Wuthering Heights----Yikes!

[martinswife]

I just read Wuthering Heights for the first time and I had to force myself to read it to the end. I decided that I was going to try to read through the classics so I went through the Jane Austen's books and then decided to read the Bronte sisters. Wow---shivers! What are your opinions regarding it?

 

Adriana :w00t:

[Liz CA]

There was a thread here a couple of months ago about the relative merits of this classic. If I had any skills, I 'd put a link here.

I personally always found the book & movie pretty depressing. I suppose it's a picture of what happens in an unforgiving life and how it affects other lives around you. Perhaps I should research this Bronte sister's bio and see if there are any parallels.

 

[kitten18]

I read it several years ago for a book club, it made me want to stick a hot poker in my eye. :blush:

[Stacy in NJ]

It is the antithesis of Jane Austen's work. Emily Bronte attempted to strip away the sympathetic and over idealized aspects of the romantic novel.

 

If you enjoyed Austen, you may enjoy Charlotte Bronte's work. Try Jane Eyre next. http://www.amazon.com/Jane-Eyre-Literary-Touchstone-Classic/dp/158049384X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272599425&sr=8-3

 

ETA: I really like WH and all the Bronte stuff as well as Austen.

[Mrs Mungo]

It always makes me laugh when people move from Jane Austen to Emily Bronte. :lol:

[Guest Cindie2dds]

I just read Wuthering Heights for the first time and I had to force myself to read it to the end. I decided that I was going to try to read through the classics so I went through the Jane Austen's books and then decided to read the Bronte sisters. Wow---shivers! What are your opinions regarding it?

 

Adriana :w00t:

 

Too pathetic for me. Loved all of Austen's. Jane Eyre was good, but a little pathetic too. I guess I'm looking for endings like Austen's... hopeless romantic. :D

[lllll]

I read it back in high school, so details are sketchy; but I always think of "Dracula" when I think of "Wuthering Heights". I liked both of them.

 

One dd read it and also read bio's of the Bronte sisters. I think dd said their lives seemed dark and dreary. But it was such a different time. We can't even begin to imagine in our day and time, I suppose.

[OrganicAnn]

Just be glad you didn't watch a movie version first. I watched an old movie version with Lawrence Olivier as Heathcliff and Vivien Leigh as Catherine. They made it seem such a tragic love story. Then I read the book and realized the movie only covered 1/2 of the book.

 

I think it is an interesting book. I love the symbolism of looking in windows ie the outsider looking in. The moors/wildness vs the drawing room/civilization. The irony of what happens in the second generation. The framing of the story as a tale told to a stranger. I think it is a good example of romanticism and a stark contrast to Austen's neoclassicism. It is arguable the best of the Bronte, but C Bronte and A Bronte did produce more but perhaps not better. I can admire the book without necessary liking all of it.

Edited April 30, 2010 by OrganicAnn

[DianeW88]

I wanted to throw Catherine under a train by the end of that book. :glare: Barring the invention of the locomotive at the time....a team of horses. Emily Bronte has never been on my "favorites" list. :D

 

And, while we're on the subject of annoying heroines: Anna Karenina....sheesh.

 

Diane W.

 

married for 22 years

homeschooling 3 kids for 16 years

[Forget-Me-Not]

I hate Wuthering Heights with the fire of 1000 suns. Depressing and I can't get past the selfishness and self-destructiveness of the main characters. That being said, I actually really enjoyed the recent Masterpiece Theatre rendition of it. One of the few cases where I liked the movie better than the book.

 

If you enjoyed Austen, George Eliot might be a good next stop for you. She's more verbose than Austen, but has that sort of wry critique of society. Elizabeth Gaskell is another you might enjoy. Wives and Daughters is my favorite of all time, and Ruth is another good one.

[Ellie]

I enjoyed it. I read it a couple of times on my own before we studied it in my senior year of English. It was probably the only time I really participated in discussions.:D

 

I don't care for it as much as Jane Eyre, though.

[Ellie]

I wanted to throw Catherine under a train by the end of that book. :glare: Barring the invention of the locomotive at the time....a team of horses.

:iagree:

[*Inna*]

I couldn't go through neither the book or the movie (one with Ralph Fiennes).

[pooh bear]

Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are two of my favorite books.

