Book Review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
I picked up this book when someone else was throwing it out. I found it very difficult to read, and was pleased it was relatively short, as I didn't enjoy it much. It is the story of Heathcliffe and the family who adopted him. They bullied him and treated him badly in childhood, causing him to run away. On his return, he takes terrible revenge on everyone, driving several characters to death and then, a few pages from the end, sees the error of his ways and starves himself to death. The cruelty of most of the characters prevented me from sympathising with anyone. The whole thing read like Cold Comfort Farm but without the irony. The most annoying aspect for me was the nested narrative structure. The overall narrator is Lockwood - a man who visits the eponymous house and becomes fascinated with the young woman Cathy who lives there. However, most of the book is told through his listening to the servant, Nelly, recounting the events previous to his visit. In addition, several chapters further remove the reader from the action, by presenting the contents of very long letters, or the substance of lengthy conversations the narrator had with another character. It wasn't exactly confusing, but made me care even less for the characters. In short, I recommend you stick to listening the Kate Bush song, which is much more enjoyable, and only takes about four minutes to listen to.