Rating: 
Summary: Hey, where's my pillow?!
Review: The book is written wonderfully, you may call it gothic romance, but the book's really got a style and genre of its own. Now, I only say this for GREAT romance novels, like the Brontes. The language greatly affects the way the story is expressed. It is told in a subtle and bumpy manner, going way ahead of the reader, its many pauses for the narrator gives the reader time to think the thing over, like the guest. Basically, the style and format is a fascinating one, it truly does intrigue the reader to a certain level. Now, it is hard to say if Heathcliff is the kind of man a girl would want( not that I'm a girl ), he is, if you want someone who truly loves you, he's not if you don't want someone to go CRAZY over you. It is--I think--clever of Emily Bronte, to leave this question for readers to consider as they sit comfortably in their beds reading this romance. But if you read it carefully, you will see that the narrator does not form a very high opinion of Heathcliff, yet the latter did deserve the revenge he got. Now, here we have another controversial point for us readers. Thus the novel is a quick one, without all the slow( at least very slow )descriptions and it forms different points of interest as it moves along just pulling the reader in. As the reader gets to the end he/she will feel a shocking yet not surprising end. The ending is a satisfactory one after chapters after chapters of points pointing toward the end. After all, the end is a slope for the way the novel is going. All in all, the book is satisfactory, and something that will--in a way--haunt the reader in later times. It is a masterpiece with all those interesting formats which I will never forget.
Rating: 
Summary: Wuthering Heights
Review: I am reading Wuthering heights in preparation for and AP English course, and am finding it to be the most tedious book I have ever read. I used to think that Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea dragged, but i was sadly mistaken. This book is a drawn out and dreary affair. I have enjoyed "classic" literature in the past but this is unworthy of being dubbed "classic". I would never reccomend this book to another living person, but maybe I'm just and "immature" reader.
Rating: 
Summary: The imagination
Review: I see Bronte's classic novel as the celebration of imagination and the boundless possibilities that dreaming and strongly believing in the make-believe of dreams, as children can only do so well, presents to the reader. Heathcliff and Cathy were happiest when they cast off all of the pretentious cares, and embraced the simplest of things together. As with most classic novels, death is misunderstood; Death was only symbolic of that passage into a reality they both shared all along- a realized spirit of happiness. If anything, it is a strong and encouraging message that the flawed things we most trouble over in life are the very things not all that important. As one modern book puts it, "Don't sweat the small stuff. It's all small stuff." One might argue that even in death, the romantic flaws would carry on; the distractions still beckoning. To the contrary, this classic novel is the celebration of whatsoever things are beautiful, gracious, carefree, simple, and worthwhile in right here, right now living. In biblical terms, Except ye be as little children...
Rating:
Summary: VERY difficult, but also VERY good!
Review: I'm thirteen years old, and a HUGE reading fanatic. So one day I pick this up, and start reading. At first, it's pretty hard, but then you start to get along with the writing style. This took me a LONG time to read, but it was definately WELL-WORTH it! It's hard to explain what it was about, but I'll help you best I can. So there's this guy(Mr. Lockwood) and he is the current tennant of Thrushcross Grange. Through the whole story, a servant named Ellen(Nelly) Dean is telling him the history of the people who lived there, and in Wuthering Heights. I'd say that the story is mostly how Heathcliff ruined the lives of the Earnshaw and Linton families, but that is just my point. The story basically starts off about Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Then, to the point after that, it comes down to start about Catherine Earnshaw's daughter, Catherine Linton. It's really good, and really hard too! Consider it a big accomplishment to have read it, cause it is amazing!
Rating:
Summary: romantic/tragic
Review: It's been a while since I've read this book, but I remember that I was entranced by it. It's a wonderfully tragic love story. I found it very romantic and a suprisingly easy read. Once you begin it you won't want to put it down. However, my only complaint is that some of the characters have the same name so it's harder to keep track of who's who.
Rating:
Summary: Enduring Classic for All Time
Review: The plot and theme of the book have been reviewed many times. The power of the book is that it evokes the entire gamut of human emotions and contemplative introspection from its readers according to each individual's inclinations. It is for the reader to label. I for one, see it as the most tragic and powerful love story ever written. No reader will be left unmoved by the story and will for years, as in my case, always refer back to it as a focal point of interest. A must read for all!
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl Books One - Three
Rating:
Summary: haunting love story
Review: When I first read this book I was a little confused at first. The beginning has random names coming at you, but once you get to Nelly laying out the story--I was hooked.
I loved this passion and heartbreaking love story. Catherine and Heathcliff are extremely believeable as two star-crossed lovers, who had to hide their love. Their passion is so burning, yet so forbidden that you want to burst.
Heathcliff is the best romantic hero of all literature. You just want him to succeed in his good or evil deeds.
I think EVERYONE wants a love as strong as Catherine and Heathcliff's. A must read!
If you love the book, the best movie version is the 1939 one.
I don't get the people who didn't like this book--what were the words too big?
But all in all, there is a reason why Wuthering Heights is called one of the greatest love stories and pieces of literature of our time!
