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Wuthering Heights (平装)
by Emily Brontë
| Category:
English Literature, Classic, Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 78.00
MSL price:
¥ 68.00
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A perfectly written novel with characters you will remember forever, all the basic human emotions-love, hate, jealously, pride, are on display in this novel but at their penultimate height. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 14 items |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Wuthering Heights is one of oldest romance novels and stands as a classic in litterature history.
All through the book you will meet great contrasts that to a certain extent can explain the actions. Wuthering heights is the land of storm and wilderness compared to the quiet and more passive Thruscross Grange where one might think it's more appropriate for children to grow up. The Earnshaw family lives on Wuthering Heights while the Linton family is from Thruscross Grange. When those two contrasts meets with the children of these two families, the conflicts starts. Catherine and Heathcliff are drawn to eachother from the begining and their passion is powerful and destructive. There's love, hate and suffering, but written in a poetic somewhat advanced language and it's echanting how you get caught up with this book.
Sad is it that Emily Brontë died the year after its publication at the age of thirty... But with this novel and her poems, she is one of the most well known female English writers of the 18th century.
You will surely miss out on something great by not reading this book. I warmly recommend Wuthering Heights to everyone who loves to read. It is truly a unique piece of writing!
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
I grinned when Sis, back in high school, told me I reminded her of Heathcliff. I remembered from the (old, old) movie that he was some evil fellow. Then I read the book. And stopped grinning. I'm amazed this book would ever be assigned to high school 'kids.' It's humorless and ultra-realistic. Every page reeks of evil and has selfishly evil (meaning normal) characters. Heathcliff was a tortured being but hardly innocent. Cathy was a solipsistic, driven fool. Even the Cliff Notes booklet for WH is surprisingly short (I read The Notes after burning through the book in a week) as if Cliff's was horrified to study this book! Cliff's good observation about Heathcliff is that his sole emotion is actually pity/affection for Hareton and that his 'love' for Cathy is, in fact, an animal possessive jealous rage. I changed after reading this book. For the better, I don't know. There is a point in the book where Heathcliff's every action evokes disgust and hatred, and then... as a man... I began to feel what he felt. For whatver his faults, I began to connect fully with his insane rage, and that his ideal of 'love' for Catherine--however warped--had been stolen from him forever. I understood his ruthlessness and love for no person or thing after Catherine's death. By the way, not to parrot the critics, but it is true that the marriage of Cathy and Hareton is NOT some kind of full circle, happier ending. It's more like holding hands in Hell. I left this book sadder than when I started it. After reading it, I doubt anyone anywhere is getting "wiser."
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Love sometimes encompasses the dark component of obesession and this obsession is beautifully and hauntingly explored in Wuthering Heights, perhaps the most intensely original novel to emerge from 19th century England. This is the story of the passionate love between the wild Heathcliff and the reckless Catherine Earnshaw, both inhabitants of the Yorkshire moors. So passionate, in fact, are Catherine and Heathcliff that their love is doomed to tragedy rather than to fulfillment. When that does, indeed happen, Heathcliff, one of the most original and fascinating characters I have ever encountered, spirals ever downward into a morass of self-destruction and obsession. The symbolism in this novel is rich and complex and not so easily recognizable as one might first suppose. The presentation of the duality of human and non-human existence are deftly explored. Catherine and Heathcliff are violent figures striving in vain to identify themselves as ordinary human beings while disrupting all around them with the voraciousness of their appetites. Both ultimately disintegrate from within due to the passion out of which they are made. These two wildly intense characters stand out all the more sharply when contrasted with the simple ordinariness of Nelly Dean and Lockwood. The novel's central question, of course, concerns the meaning of Heathhcliff, who is both diabolical and yet, at the same time, irresistible. The power of the novel, does not, however, reside solely in the interpretaion of its theme. The setting, the relentless elements of the fire, wind and water of the moors only serves to deeepen and reinforce the intensity of the story. The language, although archaic, is poetic, reflecting Bronte's brooding personal vision. Extraordinary effects have been achieved with a remarkable power of formal organization and a brilliant handling of the time scheme. While encompassing the most domestic of scenes, this novel still achieves the depth of an ancient tragedy. Unforgettably haunting and beautiful in every way.
