Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Overall Rating: 4/5 passionate stars!
PROS:  The passion!! 

CONS: The crazy and frustrating characters!
What List should it be on? I loved this novel so much, I immediately went out and got a copy of my own the day after I finished the last page. This book is on my bookshelf and it's going on my "Really Good Books" List.  
If this novel were turned into movie, which awards would it get? Wuthering Heights has been adapted multiple times. I've never seen the movies or any of that, and I honestly don't plan to. Because the movie produced by yours truly insider the awesome theater known as "Her Mind" is better than all of them! OBVIOUSLY, someone is going to have to get a Best Actor/Best Actress award. Cuz it takes some real acting chops to play Cathering or Heathcliff. My adaptation of Wuthering Heights would also get Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. I've a whole playlist on my iPod dedicated to this novel. The movie in my mind was just THAT good that a soundtrack immediately produced itself. Basically, this movie was awesome!

 I've said in a previous post about how literary classics and I just don't mesh well. I hate Scarlet Letter and Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen? No thank you. BUT. I read Jane by April Lindner, which was a modern adaptation of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I liked Jane well enough, even though I thought the story was slightly boring and melodramatic. But I decided to give myself a mental Post-It to read Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights.


Well. Then Jane Eyre, the 2011 movie starring Michael Fassbender (swooooon) came out and everyone was all "OMG THIS MOVIE WAS SO AWESOME KDKDFJKADJFLKDJF", so I decided to....read Wuthering Heights! That's right. I'm going to hold off on Jane Eyre for a bit because Wuthering Heights seemed to be more my kind of story. Because everyone was all "This is the best love story of ALL. TIME." Which got me thinking "Dayum, really?! I gots to read it then!" So I did! And boy did I ever go through an emotional rollercoaster. Let's get started.

♥Cover:  TOOOO many covers and editions! But for the cover I have on my personal copy, I give 4.5/5.


Okay, there are waaayyyy too many diferent covers of Wuthering Heights. So I'm not going to spend too much time here. The cover that I purchased for myself is one of the newer reissues. And I absolutely LOVE my cover. It's very artsy and gothic. I love it.


It's interesting to note that there the YA people have been trying to make teens more interested in classics by re-issuing the novel with very pretty and mysterious covers. You know, like a white flower or a flower that seems to have legs...FLOWERS FLOWERS FLOWERS! And to tell you the truth? The teens aren't biting. But hey, nice try. .


♥Plot: 4/5 ... Love story?!?!?


Ya'll little liars! Everyone I know was telling me this was the greatest love story ever. Well. Take your words back, buddies. Cuz this novel is not entirely a love story! It's a story about revenge and a very twisted and dark look at love. There are no sighs and pretty looks or sweet whisperings. There is, however, hair pulling, arm grabbing, hair grabbing, and blood. And there are vicious and hurtful words, selfish people, wounded hearts. It is CUH-RAZY.


So here's a little summary: BASICALLY, Catherine and Heathcliff love each other. BUT, they can't be together because Catherine has her nose stuck up waaaay in the air and marries the rich Edgar instead. Then Heathcliff is all "Oh hell to the no. I ain't gettin played by no chick!" and he goes and marries Edgar's sister, Isabella. Weeellll, then everything just HITS THE FAN, because Catherine still loves Heathcliff and Isabella knows that Heathcliff still loves Catherine and..basically EVERYONE knows that Cathy and Heathcliff still want each other. But what happens? Does Catherine and Heathcliff break off their unhappy marriages and go to each other? UH. NO. Catherine decides to play the biggest bitch card known to man and DIES. And then Heathcliff decides to destroy everyone around him because of her death!!! He seriously ruins everyone's lives because he couldn't have the one he loves.


So. Is this love story? Definitely. But don't go in thinking you're gonna be all "LALALALA. I'm so in LOVE" when you finish with this novel. The story is haunting and twisted and emotionally violent. My heart was about to explode from all the anguish and pain.


It was awesome.


 ♥Writing Style/Dialogue: 3.8/5. Full of passionate words.


Emily Bronte's writing was surprisingly easy to understand. I loved the way she wrote. It was VERY well-worded. Her writing was elegant and simple. Admirable, really. Was it beautiful? Absolutely. Here's one of my favorite quotes in the novel:

He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine.

Sigh, I swoon. And did I mention the passion? The passion between Catherine and Heathcliff was agonizingly passionate. Even hurtful and violent at times. Here's a quote to just SUMS up their relationship in a few sentences.

The two, to a cool spectator, made a strange and fearful picture. Well might Catherine deem that heaven would be a land of exile to her, unless, with her mortal body, she cast away her moral character also. Her present countenance had a wild vindictiveness in its white cheek, and a bloodless lip, and scintillating eye; and she retained, in her closed fingers, a portion of the locks she had been grasping. As to her companion, while raising himself with one hand, he had taken her arm with the other; and so inadequate was his stock of gentleness to the requirements of her condition, that on his letting go I saw four distinct impressions left blue in the colourless skin.