Rating:
Summary: Obsession and Revenge
Review: "Wuthering Heights" is, with Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," my alltime favorite book. I've read it several times, beginning at age twelve. Even when I was too young to understand all of its complexities, I still appreciated its highly atmospheric qualities and the magic that makes it timeless.Over the years, I've asked myself, time and time again, just what it is about "Wuthering Heights" that gives it such power. I've finally come to the conclusion that "Wuthering Heights" endures simply because its characters dare to feel things and act in ways the rest of us don't. We all have times when we're tempted by obsession and revenge, but most of us don't act on those temptations. At times, we all feel driven almost to madness and we all have a wild side (some of us more than others) that finds perfect expression in the character of Heathcliff. In this book, the characters are always threatening to break the bounds of respectibility and civility. While some people see "Wuthering Hieghts" as the ultimate love story, I've never found much love in this book, not even between Catherine and Heathcliff. What I have found are obsession and revenge. Love would have watered this story down; obsession and revenge crank it up. Love is an acceptable (even prized) emotion; obsession and the desire for revenge, though felt my many, are definitely frowned upon. The fact that Emily Bronte allows her characters to give in to obsession, to go mad, to exact revenge, gives her novel a distinctly disturbing, unsettling power. There are many criticisms of this novel that attempt to analyze what Emily Bronte was trying to say. Many compare the domesticity of Thrushcross Grange to the isolation and wildness of Wuthering Heights. These ctiticisms don't interest me in the slightest. No matter how educated Emily Bronte was or wasn't, she certainly didn't study psychoanalysis and she certainly didn't write her novel keeping the finer points of analysis in mind. Emily Bronte was, by all accounts, a highly imaginative girl who cared more for the world of fantasy than for reality. Approach her book as literature; enjoy it and don't attempt to "pull it apart." Many people have said that the "second generation" in this book redeems the one that preceded it; i.e., Cathy and Hareton redeem Catherine and Heathcliff. I can't agree with that assessment. All of the characters in "Wuthering Heights" show themselves to be capable of violence and obsession (even Edgar). I think, in seeing the "second generation" as restorative, we deny many of the passions inherent in this book. Catherine and Heathcliff are the characters most given to wild emotions but they are not the only ones; all of the characters can and do resort to violence when it suits their needs. "Wuthering Heights" is one of those rare books: a truly inspired masterpiece. It has a very unsettling, disturbing, even fascinating quality about it because it touches the darkest regions of our soul. Heathcliff is the dark side in all of us; the side we don't enjoy even acknowledging and Catherine's failure to deal with her obsesion reminds us that we, too, can fail, we all are vulnerable to Catherine's fate. "Wuthering Heights" is a stormy, unsettling, often violent book that explores the darkest side of human nature. Its beauty is raw and savage; its emotions spill over the constraints of civility and common sense. It's a powerful book (one of the most powerful in all of literature). It's a work of genius that's truly unforgettable.
Rating:
Summary: A ghost story with the feel of ancient tragedy
Review: I read this book aloud to my wife 23 years ago. At the time, I was working as an apprentice at a winery on the Rhine River. There was an old medeival castle across the river from our room. It was the perfect setting, as we two were the only English speaking people in the town. I think now is the right time to review the book, because I can only recall the feelings left behind by this powerful work of literature. Most of the plot and many of the characters have been long forgotten, leaving only the residue of strong emotion. I have read many works of powerful fiction by the world's great authors since then. But not one of them affected me emotionally the way this extraordinary tale did. I remember one gray German morning finishing the chapter where Heathcliff digs up the body of his beloved Catherine because he has gone mad in his desire to hold her close once more. And then off to the Altenkirch Schwanenkellerei I went. I spent the rest of the day working quietly in the cellars of the winery, deep inside the mountain with mold hanging all about, and brooding over the maniacal behavior of these highly romantic, insane characters. I've never been able to completely shake the feeling. There is something so entirely timeless about this work, as though it were a piece of ancient literature, old far beyond the 1840s setting, something so utterly classical and piercingly primordial, it's as though you already had the genesis of this material in your DNA and it only required this story to bring it back to life within you. You recognize the spell it weaves because it speaks to the humanity in you so clearly. It is as though you have been secretly drugged. The English language has rarely been utilized as well as it has here, and I dare say you would need to go back to Shakespeare to find its parallel. Romanticism reached its high water mark with this novel. Ms. Bronte has now become immortal because of her creation, and in the Pantheon of world literaure, she stands among the Titans. If you are a native speaker of the English language, you can hardly consider yourself educated if you have not read this astounding novel of romantic love and uncontrollable passion.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Days in the Wild Moors
Review: Before reading WH, I knew its reputation as a dark novel but was taken aback a bit by the grinding dreariness and cruelty of the story. Noone who has read Jane Eyre will confuse Emily with Charlotte. I had also heard it described as a tragedy but, while it certainly has its tragic elements, it lacks the defining element of a truly gripping tragic story--sympathetic characters. In short, WH seems to defy easy classification and I suppose that's an important part of its allure. While I found the first three chapters, which establish the odd and mysterious inhabitants of Wuthering Heights, to be a bit slow in gathering momentum, the remainder of the book heightened my interest as the narrative of past events unfolded. I disagree with some reviewers who found the prose to be overdone and difficult to read; I enjoyed the narrative style and diction and found myself immersed within the wild moors setting. The story itself is compelling and, if one can stifle the desire for a hero in shining armor to alleviate the persistent suffering found within the pages, the flawed characters are fascinating. Putting aside some very minor problems such as the plausibility of the detailed recollections of Nelly Dean which constituted the bulk of the narrative, my primary issue with the book is the ending. In particular, I found the Cathy/Hareton union to be a bit difficult to believe and, more importantly, the potential suspense and suprise around the death of Heathcliff to be an opportunity lost by the revelation of his passing before its description within the narrative flow. Taken as a whole, WH is a very enjoyable read and highly recommended.
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