The Readventurer
  • Home
  • YA Reviews
  • Adult Reviews
  • Contests and Giveaways
  • Policies
  • About Us
    • Flannery's Challenges
    • Catie's Challenges
  • Contact Us

The Year of the Classics: Emily Siezes the Opportunity to Talk About Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte and Heathcliff

3/25/2012

10 Comments

 
Picture
If there is really such a thing as a book twin," Emily is definitely mine. Hers are reviews I always check out first before reading any book that I am unsure about. You can compare our reviews of the same book and more often than not they are virtually identical. Awfully convenient to have someone with the same reading tastes as your friend, believe me.

I am very happy that Emily agreed to write something for us today, and why am I not surprised she chose one of the all time favorites of mine?
                                   _____________________________________________________

When I was asked to write a post about classics for The Readventurer, I pretended for all of ten seconds to contemplate which unlucky author would have me drooling over their masterpieces. But I think there has only ever been one that fully spoke to me on a personal level that probably wouldn't even make sense to most people. Emily Bronte is the reason I read, the reason I found out just how big an impact a book can have on a person. I was eleven years old and it took me a month to finish Wuthering Heights - and it was perhaps the most emotional month of my life. I've needed to write something about the middle Bronte sister and her novel for a long, long time; something that I didn't have to write for an assignment and something that wasn't quite a review, I thank the ladies at The Readventurer for giving me the opportunity to do just that.

My love for Emily extends beyond a love of her writing, I can't deny that it probably has something to do with our shared names and the fact we both come from small towns in Yorkshire. Anyone who visits Haworth - the small picturesque village where the Brontes lived - and sees the tiny bedroom in which Emily would write and then takes a walk a little further out onto the moors that feature so often in her work, anyone who does that cannot fail to imagine how the world of Wuthering Heights took shape in Emily's mind, it's hard not to think you can see Cathy and Heathcliff wandering along that breezy wilderness in the world of their own that they'd always needed to be free.

Haworth photo
Haworth
Wuthering Heights is a book of mysteries: where did Heathcliff come from? Did Lockwood have a dream or see a ghost? Even down to that strange isolated world that forms the backdrop of the novel... and I think Emily Bronte is one of the greatest mysteries of all. How did a woman who never had a lover, who died at thirty after refusing to see a doctor... how could she write such a powerful and tragic tale of love? What secrets did she hold that could have inspired such raw emotion? It's these questions which have led me to sit on a stone bench in the middle of Haworth, surrounded by the village's creepily large cat population, and ponder the life of this remarkable woman.

What I think I love most about Wuthering Heights - and especially what I loved most about it when I was eleven - is that it is a book of outsiders. Growing up I was always an outsider, a little nerdy and weird, more concerned with reading and learning than participating in whatever games the other kids were playing. It was only natural that I would find something of myself in a novel where nothing quite fits in with the regular world. The dark, foreboding house on the moors is, itself, an outsider, away from civilisation and normality. Heathcliff spent his life an outsider, it was a curse that even wealth and love couldn't cure him of. For me, Wuthering Heights was always about an isolated place and an isolated man, and it was this I could understand, even at eleven years old.

I feel like I must say something in defense of Heathcliff, it's true anyway that one cannot write about Wuthering Heights without having something to say about Heathcliff. But as someone who feels strongly about feminism and has written extensively about feminism and sexism in literature, I want to talk about the "bad boy". Most of my reviewer friends are exhausted with novels that glorify control-freaks and violent boyfriends, in a world where books like Hush, Hush and Fallen are bestsellers you simply cannot ignore the dangers of the "bad boy" stereotype.

And it's no secret that Heathcliff - despite all his violent, abusive, insane ways - has been romanticised, I think because a lot of women just want someone to love them as passionately as Heathcliff loved Cathy. Having men like these in the movies doesn't really help the situation:

Heathcliff pictures
But I think this is a mistake. People got it wrong or the media changed it or... something. For Emily Bronte, Heathcliff wasn't a bad boy in the sexual sense. For me, Heathcliff was never a bad boy. For Charlotte Bronte, he most certainly wasn't:

"Whether it is right or advisable to create a character like Heathcliff, I do not know."

