Wuthering Heights (Greatest love story ever?)

[sc9108]

Wow ! I can't believe how amazing this story is !, Its so dark and twisted but still its a love story ! it's not your usual soppy mess of a story its just beautifully written,


This definitely beats any of the stupid love stories out today, I love the almost Gothic feel about it.

[higley]

Ahh hate to disagree with you but I can't quite categorize it as a love story, rather it's always seemed a long, drawn-out tragedy to me and I never understood Heathcliff's romantic appeal, or found anything redeeming or excusable about his character. Which is funny because I've always enjoyed deeply flawed characters and if they left him at that it'd be fine, but he gets grouped with Mr. Darcy and the rest of the stony-hearted but inwardly vulnerable romantics and I think it such a misrepresentation of the reality of his character.

In the context of a drama I like this book just fine.

[Dark Lady]

I'm sure you'll get some WH fans along soon but I have to say that I didn't like it at all. I found it completely melodramatic and over the top with no likeable characters. I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters because by the the end I disliked all of them. Because, I would say, WH is meant to be a character driven novel that was a bit of a problem. With no tension concerning the fates of the characters because I didn't care I had no reason to carry on reading (I did anyway but only just).

I also don't see it as a 'love' story because none of the characters really seem to show affection for anyone but themselves.

Sorry. But, like I said, I'm sure the Emily Bronte fans will be here soon!

[Delta40]

I preferred Jane Eyre! There was something about Catherine which was most aggravating

[higley]

Originally Posted by Dark Lady

Sorry. But, like I said, I'm sure the Emily Bronte fans will be here soon!

You make 'em sound a mob.

[kelby_lake]

cathy needed a good slap.

I liked the melodramaticness of it

[wessexgirl]

I love WH, but I agree with Higley and Dark Lady. I think that Heathcliff gets lumped alongside "romantic" heroes in the vein of Darcy etc. when I see him as cruel, verging on the psychopathic. Catherine is manipulative and selfish, and yes, they're not particularly likeable characters. However, I still think it's one of the greatest novels ever written. It's dark and twisted, overblown and highly emotional, unique and wonderful. I much prefer it to Jane Eyre. It's a tale of obsessive, selfish and cruel love, not a mills-and-swoon, hearts-and-flowers and sickly-sweet type of love, and I think a lot of people do tend to think of it, wrongly, in those terms. Brilliant book though.

[kiki1982]

That's next on my list, I think...

Anyway, I remember seeing a film adapation and couldn't get around the sadness of Heathcliff's vengeful feelings. (How can a man keep going for a whole life and not want to forgive?) I don't know about anything redeeming, just profoundly sad was my take on him.

I can't remember Catherine and then again, she might have been portrayed totally differently...

[wessexgirl]

Originally Posted by kiki1982

That's next on my list, I think...

Anyway, I remember seeing a film adapation and couldn't get around the sadness of Heathcliff's vengeful feelings. (How can a man keep going for a whole life and not want to forgive?) I don't know about anything redeeming, just profoundly sad was my take on him.

I can't remember Catherine and then again, she might have been portrayed totally differently...

Kiki, there hasn't been one film or tv version which has done the book justice. None of them have followed the book properly, or captured its brilliantness. I know there has been a version which has aired recently in the US, which we get to see in the UK around Christmas, but I've read some reviews on it which seem to be universal in how bad an adaptation it is. There is also another film version planned for next year, but I don't hold out much hope for it. I'm beginning to think that it's impossible to adapt in a commendable version.

[Helga]

no film has been as good as the book, and I often think that feelings are exaggerated to make a character more interesting or mean/kind. I loved the book but I prefer Jane Eyre I like her better...

[kiki1982]

Originally Posted by wessexgirl

Kiki, there hasn't been one film or tv version which has done the book justice. None of them have followed the book properly, or captured its brilliantness. I know there has been a version which has aired recently in the US, which we get to see in the UK around Christmas, but I've read some reviews on it which seem to be universal in how bad an adaptation it is. There is also another film version planned for next year, but I don't hold out much hope for it. I'm beginning to think that it's impossible to adapt in a commendable version.

I can actually understand that. There seems to be an issue about Emily and her religious experience that is also profounly present in Wuthering Heights (I only read an article about it). I am still determined to make up my own mind till when I read the thing... Maybe after I have read my Madding Crowd...

[Neely]

I'd probably rate this as one of the greatest English novels of all time, if not the greatest.

Just one point for all those who hate the characters, this novel repeatedly narrators through double narration, i.e. we come at this story through a narrator, who in turn is having events narrated to him. What's more this narration is so flimsy and based upon threads of long remembered, biased, events that we can't really be sure who is who or what they are really like. It's probably the set text of unreliable narration. So how can you dislike someone who you only have loose fragments of?

Its real success however lies not in the characterisation but in the wild fabric of the novel itself. The eerie moors and the strange and so "un-Victorian" feel to the book. It has been compared critically to the wildness of nature in King Lear and after reading it you can see why.

This is not a novel you can pick up over coffee and read and say "yeah, I've read that". It is a novel that demands so much more attention, maybe like Henry James in that sense, you can hardly do James justice by skim-reading him and in the same way a cursory reading of this novel means little.

As for Jane Eyre yes it is certainly a nicer read, and has more admirers, but Wuthering Heights is certainly the better text and Emily the better writer.

[lrtress]

Wow,
Makes me want to re-read Wuthering Heights. I liked both books! It's obvious that Jane Eyre is a likable character because there's little to admire in Catherine or Heathcliff. But their failings, to me, draw me in,like a fly into a spider's web. Somehow, I feel Wuthering Heights has similarities to Dracula!

[lrtress]

In 1890 Stoker holidayed in the North-east coast fishing village of Whitby in Yorkshire, where it is said he gleaned much inspiration for his novel, Dracula.

Just found this on the site here! It's no wonder I see a similarity. The Bronte sisters grew up in Yorkshire. HA!

[isidro]

I love the interplay between love and hatred in this book. The fact that this is an intelligent discussion really illustrates that. Can love and evil coexist? Whatever else, it is a soul searcher - that is for sure. Not my favorite book, but that is more because I have read so many than any real failing of Bronte's, I think.