I seriously love Wuthering Heights. I found it weird the first time I read it, since I had heralded to me as "a great romance" - I was weirded out as all hell when Catherine died halfway through the book! I don't actually really think it's a romance, and I'm certainly not one of those extremely strange women who have the hots of Heathcliff. I think he's vile and abusive. But what I love about Wuthering Heights is the intensity, isolatedness and introvertedness of the whole novel. I enjoy seeing the intense emotions play out in such a constricted setting, and the sort of "personal gothic" tones.
Wuthering Heights is definitely a novel that improves upon rereading. I most enjoyed it last year when I wrote an essay exploring nature of Heathcliff and Catherine's obsessive relationship.
I think it _is_ a Romance (albeit a dark one), just in the sense of the Romantic movement, not necessarily the mushy lovey stuff. 'Cause yeah, even when people _are_ in love in WH there's no mushiness. Poe is dark and gothic but his stuff is Romantic, too.
And I do agree with you about it improving upon rereading. I already think it's so much better than I did the first time I read it. But I think I really was too young to appreciate it the first time I tried (probably my early teens). So maybe if and when I get around to picking it up a third time I will start to truly _like_ it.
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Wuthering Heights is definitely a novel that improves upon rereading. I most enjoyed it last year when I wrote an essay exploring nature of Heathcliff and Catherine's obsessive relationship.
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And I do agree with you about it improving upon rereading. I already think it's so much better than I did the first time I read it. But I think I really was too young to appreciate it the first time I tried (probably my early teens). So maybe if and when I get around to picking it up a third time I will start to truly _like_ it.
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