But Heathcliff is actually a victim of abuse, he's the outsider I mentioned before, the one who doesn't know how to be anything other than evil with anyone other than Cathy because she is the only form of love he's known. Heathcliff is a tragic character, not unlike Othello or Macbeth; he is a man who was doomed to fail at life because of his lack of self-worth, because of his surety that he could not possibly be loved. This story isn't about finding forgiveness for Heathcliff, but I do believe it's about achieving a certain level of understanding. And perhaps the suggestion that even the most evil and violent characters deserve some peace and love in the end - as that is what I believe Emily Bronte gave Heathcliff through his death. I say so often in my reviews that I don't really care for romances, but that's not strictly true. A romance story can fill/steal/break your heart if it's done right, but it so seldom is. Emily Bronte, a woman who remained single to the day she died, seems to know more about telling a love story - a sad, heartbreaking love story - than all today's authors put together.
Book covers
I'm a weird person and I love the darkness and beautiful sadness of Emily Bronte's masterpiece. I've never known a book where the mood is so very present in everything from the landscape to the character descriptions. This is my favourite book of all time and I don't think any modern author has it in them to change that. I'm going to end this post with a short list of a few of my other favourite classics.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Another gorgeous Bronte novel with a love story, but mostly about a woman trying to find her place in the world.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. A fantastic story about social class, snobbery and how the real gentlemen are not always who you were expecting.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. The true dystopian classic about how totalitarian regimes can take away even the freedom of your mind.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. The disturbing but incredibly well-written tale of a man's perverted obsession.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Okay, so maybe not quite a classic - yet. But this is a well-crafted feminist dystopian nightmare, a definite classic of the future.

Thank you so much Flannery, Tatiana and Catie for having me, it's been fantastic to be part of the classics love!

                                  _____________________________________________________

Thank you, Emily, for visiting us and talking so passionately about a book that is loved by all of us. I especially agree with your points about Heathcliff. I am the type of reader who falls easily for moody and brooding, but I was never romantically attracted to Heathcliff. Hareton and Cathy's is the love story I am personally much more attached to.

You can check out Emily's wonderful reviews on Goodreads and on her pretty blog - The Book Geek. 

Picture
10 Comments
jowearsoldcoats link
3/25/2012 03:06:49 am

I LOVE this post, Emily!
It's weird, I will always remember where I was and what I was thinking when I read Wuthering Heights. It's one of my all time favourites.
It's like you read my mind, especially about how this is about outsiders. I could not agree more.

Also, I love Haworth. I've been loads of times and that cobbled street is just stunning.
Thanks for sharing :)

Reply
Catie (The Readventurer) link
3/25/2012 10:17:15 am

I love this: "he is a man who was doomed to fail at life because of his lack of self-worth, because of his surety that he could not possibly be loved." So true! And Cathy is such a damaged person too, isn't she? I've never actually seen this as a romance.

It's also really convenient for me that you and Tatiana are such book twins - whenever I wonder if she'll like something (for gifts, etc), I just check out your shelves. If you've read it and loved it, I know it's a sure thing! :)

Reply
Maggie, Young Adult Anonymous link
3/25/2012 10:56:53 am

This is such a great post, Emily. And thanks for sharing Haworth! I want to go to there!

Your Heathcliff points are so important. I'm going to link to this post the next time someone justifies the latest abusive romantic male lead with "Look at Wuthering Heights!"

Reply
Jasprit link
3/25/2012 04:06:54 pm

Great post Emily, I've been meaning to get around to reading Wuthering Heights for ages now I know I'm still surprised that I haven't read it myself! Your descriptions and imagery sound beautiful I feel like popping over to Yorkshire now!