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Daniel (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Emily Jane Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights not to show what love is. But what love can do to those who are encompassed by desire. This novel is simply brilliant and by far the greatest novel of the Brontes and (in my opinion) the greatest novel ever written. I say this because Emily laid aside all the conventional types of victorian writing and imbued her novel with persons and events that are not ordinary, but utterly fascinating. Almost completely unrealistic at times, yet perfectly sound in their meanings. Some say to me that Wuthering Heights is impossible to enjoy. While others say they dislike the characters so much that they had to stop reading. I also hear that they cannot figure out all the plot twist and turns. But I say, is this not what real life is? There is no certainty of happiness in the lives of Catherine and Heathcliff. Certainly there is no certainty of happiness for anyone in the novel. (Which goes the same for all of us.) As wretched as this seems, Emily (in my opinion) did not write a full blown epic of true romance, despite what many say they love about this novel. She took humans and turned them into what is surprizingly more realistic. Emily filled them with faults and turned Cathy and Heathcliff into selfish and undeserving people who destroy each other, not out of love, but out of greed and their own unharnessable animal-like behaviour of what love was to them. What they do and say isn't romantic, but a sign (or even a warning from Emily) of what self indulgence and obsession can do to people pushed beyond their limits of common sense. Cathy and Heathcliff brought themselves to believe that their love was real, when in fact their grasp of love was (as Charlotte said, perverted.) Unrelenting in it's destructivness, thus leading to the various calamities their actions bestowed upon the (somewhat) innocent people surrounding them. As brilliant as this novel is, the greatness lies in the story telling of the many different characters we meet. The many different view points from Nellie to Edgar to Isabella and Hindley, spread across the pages and show you how they interact and react with one another as they expierence the situations which seem so very wild and incredible yet ring so very true. This (to me) is not exactly a novel about unbending love. But more of a study of the weaknesses that is stored in everyman. Emily gave us a written guide to show that following your instincts and passions is not always the best path to take. And Emily accomplished this with the most brilliant and unsurpassed written novel in history. It's pages burn with life and it's characters speak in tongues which, even now, I cannot always fully understand. Wuthering Heights can be looked upon as a fascinating study of a particular human race (at what could be any time frame) covering the ground of but a few persons, admist the many open miles... Thank you for your eyes...
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Ashley (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
After reading Wuthering Heights, my love for litarature and the "classic" books have increased impressively. No, i did not read this for school, I read it to broaden my list of vocabulary words. (my ideal goal in life is to be an author, and i will be one). It pains me to see the thrashing reviews of a great book by high school students who simply shouldn't be reading books like this, not yet, or perhaps never. You can't really call this a romance. or, not a Traditional Romance anyway. The love affair between Heathcliff and Catherine is obviously doomed from the start. People continously say they hated the characters. I didn't. I loved them! Heathcliff and Catherine the most. Not that i didn't hollar at them when they did the idiotic things that became repetitive, as I've seen happen in real life. In fact, the only character i disliked was Nelly Dean, who seemed determined to ruin the already corrupt relationship Heathcliff and Catherine shared. This story is so true to real life. It's so bitter, so gothic. There's not a happily ever after in this novel, folks. I love tear jerkers, and that is what this book is. One thing that Emily Bronte is marvelous at, is her description. Her words plant a vivid picture in my mind. And she doesn't need to go on and on with describing either. She can make a place seem real with one paragraph! Read this book. For whatever reason, read it.
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Shkodra (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
...when you have nobody to love you... lonely like the devil and envious like him... nobody will cry for you when you die!
I don't consider Wuthering Heights to be a love story or simply a book about love, hate, and revenge, as it is often wrongfully described by many. I dare not say this is a social work either, but it is somehow concerned with broad issues such as social and familial oppression, the subordination and the disadvantaged nature of female lives at that time, the brutality of the patriarchal power, the unjustices of the inheritance law, etc. The most striking thing about this book is that it is concerned with extremities like love and hate, human and animal, life and death, masters and servants, earthly and divine.
Of course the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is maybe one of the main things of, at least, the first part of this work: they're like almost two waterdrops, both showing a fondness for freedom and nature. But their relationship (I don't know why I hesitate to call it love) is kind of dysfunctional, for lack of a better word. Maybe it's because of the lack of a mother for both of them, maybe because of their upbringing in an atmosphere of patriarchal brutality.
