but similarly named) instantiations of their initial targets, leave the reader constantly wondering who is talking, who is being talked about, and why more of the characters don't just speak for themselves. In a masterful way, this confusion calls out the subjugation inherent in Brontë's own society. The author shrieks back at a world that relegated women to subservience, and that on occasion dismissed her own and her sister Anne's writing as likely the product of their sister Charlotte's imagination, by voicing the eternity of her characters' hearts through the words of others. This, metaphorically, is what her writing did for her, and what all great writing does for its author. On first reading, the narrative structure consumed all of my attention, but left me entranced by its power. On second reading, ten years later, I vowed to focus on the characterisation of the novel and discovered some of the most unlikeable and least relatable personalities that literature has ever produced. This is not a book club read for gabbing with your girlfriends, but a manifesto on the power of words to haunt the minds of generations. I linger on Brontë's writing, and wonder how any one could ever imagine quiet slumbers for an author who continues to speak so powerfully today.The Barnes and Noble edition of this book contains a selection of famous quotations, a timeline of Brontë's life, an introduction by Daphne Merkin, a note on the text and dialect, a genealogical chart of the characters, the original biography of Ellis and Acton Bell and the editor's preface to the 1850 edition of the book written by Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë), footnotes (of dialect and translation) and endnotes, an exploration of works inspired by the novel, a set of critical opinions and questions for the reader, and a suggested bibliography for further reading.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    You can't appreciate all the classics, right? Wuthering Heights didn't do much for me... Although the craftmenship is undeniable and its place in literary history firm and understandable, perhaps this is not enjoyable for most of the modern men... Or it could be just me.... Seeing the discrepancy in voting I hardly think so...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    i had heard mixed things about Wuthering Heights, but decided to give it a try on daily lit to see if it could hold my attention. since i've been busy with school i haven't had the chance to read any other way, so it's been a good way to at least feel like i'm reading something.anyhow, the first half or so was rather boring for me, with lots of background and overly descriptive passages. i was definitely glad to be reading it in the daily lit format. i don't think i would have stuck with it otherwise. but, after that, it really picked up, and i found myself clicking for the next installment often.in the end, i can definitely say i enjoyed it. it was quirky and fun and the character development was wonderful. i particularly enjoyed the style of narration and will be much less leary of picking up another bronte book in the future.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Emily should have got out more. A twice told tale, very boring and well written. .