I thought Wuthering Heights was a love story!

[Guilty Pleasure]

I just watched Wuthering Heights, and see absolutely nothing redeeming about these people whatsoever! It was depressing, and Heathcliff is a scoundrel!

Maybe I'll read it someday, but I'm not too interested at the moment.

 

[Burberrygirl]

Which version did you watch?

 

[afreebird]

I remember reading the book in junior high and thinking what a douchebag Heathcliff was and that Catherine was a psychopath. But I still thought Heathcliff was hot. I swear, that book was one of the reasons why I put up with a psycho ex for a while. Like Heathcliff, he was a hot mess.

 

[Guilty Pleasure]

1992 version with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. I guess I should have known that a story by a Bronte sister would be twisted, but I just had this impression that it was a love story and that Heathcliff was part of a great love. I opted to read the other choices in high school though, so I never read it or really knew what it was about. I thought Jane Eyre was depressing, but this one may take the cake!

 

[Burberrygirl]

I love Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes, I'll have to watch that version. I've only seen the Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier one from 1939 which I understand isn't the most accurate.

 

[dragonfly411]

In a way, it is a love story. Catherine loved Heathcliff despite his lack of manners and bad character. Heathcliff loved Catherine for accepting him. In the end, Catherine fell to tradition, hiding her love through her life, until it finally drove them both mad.

No one ever said love was always perfect, or easy.

 

[Blackpaw]

I remember reading the book in junior high and thinking what a douchebag Heathcliff was and that Catherine was a psychopath. But I still thought Heathcliff was hot. I swear, that book was one of the reasons why I put up with a psycho ex for a while. Like Heathcliff, he was a hot mess.

mmmmmm, hot mess me loves heathcliff

 

[junebug17]

I remember reading the book in junior high and thinking what a douchebag Heathcliff was and that Catherine was a psychopath. But I still thought Heathcliff was hot. I swear, that book was one of the reasons why I put up with a psycho ex for a while. Like Heathcliff, he was a hot mess.

mmmmmm, hot mess me loves heathcliff

Heathcliff...a hot mess! Ah, that made me laugh, and I'll bet Emily Bronte would agree with that description!

 

[Madam Bijoux]

Cathy and Heathcliff were 2 sides of the same coin: both of them were feral. At one point Cathy says "Nelly, I am Heathcliff". When Cathy dies, Heathcliff says "I cannot live without my soul". Their love for each other is really self-love. Cathy's marriage to Edgar was the ultimate act of self-betrayal; it killed her spirit, and she didn't want to go on living. As far as Heathcliff being a creep, abuse almost always creates an abuser. Would love to see a remake with Russell Crowe as Heathcliff. Lawrence Olivier just didn't do it for me.

 

[Nomsdeplume]

I never understood the notion of him as a romantic hero. I suppose it is interesting for high school kids to do a character analysis but in my mind abuse does not equal love, and love is never that violently obsessive.

 

[Octavia]

I could never make it through that book. I think I tried at least a dozen times, and always got too annoyed with the characters to make it more than about halfway through. It's one of the few "great works" that I just couldn't ever get on board with.

 

[elrohwen]

I never understood the notion of him as a romantic hero. I suppose it is interesting for high school kids to do a character analysis but in my mind abuse does not equal love, and love is never that violently obsessive.

Well said!

I read the book in high school and could never get into it - I thought all of the characters were annoying and difficult to sympathize with.

 

[zipzapgirl]

I read it in high school and had a hard time identifying with the characters. I re-read it a couple of years ago and it really touched a different chord with me. I think it is very good at describing the intense and ultimately doomed relationship between two people who are both toxic and irresistable to one another. Somehow they can't let go, even when they know that. If you've ever been in such a destructive relationship, you'll recognize the overwhelming feelings and illogical actions that are driven by such a toxic love.

That said, it's not really love story as much as a tragedy

 

[Cehrabehra]

Just a little comment... when I was living in upstate ny I bought a really old copy of this book - so old the author listed is Ellis Bell I thought I was so cool to read it as such an old copy... and parts were really good but in the end I never finished it because I kept falling asleep. I got a little more than half way... something about him spying on her or snooping around on big grassy hills or gosh, more than 17 years ago now... eek. Oh and however cool it was to see the ellis bell, it's not a first edition or anything. But it's old and has that wonderful musty smell of old attics lol

 

[Circe]

Alice Hoffman did a great contemporary retelling of Wuthering Heights called Here on Earth: she examines the underpinnings of the attachment between the protagonists, as well as the inevitable consequences. I'd recommend it highly to people who love the original, and to people who have issues with it.

 

[Cehrabehra]

Cathy and Heathcliff were 2 sides of the same coin: both of them were feral. At one point Cathy says "Nelly, I am Heathcliff". When Cathy dies, Heathcliff says "I cannot live without my soul". Their love for each other is really self-love. Cathy's marriage to Edgar was the ultimate act of self-betrayal; it killed her spirit, and she didn't want to go on living. As far as Heathcliff being a creep, abuse almost always creates an abuser. Would love to see a remake with Russell Crowe as Heathcliff. Lawrence Olivier just didn't do it for me.

excellent choice! or that last james bond guy... I really like your thoughts on this. I should reread it now that I'm much older.. it has certain qualities that are compelling even while parts are boring and parts are disturbing.

 

[Gypsy]

I used to say that there are Jane Eyre people and Wuthering Heights people. Because most people I know like one and hate the other.

It is a love story. But not a happy one. Not unless you believe in the hereafter. I'm a Wuthering Heights person, so I get it. It's a story about true love, and a woman who isn't strong enough to follow her heart, and instead follows convention and marries a perfectly nice man who she doesn't love. It's a story about revenge, and how it falls short of giving you satisfaction. And it's a story about redemption.

 

[Gypsy]

Cathy and Heathcliff were 2 sides of the same coin: both of them were feral. At one point Cathy says "Nelly, I am Heathcliff". When Cathy dies, Heathcliff says "I cannot live without my soul". Their love for each other is really self-love. Cathy's marriage to Edgar was the ultimate act of self-betrayal; it killed her spirit, and she didn't want to go on living. As far as Heathcliff being a creep, abuse almost always creates an abuser.

This states it better than I ever could. "Feral" is exactly right. It's not a healthy love. But it is love nonetheless.

 

[mayerling]

I did 'Wuthering Heights' in an English lit class at university and the professor's thesis was "What's love got to do with it?".

 

[KittyGolightly]

Like some of you, I had a hard time with Wuthering Heights in high school too. I was expecting a love story more like Pride and Prejudice. I read it again last month, and thought it made a pretty good ghost story. My expectations about the book were a lot different this time.

 

[taovandel]

I always was partial to the love story between Hareton and Catherine

 

[DuckLovingVegan]

I tried to read this book but I couldn't get past the first chapter. I normally love classic books but this one was just so boring. Reading all of your guys synopsis confirms that I wasn't missing anything.

 

[taovandel]

I actually loved the novel....

 

[Selkie]

I have been on a binge recently of re-reading the novels (both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre) and watching as many versions as I can get my hands on. There was a 2009 version of WH with Tom Hardy as Heathcliff that I think is great. He really captures the fierceness and cruelty, and the dark magnetism of the character. Heathcliff is an anti-hero, but the interesting thing about him is that it could have gone either way for him. As a boy he has redeeming qualities, which Cathy's father can see in him. As Madame Bijoux said, he became an abusive tyrant because he was abused and tyrannized by Cathy's brother, Hindley Earnshaw. It must have been such a shocking book at the time it was written for it's sexuality...not that there's actual sex depicted, but for how lustful the relationship between the characters is.