And maybe it's not a pure coincidence that Heathcliff's origins are obscure: when he first appears at Wuthering Heights he is dirty, ragged, starving and houseless, ill-treated by the patriarchal and he is refused education. As a critic simply put it, Wuthering Heights can hardly be described as a social novel, but it deals with many social themes, as Heathcliff might be seen as a representative of, maybe not the dispossessed, but at least of the oppressed; on the other hand Edgar reads a great deal, but his reading seems more a means of escape from the emotional turmoil which surrounds him rather than a pleasure per se. Besides, towards the end of the story, Cathy begins to educate Hareton, which later leads them to falling in love, as preposterous as this might seem earlier in the book: their previous enmity and hatred has been forsaken in favour of union through learning. Interestingly, as this is happening, Heathcliff, formally the force for energy (not a positive one), now acknowledges the draining of this energy and the lost of his faculty of enjoying their destruction and his being too idle to destroy for nothing (I have to remind myself to breathe-almost to remind my heart to beat: conscience has turned my heart to an earthly hell).
If the first part of this work depicts a fierce and passionate but also binary view of the Yorkshire moors society, the second part of it is about reconciliation, education, development and, thus, progress. At the end of the book the powers are much more balanced, the relationship between sexes more egalitarian, as E. Brontë seems to emphasize the need of the society to develop and move forward with necessary cohesion.
Or at least this is the way I see this novel, much more a social work rather than simply a book about love, hate and revenge, and that's what makes it, in my opinion, one of the best of its time. But hey, every reader may see and interprete it his or her own way: I guess this too is the beauty of literature, as that of music and art in general.
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Kat (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
I used to love Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice was my favorite book; I've read it so many times that I can quote Elizabeth Bennet in my sleep. I know every single word of the movie Emma by heart. So, naturally, I felt compelled to read it. I love the flowery language, how Emma and Mr. Knightly converse so eloquently. However, still being a student, I am subjected to the whims of my teachers. When Mr. Sneeringer told us to have Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights read in a week, I groaned. How it pained me to set aside my precious Emma! I was especially greived because I recognized the author's name. About a year and a half ago, another honors English teacher commanded us to read Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. That book is definetly not reader-friendly. The vernacular of the Victorian era that completes the whole effect of reading a Jane Austen novel worked completely against Charlotte Bronte. It made reading a difficult novel all the more tedious. I feared that I was in for another dose of the awful stuff when I received Wuthering Heights. I want to say that I was pleasantly surprised, but that doesn't even come close to my feelings. The mystery was too much for me; I couldn't put it down. Wherever I went, Wuthering Heights came with me. I took it to class, to my meals and to bed. I literally fell asleep reading the two nights my book lasted. I found it to be extremely powerful and compelling. I aspire to become a great writer someday, so I have studied many things necessary to a great novel, including plot and character development. Emily Bronte is a master at these. Her characters are so complex, and, yet, I can still identify with them. They are so well developed that it makes an intriguing story impossibly compelling. She is truly a master of the Gothic novel. I am still in awe of the graphic description of all the dark forces surrounding the Heights. I became part of the whole story when I read this book. Yes, I still love Jane Austen, but now I readily admit that there is definetly room for Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights on my bookshelf.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
The Bronte sisters were extremely remarkable women. They have left a literary place in history. Charlotte Bronte was the most popular one; she wrote Jane Eyre, one of the most popular fiction novels in history. But there is definitely room for Emily Bronte. Wuthering Heights, Emily's only novel is - without a doubt - the work of a genius. The tragic love story of Catherine and Heathcliff is one of the most memorable ones I have ever read. Also, I love the backdrop of the story. The story took place on the untamed Yorkshire moors in England. It symbolizes their wild love -- or more specifically, Heathcliff's wild ways. I love a story with symbolism. It saddens me to know that this is the only novel of Emily Bronte. She would have written other books if she hadn't died the way she did. I am consoled with the fact that she has left us this incredible book, a book that will be treasured forever.
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Christina Chrysostomou (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Wuthering Heights is, with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, my alltime favorite book. I've read it several times, beginning at age twelve. Even when I was too young to understand all of its complexities, I still appreciated its highly atmospheric qualities and the magic that makes it timeless.
Over the years, I've asked myself, time and time again, just what it is about "Wuthering Heights" that gives it such power. I've finally come to the conclusion that "Wuthering Heights" endures simply because its characters dare to feel things and act in ways the rest of us don't. We all have times when we're tempted by obsession and revenge, but most of us don't act on those temptations. At times, we all feel driven almost to madness and we all have a wild side (some of us more than others) that finds perfect expression in the character of Heathcliff. In this book, the characters are always threatening to break the bounds of respectibility and civility.