 

I grew up not to far from where to Brontes lived. I loved nothing more than wandering the moors as a kid, so these books, in a weird kind of way take me back to my childhood.

 

Life was hard back then, and the people even harder. I think that the main difference between the Brontes and Austen, is that the Brontes wrote about every day people. The people who had to work the land and did not have much chance for the fine things in life. Austen writes about the gentry, the people who had money and did not have to work to survive. Two very different worlds back then.

[Heidi7Sue]

Adriana, I have also started forcing myself to read certain classics, and it helps to listen to them instead. (CD, cassette, or mp3. My kids can't read at that level yet.) I usually knit while I'm listening, so that even if I hate the book, at least I made progress on a sweater in the meantime.

[jld]

I loved that book when I was in high school! I should probably go back and reread it, and see if my opinion of the book would be different after 25 years. I recall it as a passionate love story, and remember copying passages from it onto notecards and memorizing them. I was a real fan, lol!

[Lizzie in Ma]

One word. Blech.

Good for you for getting through it, at least you can check it off your list.:D

[Pippen]

I think it is an interesting book. I love the symbolism of looking in windows ie the outsider looking in. The moors/wildness vs the drawing room/civilization. The irony of what happens in the second generation. The framing of the story as a tale told to a stranger.

 

My tastes normally run towards non-fiction but for some reason I decided to listen to the audio version last year. I wouldn't want to read a steady diet of depressing fare like this, but like you I thought it was interesting.

 

You should the commentary from my kids as they heard excerpts in my kitchen! My daughter still occasionally breaks into a very dramatic "I can-not live without my life. I can-not live without my soul.":nopity:

[Mary in VA]

Hated Wuthering Heights! I tried reading it in junior high and could not stand Catherine, so couldn't finish the book. I don't remember a lot of specifics beacuse it was so long ago. All I remember is she didn't have any redeeming qualities to make me care at all about her. I felt the same way about Scarlet in Gone with the Wind. I read it at about the same time and actually got about 50 pages from the end and quit. I really didn't care what happened to her and felt she was her own worst enemy. She ALWAYS made the wrong choice for selfish reasons.

 

But I loved Jane Eyre, which I read at the same time period as the others, and have reread multiple times over the years. I also love Jane Austen's works. I've figured out I have to like something about the protaganist to enjoy a book. They can be flawed, but I have to be able to care about them.

 

Mary

[michelle l]

I think in the move it wasn't Vivian Leigh but Merle Oberon...and she's just beautiful...ahhh.

 

I watched it with my mom when I was young. I think it came on as a Sunday afternoon movie or something, and my mom always loved old movies so we watched it. I just looooved it. I think I was too young to understand it was sad and depressing. I loved the setting, the clothes...the tortured hero...

 

But yeah, it has a wretched ending. But I still like it.:blush:

[keptwoman]

I tried to read it a couple of times before I finally forced myself to finish it. Not a fan.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

And, while we're on the subject of annoying heroines: Anna Karenina....sheesh.

 

 

Thank you. I feel so validated. :D

[*Jessica*]

I enjoy almost everything I read, but I HATED Wuthering Heights. I really, really hated it.

[PiCO]

I read it several years ago for a book club, it made me want to stick a hot poker in my eye. :blush:

 

I couldn't get through it for my book club. I ended up getting the Cliff Notes at the library... and I really enjoyed them! They gave a lot of history, and explained the symbolism and how Bronte constructed the story. I have a lot of respect for the writing that went into it.

[Susan in KY]

 

And, while we're on the subject of annoying heroines: Anna Karenina....sheesh.

 

 

:iagree: And we had to read it in high school...why? :ack2:

[stripe]

I tried to read it. Then I decided watching the movie would help me keep the characters straight. Unfortunately my daughter woke up from her nap and watched part of it with me. She's still talking about the man smashing the sugar bowl (it was the vase) and cutting off the woman's hair. It was probably the most dramatic thing she'd ever seen.

[TXMomof4]

I think the Bronte sisters had a troubled childhood. Really.

 

I did the same thing. I read all the Austen books, then the Bronte sisters, then I discovered the House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. It was a little bit of a downer, then I read more of hers and they got progressively more and more depressing.

 

I read The Beautiful and ****ed by F. Scott Fitzgerald last week - and it's so much of a downer. I'm trying This Side of Paradise right now and hope it is a little peppier.

