Rating: 
Summary: Classic Soap Opera
Review: If one did not know it was the famed "Wuthering Heights"- and read this book, I'm sure he would have thought it was a script for morning soap opera. Not only the story is highly unbelievable, it's way to melodramatic and disturbing. It's a good writing on Bronte's part but it is not a good story. If the book had not been written in such a descriptive and well-fabricated style, this would have been considered as a trashy women's romantic novel. You can tell it's written by a woman after all.
Rating: 
Summary: The grimmest love story ever told
Review: Wuthering Heights tells the story of the impossible love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. Wuthering Heights is the name of the spacious dwelling of the family, located on the desolate moorlands of England. After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff finds himself constantly humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley. When Heathcliff assumes wrongfully that his ever growing love for Catherine is unanswered he sees no reason to stay and leaves the moorlands in search of better luck. Returning years later as a wealthy man he sees an opportunity to get revenge on his stepbrother, but neglects the intolerable pain he causes to his one an only love. Caught in a spiral of vengeance Heathcliff ruins everything once dear to him.The sole novel Emily Brontë (1818-1848) has written in her short life will undoubtedly continue to stand the test of time. Although I myself am not a big fan of novels that write Romance with a capital, this story has touched me in a way that very few have succeeded in before. The powerful description of the unrecognized energy between the two main characters is simply overwhelming. Although Emily was -in the true spirit of Victorian novelists- clearly not afraid of adding an enormous list of extremities to the character of Heathcliff, this embodiment of boundless revenge and pure fatherly despotism is one of the strongest characters ever created in English literature. The fact that not a lot of people will classify this novel as "the greatest love story ever told" is most likely due to the never ending grimness of the tale. This darkness is nicely illustrated by the high number of deaths weaved into this family epos. But then again, love is not always as nice as in the movies... or is it? For a real romantic this is truly a book to be treasured forever.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written and deeply disturbing, but illogical in plot.
Review: I picked up a copy of Emily Brontë's classic after being very much impressed with her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. However, while I did find much to be meritted in Wuthering Heights, I also feel that it fell short of my hopes. The story initially focuses on the lives of Catherine and Heathcliff, childhood sweethearts forced apart by their families. Catherine marries another man, vainly thinking she can love and be loved by both Heathcliff and her husband Edgar at the same time. As an act of revenge, Heathcliff married Edgar's sister Isabella. What ensues is a dark and stormy emotional battle between many very troubled people. Catherine dies halfway through the novel, starving herself to insanity and death when she realizes that the two men in her life will not share her and instead demand that she make a choice. She leaves behind her a daughter of the same name, young Catherine. Heathcliff and Isabella in turn produce a son, the weak and sickly Linton. The remainder of the novel concerns the love affair that develops between Linton and young Catherine, and Heathcliff's violent, vengeful manipulation of their lives. I thought the book was very well written (as it ought to be, to have achieved a rank among classic literature), and I was able to read it with no trouble. Some of the words and terms are a bit antiquated, but someone familiar with works of the time should not find these too daunting. Though keeping a dictionary close at hand is a surefire way to avoid trouble. Brontë has excellent word choice and creates very vivid imagery. My one criticism of the writing itself regards the manner in which Brontë has chosen to express dialects. The Yorkshire accent of Heathcliff's servant Joseph (and later of young Catherine's cousin Hareton) is nearly impossible to read, with phrases like "ut's soa up uh going" intended to mean "who is set on going". My copy of the book has an appendix that "translates" the most incomprehensible of his words, but it is a great irritation to constantly flip to the back (sometimes several times per paragraph) for explanation, and even the notes there do not decipher everything. The found the story itself to be profoundly disturbing. Wuthering Heights undoubtedly contains one of the largest collections of mentally unbalanced characters I've ever come across in any novel. It is choc full of sadists, masochists, and otherwise troubled and violent personalities. The whole book has a very dark, opressive feel about it, and there were times I found it downright unsettling. I must tip my figurative hat to Brontë for her skill in creating atmosphere and invoking feeling in her readers. However, the storyline is a bit weak in my estimation, as the characters' feelings about and behavior toward each other is often quite illogical. The different culture of the time can explain some of this, but there remains, I believe, a general unrealistic quality about the plot. Why, for instance, would Catherine and Heathcliff have ever fallen in love in the first place? Their childhood attraction is easy to explain as the passing fancies of the very young, but their relationship