While some people see "Wuthering Hieghts" as the ultimate love story, I've never found much love in this book, not even between Catherine and Heathcliff. What I have found are obsession and revenge. Love would have watered this story down; obsession and revenge crank it up. Love is an acceptable (even prized) emotion; obsession and the desire for revenge, though felt my many, are definitely frowned upon. The fact that Emily Bronte allows her characters to give in to obsession, to go mad, to exact revenge, gives her novel a distinctly disturbing, unsettling power.
There are many criticisms of this novel that attempt to analyze what Emily Bronte was trying to say. Many compare the domesticity of Thrushcross Grange to the isolation and wildness of Wuthering Heights. These ctiticisms don't interest me in the slightest. No matter how educated Emily Bronte was or wasn't, she certainly didn't study psychoanalysis and she certainly didn't write her novel keeping the finer points of analysis in mind. Emily Bronte was, by all accounts, a highly imaginative girl who cared more for the world of fantasy than for reality. Approach her book as literature; enjoy it and don't attempt to "pull it apart."
Many people have said that the "second generation" in this book redeems the one that preceded it; i.e., Cathy and Hareton redeem Catherine and Heathcliff. I can't agree with that assessment. All of the characters in Wuthering Heights show themselves to be capable of violence and obsession (even Edgar). I think, in seeing the "second generation" as restorative, we deny many of the passions inherent in this book. Catherine and Heathcliff are the characters most given to wild emotions but they are not the only ones; all of the characters can and do resort to violence when it suits their needs.
Wuthering Heights is one of those rare books: a truly inspired masterpiece. It has a very unsettling, disturbing, even fascinating quality about it because it touches the darkest regions of our soul. Heathcliff is the dark side in all of us; the side we don't enjoy even acknowledging and Catherine's failure to deal with her obsesion reminds us that we, too, can fail, we all are vulnerable to Catherine's fate.
Wuthering Heights is a stormy, unsettling, often violent book that explores the darkest side of human nature. Its beauty is raw and savage; its emotions spill over the constraints of civility and common sense. It's a powerful book (one of the most powerful in all of literature). It's a work of genius that's truly unforgettable.
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Gary Taylor (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-03-08 00:00>
Published in 1847, Wuthering Heights was not well received by the reading public, many of whom condemned it as sordid, vulgar, and unnatural -and author Emily Bronte went to her grave in 1848 believing that her only novel was a failure. It was not until 1850, when Wuthering Heights received a second printing with an introduction by Emily's sister Charlotte, that it attracted a wide readership. And from that point the reputation of the book has never looked back. Today it is widely recognized as one of the great novels of English literature.
Even so, Wuthering Heights continues to divide readers. It is not a pretty love story; rather, it is swirling tale of largely unlikeable people caught up in obsessive love that turns to dark madness. It is cruel, violent, dark and brooding, and many people find it extremely unpleasant. And yet - it possesses a grandeur of language and design, a sense of tremendous pity and great loss that sets it apart from virtually every other novel written.
The novel is told in the form of an extended flashback. After a visit to his strange landlord, a newcomer to the area desires to know the history of the family - which he receives from Nelly Deans, a servant who introduces us to the Earnshaw family who once resided in the house known as Wuthering Heights. It was once a cheerful place, but Old Earnshaw adopted a "Gipsy" child who he named Heathcliff. And Catherine, daughter of the house, found in him the perfect companion: wild, rude, and as proud and cruel as she. But although Catherine loves him, even recognizes him as her soulmate, she cannot lower herself to marry so far below her social station. She instead marries another, and in so doing sets in motion an obsession that will destroy them all.
Wuthering Heights is a bit difficult to "get into;" the opening chapters are so dark in their portrait of the end result of this obsessive love that they are somewhat off-putting. But they feed into the flow of the work in a remarkable way, setting the stage for one of the most remarkable structures in all of literature, a story that circles upon itself in a series of repetitions as it plays out across two generations. Catherine and Heathcliff are equally remarkable, both vicious and cruel, and yet never able to shed their impossible love no matter how brutally one may wound the other.
As the novel coils further into alcoholism, seduction, and one of the most elaborately imagined plans of revenge it gathers into a ghostly tone: Heathcliff, driven to madness by a woman who is not there but who seems reflected in every part of his world - dragging her corpse from the grave, hearing her calling to him from the moors, escalating his brutality not for the sake of brutality but so that her memory will never fade, so that she may never leave his mind until death itself. Yes, this is madness, insanity, and there is no peace this side of the grave or even beyond.
It is a stunning novel, frightening, inexorable, unsettling, filled with unbridled passion that makes one cringe. Even if you do not like it, you should read it at least once - and those who do like it will return to it again and again.
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