 

I don't demand a happy ending but good heavens! It's exhausting to be that miserable for the time it takes to read a book! I wonder if that's part of the definition of a classic - everyone has to be miserable?

[stripe]

I wonder if that's part of the definition of a classic - everyone has to be miserable?

Or die at the end?

[Carol in Cal.]

...where I liked the movie much better.

 

It happens that I saw a Masterpiece Theater version of the movie first. I thought it was very romantic and darly beautiful. Then I read the book, and I just hated it. I couldn't stand the characters at all, and I thought it was totallly depressing.

 

Now, this was a long time ago, and I think I would view it differently now.

 

One of the things I have read about it subsequently is that Heathcliff was probably biracial--that where he came from implied that, and that this book was partly an indictment of the slave trade. Needless to say, I never picked that up the first time through, in my 20s, and I'm not sure whether I would agree. Every so often I think I should try it again, but I just don't really feel like it.

[RoughCollie]

When I was a teenager, I loved Wuthering Heights.

 

So, I decided to read it again a few months ago, and to my amazement, I thought it was boring. So I gave up on that little project.

[KS_]

Same here - I just got done reading it (thought I should educate myself on some of the classics I've never read). I had to force myself to finish it.

[LauraGB]

I read it for the first time a few years ago. I loved to hate it. I couldn't put it down - it was like watching a horrible accident and not being able to tear your eyes away. I hated both Heathcliff and Catherine. I couldn't find one quality about either that I liked while I read it. Afterwards, though, I guess I did find the depth of their passions (regardless of being ill directed) to be an interesting quality - not redeeming, by any means, just interesting.

[Heather in Neverland]

LOVE IT.... seriously. I read "Pride and Prejudice" and I was so bored I couldn't stand it. But "Wuthering Heights" was filled with angst and pain and love that consumes you.....love that book......

[Shelly in the Country]

I loved Wuthering Heights. Of course, I seem to gravitate towards "dark" and depressing books. I like "downers". I don't like bright, happy, "feel-good" books...or movies for that matter. Bright, happy plots tend to depress me :001_smile:.

[Mommy22alyns]

I haaaated it. Not as much as Moby-Dick, but I did have to force myself to finish it.

 

But I love Jane Eyre. I kind of like depressing books at times. So that wasn't my problem with WH.

[ncmomo3]

LOVE IT.... seriously. I read "Pride and Prejudice" and I was so bored I couldn't stand it. But "Wuthering Heights" was filled with angst and pain and love that consumes you.....love that book......

 

:iagree: I was beginning to think I was crazy. I truly loved it. I found it to be quite a compelling and fascintating story. I don't need all my books to be full of happy, happy, joy, joy.

[Blessedfamily]

It made me want to see a shrink. Very depressing.

[Slartibartfast]

I am not huge on the whole angst thing.

 

I don't like Wuthering Heights I do like Jane Eyre

[usetoschool]

I loved that book when I was in high school! I should probably go back and reread it, and see if my opinion of the book would be different after 25 years. I recall it as a passionate love story, and remember copying passages from it onto notecards and memorizing them. I was a real fan, lol!

 

I loved it as a teenager and now I am just annoyed by it. Apparently I have lost the romance in my soul.

[eaglei]

One of the things I have read about it subsequently is that Heathcliff was probably biracial--that where he came from implied that, and that this book was partly an indictment of the slave trade. Needless to say, I never picked that up the first time through, in my 20s, and I'm not sure whether I would agree. Every so often I think I should try it again, but I just don't really feel like it.

 

This is very interesting. In the version I read, the preface indicated that Heathcliffe was Catherine's illegitimate half-brother. Of course, he could be both - half brother and biracial. Not really interested in re-reading it to decide for myself!

 

I first read Wuthering Heights in high school and liked it. I re-read it several years later - and liked it. Then I re-read it for a third time last year, thinking that I would treat myself to the movie afterwards. Well - I did NOT *treat* myself to the movie. In fact, I could not understand why I had ever liked the book. I definitely do NOT like this book and will NEVER re-read it again, and will NOT watch the movie!

 

Now, as for Jane Eyre - read it in high school and it was so-so, tending a bit to the *like it* range. Re-read it a couple months ago, and enjoyed it.

 

Go figure......:glare:

[Slartibartfast]

Well...I think if I had their early experiences I would also be more on the crazy side of eccentric.