as adults is more troubling. Heathcliff is moody, egocentric, obsessive, and extremely violent; Catherine is vain and naive, narcissistic, and given to wild emotional tantrums when she does not get her way. What would posses anyone to fall for either of the two? Even harder to understand is the timid Edgar's proposal to Catherine. She abuses him repeatedly, mentally and physically, and yet he claims to love her. Why? The next generation of characters is equally unbalanced and ill-matched. I think young Catherine is probably the only main character with some claim on a sound mind, though even she is not without issues. Though she is intelligent and generally strong-minded, she is for some reason a complete pushover when it comes to the frail, sniveling Linton's outbursts of self-pity. Even when Catherine herself recognizes Linton's problems and appears to have lost her romantic interest in him, she still obeys his every whining command when there is no incentive whatsoever for her to do so. Heathcliff is even more violent in the second part of the novel than the first. He physically abuses nearly all who cross his path, including his own son, taking his only pleasure from the misery of others. Another relationship that raises questions in my mind is Catherine's attraction to young Hareton following Linton's death. Catherine has been brought up as a proper young lady with manners and education, and Hareton is a slovenly, shadowy figure whose speech is has difficult to comprehend as the servant Joseph's. The two young people seem to have absolutely nothing in common. On the whole, I recognize the literary merits of Wuthering Heights - as I said it is very well written and invokes strong reactions in the reader. The character development is excellent, even if those characters are mentally and emotionally unbalanced in the extreme. The book explores the themes of love, jealousy, and obsession, and provokes thought. However, it is by no means a feel-good book and I can't say I'd recommend it for recreational reading. This one is probably best left in the academic discussion circles and not brought home to read before bedtime.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling Story of Love and Revenge, Mostly Revenge
Review: I had avoided Wuthering Heights because I thought it was purely a love story and a corny one at that. Pleasantly surprised is a tremendous understatement. This was fantastic. There is no scene - in the book at least - with Heathcliff and Catherine running into each other's arms across the moors. That must have been from a sappy movie version. In fact, there are no scenes like that - no mindless romantic drivel at all. The preface of my copy actually said that the book was not that successful during Bronte's time because the characters were altogether "too odiously and abominably pagan to suit the tastes of even the most shameless class of English readers" (as stated by the Quarterly Review). It is certainly dark. Wuthering Heights is the story of Heathcliff who, spurned by Catherine, wreaks havoc on the lives of everyone who has ever had anything to do with him, covering three generations. Is it a love story? Well, yes ... sort of. Catherine did passionately love Heathcliff (as he did her) but nothing ever comes of that, at least in the traditional sense. The extent of Wuthering Heights being a love story to me is the inevitable question of "If Catherine had married Heathcliff would things have been different?" Given the almost demoniacal personality Heathcliff bears throughout the book, I hardly think so. If you have only ever seen the movie, you have only heard half of the story - literally - and that is extremely "brightened" from the novel's intrinsic dark and spooky overtones. This is one of those books when finished, I found myself wandering around saying, "Wow, that was a good book". I even waited a few days before starting another.
Rating: 
Summary: Pursued by Demons of Despair
Review: Emily Bronte's literary masterpiece proves a Gothic novel of classic proportions, with characters whose twisted passions etch themselves upon the reader's mind over successive readings. Set in the rugged Yorkshire of her childhood, WUTHERING HEIGHTS depicts a literary canvas of desolate landscape, where Nature ranges from fury in winter storms to indifference to human endeavor. Over the course of three decades we gradually learn the strange personal history between the Earnshaws of WH and the Lintons of Thrushcross Grange. This grimly violent tale of human passion and supernatural revenge reveals the devastating effect of a dark-skinned foundling lad who is adopted into the family of a kind country squire. With this charitable act Mr. Earnshaw unwittingly introduces restless energy and unbridled emotions into the placid neighborhood--ultimately destroying the decaying dynamics of relations between neighbors. Genealogies are rewritten as unleashed jealousy threatens the flow of lives yet unborn. Recounted in extensive flashback sequences by a faithful servant, Nelly Dean, to a recuperating new tenant at the Grange, this twisted story is also taken up by subsequent narrators--since no single character witnesses very event at both houses. Two gentlemen chose to reside in a remote region, to escape wordly distractions, but the arrival of a young, gypsy-like orphan, Heathcliff, proves the catalyst to disrupt their comfortable social decadence. His passion for Cathy, the wild daughter in his new family, would rule him for life--ruining him
for Life itself. Neither teen could live without the other, although she defied her heart; in so doing she destroyed the lives and peace of mind of innocent relatives and neighbors.
