Wuthering Heights / Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights

by Emily Bronte

romance

copyright 18

​47

read in January 2017

rated 7/10: well worth reading

... Though, to be honest, a six out of ten would be the rating -- if not for the book's status as "a classic".

I don't often read "a classic". Nothing against classics, just that not many are science fiction or fantasy. I read Wuthering Heights because of interesting references in a book by Jasper Fforde. The Well of Lost Plots made me wonder, Is Wuthering Heights "a masterpiece or turgid rubbish".

Over the top, melodramatic. A small group of protagonists who are either brother and sister or married to each other. And the marriages are not "made in Heaven"! Neither are the characters: they are either weak fools or nasty villains. Though not a single person is all good -- nor all evil.

Perhaps everyone else already knows about Heathcliff and Cathy? Their doomed love affair? Sorry if this review includes spoilers.Yet -- in my opinion -- the pleasure of this book is not in the final results, it's in the process of getting there. If you disagree, please stop reading.

For the most part, the story-line is clear. Despite Joseph's attempts to confuse the reader :-) Are the occasional lapses due to assumptions that a modern reader does not make?

The only lapse that sticks in my mind is the illness and subsequent death of a female character.

​The character

 dies... soon after giving birth!? What, was she pregnant?! Was there some word, some widely understood -- at the time -- expression that hinted at pregnancy? Or did the author simply forget to mention the pregnancy? No matter. The baby is essential to further plotting.

The strength of the book is (perhaps) the motivations of the key character.

For most of the book I'm thinking, this Heathcliff character is evil. I'm not too worried, his enemies -- at the start -- deserve what they get. Then he extends his revenge further afield

​ and​

I get upset. Innocent people are getting hurt. I'm relieved when one character dies happy... even if his happiness is due to ignorance.

Heathcliff, however, is still my least favourite character (in this book). Until I suddenly realise: Heathcliff could have been good or bad, Cathy drove him to be bad. Heathcliff does evil things -- because Cathy

​i

s a thoughtless fool.

Suddenly, there is more depth to the story.

Perhaps this book really is worth a rating of seven.

It's still over the top and melodramatic. With the sunshine and gloom of the moors providing a suitable -- now cliched -- match to the ups and downs of the characters.

A somewhat long-winded book. Still easy to read. Enjoyable just as a book to read. With the bonus, that I find out what sort of book is still a classic, a

​lmost

 two hundred years after it was written. And decide that it may be turgid. But it is definitely not rubbish.

====
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
====

"Before your dreams can come true, you have to have those dreams" … Dr Joyce Brothers