 

The school in Jane Eyre is autobiographical, the Brontes lost two sisters to a tuberculosis outbreak at school. How old was Emily when that happened?

 

I also liked The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ok in addition to Jane Eyre

Edited May 1, 2010 by Sis

[eaglei]

And, while we're on the subject of annoying heroines: Anna Karenina....sheesh.

 

Okay, can you define "annoying heroine" a little more without divulging anything too pertinent to the conclusion??? This is on my list to read - and maybe I'll need to reconsider just when I read this - so Dianne - or anyone so inclined to answer - will you elaborate, please, on this? Thanks!

[lovemykids]

I loved it as a teenager and now I am just annoyed by it. Apparently I have lost the romance in my soul.

 

I have also changed my opinion of the book, after reading it again recently. I had a hard time enjoying the subject matter, although I do appreciate the book’s literary value. Most likely, I will to remove it from our British literature list, I am sure that there are other books that we will enjoy so much more. :D

[DianeW88]

Okay, can you define "annoying heroine" a little more without divulging anything too pertinent to the conclusion??? This is on my list to read - and maybe I'll need to reconsider just when I read this - so Dianne - or anyone so inclined to answer - will you elaborate, please, on this? Thanks!

 

Wow, I don't know if I can elaborate too much without giving the plot away. Are you familiar with the storyline at all? I'll just say that by the end I really wanted to put her in one of those white jackets with the sleeves that tie in the back. :lol: Maybe someone else can be more informatively evasive than I am. LOL

 

Diane

[eaglei]

Wow, I don't know if I can elaborate too much without giving the plot away. Are you familiar with the storyline at all? I'll just say that by the end I really wanted to put her in one of those white jackets with the sleeves that tie in the back. :lol: Maybe someone else can be more informatively evasive than I am. LOL

 

Diane

:lol: Your answer is making me more curious! I may have to bump up the book in my reading stack!

 

I have vague recollections of the book from a very long time ago, so if my recollections about some other classics I read long ago, then re-read more recently, are any indication, then my remembrances of Anna are probably faulty!

[pooh bear]

This is very interesting. In the version I read, the preface indicated that Heathcliffe was Catherine's illegitimate half-brother. Of course, he could be both - half brother and biracial. Not really interested in re-reading it to decide for myself!

 

From what I remember Heathcliff was named after a dead child of Mr. Earnshaw's. He was a street urchin from Liverpool, and greatly resembles the Roma people, who were always regarded with suspicion and connected with all things supernatural, which is a theme that runs through out the book.

[Heather in Neverland]

:iagree: I was beginning to think I was crazy. I truly loved it. I found it to be quite a compelling and fascintating story. I don't need all my books to be full of happy, happy, joy, joy.

 

Me either! :D Pride and Prejudice was so "polite" and sterile...such a snooze... but Wuthering Heights was full of PASSION and gut-wrenching love between star-crossed lovers....who followed each other into death....ahhhh....be still my heart.............

[LibraryLover]

It always makes me laugh when people move from Jane Austen to Emily Bronte. :lol:

 

 

HA! :D The Brontes were controversial even in their own time. I've told my dds that proper young ladies of the era were not allowed to read the Brontes.

 

Love it.

Edited May 1, 2010 by LibraryLover

[Forget-Me-Not]

I loved Wuthering Heights. Of course, I seem to gravitate towards "dark" and depressing books. I like "downers". I don't like bright, happy, "feel-good" books...or movies for that matter. Bright, happy plots tend to depress me :001_smile:.

 

I've got to know. . .are you a fan of Thomas Hardy's works?

 

Me either! :D Pride and Prejudice was so "polite" and sterile...such a snooze... but Wuthering Heights was full of PASSION and gut-wrenching love between star-crossed lovers....who followed each other into death....ahhhh....be still my heart.............

 

Oooh, see I think there IS passion in Jane Austen's stories. It's just very, very quiet, restrained Regency-type passion. Which makes it all the more intense because it can't easily be expressed in 'polite society'.

[ereks mom]

...Great Expectations and thought it was okay, but not fabulous. A couple of others that I remember on the list of books to read for the class were Joseph Andrews and Gulliver's Travels. I honestly tried to get into those two, but wound up just getting the Cliff's Notes for those.