Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights: Classic or Dud?

I'm baffled every time I see someone argue they didn't like this book because the characters weren't likeable. That's not a reason. But it happens all the time. The book is its own monster, I wouldn't put any genre label on it. When I first read it, after knowing the basic story for years, I was shocked. It was a harrowing read. The 2nd half is so good because that's when it starts to get really unpleasant.

the three Brontes specialized in this kind of violence. I push The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on anyone who still thinks Victorian fiction is staid.

ooh i haven't read that one yet, i should check it out

xxpost yeah it takes a while to convince ppl that it DOES get awesome, to not quit after the first few chapters

To clarify, I wasn't using "unlikeable" as a criticism against WH; just noting how, for years, my vague understanding of the novel had been as one thing, and how the experience of actually, finally reading it revealed it as something quite different.

I'd second the recommendation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, btw, for anyone who is digging WH and wants something more of the same.

I read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall recently after our Brontë poll, and it is a wonderful, twisted book.

But it's annoying in that it has an actual happy ending!

I know Anne was the kind of sensible killjoy-of-Gothic of the bunch, but that irks.

Well it has a happy ending because the abusive shithead dies. I think that's ok.

Does he die because syphilis or just general alcoholism?

I think I may be mixing it up in my head with the movie of The Libertine.

Oh yeah, BTW, SPOILERS.

Stopped (after Catherine's death) for about 2-3 months, burning through last third now.

All these characters are masochists. Very kinky.

this is a great book. it should be given to every young person who believes it is a smart or mature idea to hold onto their dreams. they could then decide whether the perverse integrity of heathcliff is really what they want for themselves.

to be a psychopath or not to be a psychopath

you gotta pick

you can be a dick

or

you can be a total dick

i mean, i think part of the idea of the character is that he instantiates the most dangerous element of Romanticism, that is, he abhors compromise. like other writers of her generation bronte was, i guess, attracted to this idea, but she was astute enough to see that it was also completely incompatible with any sort of decency or morality. in then end heathcliff is not a hero or even an antihero: he is a monster.

i don't really buy the critique that the book excuses or rationalizes heathcliff's behavior. the all consuming, self-destructive love he and cathy have for each other is definitely rendered in all its power, but once cathy dies heathcliff's lingering obsession leads him to become a cruel, sordid, and ugly character.

i agree

i think the point is to lead you into believing at first that he is romantic but then pulls the rug out when you realize it’s a cul de sac of blind rage & destructive obsession

also reading it at different ages changed my impression over the years. i first read it as a teen

It's also why I find myself irritated by people who want to expunge the second half of the book.

Not rationalizing his behaviour, but obviously he's exposed to harassment, racism, bullying of all kinds growing up, and both he and Cathy react violently to being told they have to stay in their place in the world, Cathy making a not completely successful choice to suppress that anger, Heathcliff letting it run rampant. He's not a sympathetic character in the end, or a guy you want a heroic end for, but obviously there's a look at society too - not just the literary Romantic hero.

Not a single sympathetic character in the novel. I love it.

agree!

btw I'm a fan of Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall too.

I love that one too

happy 200th, Em

<3

I'm rereading Wuthering Heights. I can't think of another English Victorian novelist whose prose was as spare as EB's.

I keep forgetting how intense the violence – emotional and physical – is in this novel: Catherine bashing her head against the arm of a chair, Heathcliff calling Isabella a slut, etc.