Reply
VeganYANerds link
3/25/2012 04:42:51 pm

Great guest post! I haven't read many classics but I would like to read Wuthering Heights because I have heard so much about it and it often gets mentioned in contemp. YA!

Reply
RIta J Webb link
3/26/2012 01:11:36 am

Love this post! I haven't read Wuthering Heights, but I think I would enjoy it very much. There's so many classics that I love.

Interesting that you mention The Handmaid's Tale. Although I love the book, I also hated it...not because it was poorly written or inaccurate in its portrayal of a religious-run dystopia, but maybe because it was accurate and well-written that it disturbed me on such a deep level. I remember the book so vividly and how depressed and sad it made me feel.

Reply
Emily link
3/26/2012 02:05:31 am

I agree whole-heartedly about The Handmaid's Tale. It's difficult whilst reading it to realise how easily this kind of society could happen, but I just I love how Atwood manages to bring such realism to a sci-fi/dystopian world.

Reply
Emily link
3/26/2012 02:02:54 am

Thank you all so much for your comments!

I know reading Wuthering Heights is a very different experience for everyone, but it's hard not to be affected by it. For those of you who are yet to read it, please so as I would very much love to hear your thoughts.

Reply
Tatiana (The Readventurer) link
3/26/2012 03:20:35 am

What I would love to hear is more about your trip to see Haworth. This is the sort of place I would love to visit!

Reply
Monique
3/12/2022 06:12:34 pm

Thank you so much for this. I wholeheartedly agree with you. Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece and Heathcliff perhaps is one of the most complex characters in all of literature. I hear critics are considering him a Satanic hero-like that of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost (according to some Professors I know).

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Follow Us On:

    Facebook Twitter Feed

    Subscribe:

    Subscribe
    Follow on Bloglovin

    Subscribe via email:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    What We're Reading:

    Blood of my Blood cover

    Flannery

    Goodreads
    Monstrous Affections cover

     Tatiana

    Goodreads
    Rules of Civility cover

      Catie

    Goodreads

    Archives 

    March 2014
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Categories

    All
    Author Spotlight
    Book Events
    Book Vs. Movie
    Catie's Adult Reviews
    Catie's Y.A. Reviews
    Contest Or Giveaway
    Flannery's Adult Reviews
    Flannery's Y.A. Reviews
    If You Like This Maybe That
    Library Quest
    Odds & Ends On The Web
    Randomness
    Readalong Recaps
    She Made Me Do It
    Tatiana's Adult Reviews
    Tatiana's Y.A. Reviews
    Three Heads Are Better Than One Or Two
    Year Of The Classics


    Blogs We Follow

    Angieville
    Anna Scott Jots
    Badass Book Reviews
    The Book Geek
    The Book Smugglers
    Book Harbinger
    Books Take You Places
    Bunbury in the Stacks
    Chachic's Book Nook
    Clear Eyes, Full Shelves
    Collections
    Cuddlebuggery
    For the Love of Words
    The Galavanting Girl Books
    Inkcrush
    Intergalactic Academy
    Ivy Book Bindings
    The Nocturnal Library
    Rainy Day Ramblings
    The Readers Den
    The Reading Date
    Realm of Fiction
    Sash and Em
    Stacked
    The Unread Reader
    Vegan YA Nerds
    Wear The Old Coat
    Wordchasing
    Wrapped Up In Books
    Young Adult Anonymous 

    Grab A Button

    The Readventurer
    <div align="center"><a href="http://www.thereadventurer.com" title="The Readventurer"><img src="http://www.weebly.com/uploads/7/8/9/9/7899923/custom_themes/149267861480723643/files/TheReadventurer.png?1321429794244" alt="The Readventurer" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

    Parajunkee Design
    SiteLock
    Since 2/4/2012

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Photos used under Creative Commons from savillent, vue3d, vue3d, ljcybergal