I've used the benefit of free time in traveling to read some classic books that I wouldn't normally read. Regretfully, and most recently, one of those classic books was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Have you read it? Sorry. Basically every second I read further, I struggled with giving up or trudging through to the end. Being a "classic" somehow I expected the plot would become more compelling, so I read on. Spoiler alert: It doesn't.
Although it is painful to recall, I'll try to summarize the story: Two siblings, Catherine and Heathcliff (adopted), grow up at the abode of Wuthering Heights located in the secluded moors of England. These two sibling fall passionately in love with one another in their adolescence. However, this love is never consummated in marriage, mainly because Catherine is shallow. But the narrator would have you believe that Catherine was charmed by a more gentlemanly neighbor's son living at the nearby abode of Thrushcross Grange. This unresolved love between Heathcliff and Catherine leads to the undoing of the two interwined families living at these dwellings, primarily because Heathcliff is a huge asshole and can't let bygones be bygones. Twenty some year later, Heathcliff gets his ultimate revenge by taking ownership of both dwellings. Oh snap! I think a more notable revenge plot is that in the process of doing this, Heathcliff woos Catherine's daughter, Isabella, into marriage, despite the fact that he loathes her, then knocks her up, and neglects and abuses her until she runs away.
The jumbled, mind-numbing story is told on about three-billion narrative levels. The first narrator is a city man escaping society to become the tenant of Thrushcross Grange. The servant of Thrushcross Grange, Ellen, is the second and main narrator, since she has been employed by the main characters at both dwellings for many years. Too frequently, Ellen reads letters written by other individuals, or tells stories from another person's perspective, adding further layers of confusion to what the hell is going on.
Worst of all is the dialogue. Often I was physically enraged by it. After one or two epic dialogues, I had a tizzy in my bedroom, shaking all about. Every part of it reads like the fantasies of a girl who never got farther from home than the garden. Since when do people in the heat of the moment use long-winded, tediousdialogue spoken dissertation to express themselves. It doesn't happen today. I'm no more inclined to believe it happened in the more formal ages of 1850, nor in the magical f-ing moors of England. (I'm getting angry just thinking about this again).
This book is often cited as being original for its time, having been published in 1850. If it is original, it is original in how well it goes about torturing the reader. I'm no literary scholar, but there are plenty of authors at the time, and prior, that do justice to human emotion, psychology, and story telling. Let me think of a few notables: Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Edgar Allen Poe, and Mary Shelley.
So word to the wise, avoid this book, Wuthering Heights, if you are not masochistic, deranged, or in a high school literary class (whoever said corporeal punishment in school wasn't practiced today?).
Although it is painful to recall, I'll try to summarize the story: Two siblings, Catherine and Heathcliff (adopted), grow up at the abode of Wuthering Heights located in the secluded moors of England. These two sibling fall passionately in love with one another in their adolescence. However, this love is never consummated in marriage, mainly because Catherine is shallow. But the narrator would have you believe that Catherine was charmed by a more gentlemanly neighbor's son living at the nearby abode of Thrushcross Grange. This unresolved love between Heathcliff and Catherine leads to the undoing of the two interwined families living at these dwellings, primarily because Heathcliff is a huge asshole and can't let bygones be bygones. Twenty some year later, Heathcliff gets his ultimate revenge by taking ownership of both dwellings. Oh snap! I think a more notable revenge plot is that in the process of doing this, Heathcliff woos Catherine's daughter, Isabella, into marriage, despite the fact that he loathes her, then knocks her up, and neglects and abuses her until she runs away.
The jumbled, mind-numbing story is told on about three-billion narrative levels. The first narrator is a city man escaping society to become the tenant of Thrushcross Grange. The servant of Thrushcross Grange, Ellen, is the second and main narrator, since she has been employed by the main characters at both dwellings for many years. Too frequently, Ellen reads letters written by other individuals, or tells stories from another person's perspective, adding further layers of confusion to what the hell is going on.
Worst of all is the dialogue. Often I was physically enraged by it. After one or two epic dialogues, I had a tizzy in my bedroom, shaking all about. Every part of it reads like the fantasies of a girl who never got farther from home than the garden. Since when do people in the heat of the moment use long-winded, tedious
This book is often cited as being original for its time, having been published in 1850. If it is original, it is original in how well it goes about torturing the reader. I'm no literary scholar, but there are plenty of authors at the time, and prior, that do justice to human emotion, psychology, and story telling. Let me think of a few notables: Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Edgar Allen Poe, and Mary Shelley.
So word to the wise, avoid this book, Wuthering Heights, if you are not masochistic, deranged, or in a high school literary class (whoever said corporeal punishment in school wasn't practiced today?).
I think your problem with the book is that you have a crush on Lydia.
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