Pursued by his private demons of despair Heathcliff knows no peace or valid existence apart from her, tormenting everyone in his intense, constricted social sphere. From foundling to Master, his morose moods and vindictive nature throw a pall upon both houses, as he conspires to control that which is not rightuflly his. All because he was denied sanctioned union with Cathy, his soul mate. Sowing a legacy of vice and despair, Heathcliff privately strives for reunion--not closure--with the shade of his other half. Chasing shadows he morbidly controls the destiny of those involved at Wuthering Heights, threatening to engulf even the detached outsider. A Gothic Classic for all ages.
Rating: 
Summary: maybe I'm crazy, but it was not for me
Review: actually, i didn't find this to be the book that it is pumped up to be. I braced myself for an exciting deep love story, tragic..instead i was bored. The style was not for me, I found it difficult to read, and in the end was just plain dissappoited. Maybe my generation is too tained by TV, James Patterson and Danielle Steele for us to appreciate the finer works.
Rating:
Summary: Tourtured Souls
Review: Having had this book as an assignment in college.... I must say the years have given me a deeper appreciation of it. I really tripped my way through it as a freshman. But now over ten years later I am liking this one more and more!
The story centers around poor Heathcliff and his sister/ loved one, Catherine. Heathcliff has lived a life of struggle and woe. He has been disadvantaged and mistreated. Even when he is saved by Catherine's father and brought to live with them he is still, disadvantaged. He is tortured by Hindley, Catherine's brother and made to live a life of pain and anguish.
When Catherine leaves home and marries Edgar Linton. Heathcliff become even more tortured as the person he loves is taken from him.
This story is one filled with regret, longing and revenge. We see Emily Bronte's excellent rendering of the corruptness of human nature... and in Heathcliff we can see a human going to the depths of depravity and hatred. The scarey thing is that we can... if we look hard enough see a little of ourselves in him too.
The novel is dark and foreboding, just like the windswept moors it takes place on. The mood is expertly rendered by this genius author.
When you read it allow yourself to be swept away by it's darkness and get caught up in the atmosphere.
That was the draw for me and I'm sure you'll will feel it too.
Excellent Book!
Rating:
Summary: A master piece
Review: Wuthering heights is remarkable. No other book was able to characterize the human behavior in such a way.a love story that shows all sorts of feelings like hatred, revange, friendship...A book that has been well received for so long and in so many places, can make you feel happy, angry and many others along the reading because you can actually see yourself in the character`s shoes. There is no doubt that Wuthering heights is a master piece.
Rating:
Summary: poignant, good
Review: My friend complained bitterly to me how horrible this book was, and curious, I decided to pick up a copy. I was impressed by Bronte's work.. I like how she illustrates the passion and love evident between Cathy and Heathcliff... it is one of the most moving storylines I've read. It's a good classic, and although it's tragic, there are glimpses of happiness here and there in the novel, and the novel ends on a peaceful, concluding note.
However, the Yorkshire accent nearly killed me... it was hard to read--I skipped the Yorkshire dialogues almost completely. Also I felt like strangling Cathy and Heathcliff... it was all perfect, but then she had to go do her thing... Yes, I know this was the whole point of the story--conflict--but still, it could have been happier. The novel was very touching and I was left speechless as I quietly closed the book, because Ms. Bronte knows how to describe two people in fervent (though at times.. rampant?) love and how it will endure the tests of time.
Rating:
Summary: Wurth Reading
Review: The writing is descriptive yet very structural, which, in turn has a lack of smoothness. The Yorkshire accent could have been better but all in all the story was a turn since quite a few that told me the story is sad. Sad indeed, but it didn't trigger my emotion. A story pleasantly told, it lacks little. The characters are brilliant; they're realistic and very human if not humane. It is a story to remember and a story to remember is a story worth reading.
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