DA-YUMMM!! Hair pulling and bruises? COUNT ME IN! And now.....a truly heartbreaking quote:  

You teach me now how cruel you've been—cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry; and wring out my kisses and tears: they'll blight you—they'll damn you. You loved me—then what right had you to leave me? What right—answer me—for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart—you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine. So much the worse for me that I am strong. Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you—oh, God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?

Ya'll I'm just in love with this novel. Seriously.

♥Characters: 4.5/5
The characters in Wuthering Heights are all CUH-RAZY in one way or another. Cathy was bratty and Heathcliff was just scary and abusive sometimes. But I'l give the two main characters some kudos because they are crazy passionate about each other. Still...they act like some psycho freaky mo-fos sometimes. And it scares me...seriously...

But I like it.

♥Let's talk to the characters...

Catherine - Catherine....Cathy, babygirl. You have got some SERIOUS issues to work out in that pretty little head of yours. You're spoiled beyond belief! And you're arrogant, mean, and you don't want to stand up for the one person that you love! How could you do that to Heathcliff?? He loved you. Yeah he might have been poor and he might not have been on par with your social standing, but he loved you! You're so aggravating! And then you still wanna be all happy-go-lucky with him even after you get married to Edgar?? Edgar, who loves you even though you're a grade-A, snotty little biotch sometime? Edgar, whose love you really don't deserve at all? And then you want to be all "Huh, I'll hurt everyone else by making sure I die"?? What the -- ?? Girl, you keep this attitude up and I'll be seeing you on a bad episode of Dr. Phil.

Heathcliff - Oh, my Heathcliff. You're just as messed up as Catherine is. You're brutal. I know you had a bad childhood and all that. You were pushed down and made fun of and were treated poorly. I get it. But, dang, you grew up and you just turned out to be a mean spirited bastard. It took me so much to even feel an ounce of sympathy for you. You have got to somehow learn to manage your anger. You can't just lash out at people like that or decide to mess up everyone's lives and then try to destroy love when it happens to other people. You can't do that! But, I'll give you this, Heathcliff. You really, really loved Catherine. With all of your little dark heart and for that I will give some credit back. You're still moody and scary. But this, for some reason, attracts me to you. So, I still love you, you crazy bastard.

Edgar - Honestly, you didn't deserve to have Catherine stomp all over your heart. You're a good, good man. And your tolerance level is astonishingly high. I don't know how you put up with Catherine, but you did. And you still loved her. Jay-sus christ. Half of me wants to be your girl, Edgar. And heal all the wounds Catherine inflicted on you. Then the other half of me just pities you.

Cathy - You're not like your mother, which you should thank your stars for. You're lively, energetic, and pretty loveable. Heathcliff, of course, made your life a hell and for that, you have the right to hate him with all your might. However, you did gain some of your bubble-liness back at the end of the story. Which makes me happy.

Hareton - Did you know that your father dropped you from a stairway and that Heathcliff was the one who ultimately saved you? You should say thanks to him. Then you should say "F**k you!" to him because he also tries to ruin your life. But for some reason, you've developed an affection for Heathcliff. Look. To each his own. You're love with Cathy is the one positive thing about this whole novel. I hope you and Cathy have a very happy time together since in the end, the person who made your lives rather miserable dies.

Nelly - You're the narrator and you have the most heart. I adore you, but I am so sorry you had to be there throughout this whole thing as a rather helpless witness. Sorry, girl.

♥Romance:  4/5

There's romance in this book, but not really the type of romance you would swoon over. There is, however, the type of romance that just wrenches your heart out and make you want bi* ch slap somebody. This is TOUGH LOVE, ya'll. The type of love that will seriously chew up your heart, spit it out, and totally stomp on it. It's a love that hurts and haunts and taunts. It's almost evil in a sort of way. But for some reason, I completely fell in love with the romance of the novel. Maybe I'm a masochist, I don't know. But the romantic atmosphere of this novel, no matter how tempestuous and tumultuous, completely took over me and I fell in love myself.

♥Overall:

Ya'll I am soooo happy I picked up Wuthering Heights. It's not your typical love story and I kind of want to check myself whenever I refer to it as a "love story". Cuz it's so much more than that. It's about revenge, class, mistakes, regrets, sorrow, vengeance....sigh...Wuthering Heights was amazing in all the hurtful ways. I was feeling way overwhelmed in in some parts, incredibly sad and frustratingly infuriated in other parts. By the end of the novel, I felt like I just went through a really, really bad break up. The emotions were so strong and so real...sigh...love it. When a novel can make you feel such deep feelings, you just know it's one heck of a literary work. Emily Bronte, you're one twisted lady. But you, girl. I loved your novel. I hope you know your novel is being lauded as a beloved classic in these modern times.