Wuthering Heights: Wuthering Heights (Penguin English Library) (The Penguin English Library)

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What the devil is the matter?' he asked, eyeing me in a manner I could ill endure after this inhospitable treatment. One of English literature’s classic masterpieces—a gripping novel of love, propriety, and tragedy. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Also, the perspective you’re reading from isn’t the main character – or even a side character – but more of a…bystander? I don’t think I’ve read a book from that point of view before! Emily Bronte lived from 1818 to 1848. Although she wrote only Wuthering Heights and about a dozen poms she is accepted as one of the most gifted writers ever. Perhaps the intensity of her writing grew out of the extraordinary pressures of her home life. family (1839–40) and with the Robinson family (1840–45). In 1846, along with Charlotte and Emily, she published Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. She published Agnes Grey in 1847 and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1848. That year, both Anne’s brother Branwell and her sister Emily died of tuberculosis. A fortnight later, Anne was diagnosed with the same disease. She died in While enjoying a month of fine weather at the seacoast, I was thrown into the company of a most fascinating creature: a real goddess in my eyes, as long as she took no notice of me. I 'never told my love' vocally; still, if looks have language, the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears: she understood me at last, and looked a return--the sweetest of all imaginable looks. And what did I do? I confess it with shame--shrunk icily into myself, like a snail; at every glance retired colder and farther; till finally the poor innocent was led to doubt her own senses, and, overwhelmed with confusion at her supposed mistake, persuaded her mamma to decamp. By this curious turn of disposition I have gained the reputation of deliberate heartlessness; how undeserved, I alone can appreciate.

Joseph was an elderly, nay, an old man: very old, perhaps, though hale and sinewy. ‘The Lord help us!' he soliloquised in an undertone of peevish displeasure, while relieving me of my horse: looking, meantime, in my face so sourly that I charitably conjectured he must have need of divine aid to digest his dinner, and his pious ejaculation had no reference to my unexpected advent.

The book is full of biblical reference, reference to Greek mythology, Shakespeare and even Poe in the early chapters - ‘Thou art the man’. There is a lot of work to be done in reading this novel but it is absolutely worth it. Whet are ye for?' he shouted. 'T' maister's dahn i' t' fowld. Goa rahnd by th' end ut' laith, if yah went tuh spake tull him.'2 If durability is not a must and budget is tight, go for either Penguin's Classics (Pauline Nestor) or Oxford's World Classics (Patsy Stoneman). The Lord help us!' he soliloquised in an undertone of peevish displeasure, while relieving me of my horse: looking, meantime, in my face so sourly that I charitably conjectured he must have need of divine aid to digest his dinner, and his pious ejaculation had no reference to my unexpected advent. I think if Heathcliff was a demon then there would be no need for him to become demented, there would be no internal struggle. The human part of him, being in conflict with the demonic, is the cause of his behaviour; added to which the poor bloke is being stalked, albeit off-stage, by Cathy's ghost, and you have enough going on to give the best of us a short temper.Wuthering Heights is commonly thought of as "romantic", but try rereading it without being astonished by the extremes of physical and psychological violence' Jeanette Winterson

Wuthering Heights is a beautiful book. Though I think many do not know what it's about. This might be because the filmed versions tend to concentrate on the `love story' and leave out the rest of it. Who can blame the scriptwriters for this? Are they not giving us what they think we want? Heathcliff, an orphan, is raised by Mr Earnshaw as one of his own children. Hindley despises him but wild Cathy becomes his constant companion, and he falls deeply in love with her. But when she will not marry him, Heathcliff's terrible vengeance ruins them all. Yet still his and Cathy's love will not die. This horrific situation is filtered via a series of nested narratives, as one character recounts what was told to them by another, as is therefore not as obvious as it might be to the final reader. Anne Bronte, who was born in 1820, was brought up in the Yorkshire village of Haworth where her father was curate. She was educated at home and, as a child, she invented with her sister Emily the imaginary world of Gondal, for which she wrote copious chronicles and poems.As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter at the strange, grim house Wuthering Heights. It is a place he will never forget. There he will come to learn the story of Cathy: how she was forced to choose between her well-meaning husband and the dangerous man she had loved since she was young. How her choice led to betrayal and terrible revenge - and continues to torment those in the present. How love can transgress authority, convention, even death. Read more Details It is as if Emily Brontë could tear up all that we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparencies with such a gust of life that they transcend reality." This abridged presentation of a classic brings to life Bronte's gothic romance and provides a powerful reading by Martin Shaw, whose voice perfectly captures this dark story of the moors. Those reluctant to read the full classic will find this audio version compelling and hard to quit listening to.

The Brontë family was a literary phenomenon unequalled before or since. Both Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights have won lofty places in the pantheon and stirred the romantic sensibilities of generations of readers. For the first time ever, Penguin Classics unites these two enduring favorites with the lesser known but no less powerful work by their youngest sister, Anne. Drawn from Anne's own experiences as a governess, Agnes Grey offers a compelling view of Victorian chauvinism and materialism. Its inclusion makes The Brontë Sisters a must-have volume for anyone fascinated by this singularly talented family. Rough weather!' I remarked. 'I'm afraid, Mrs. Heathcliff, the door5 must bear the consequence of your servants' leisure attendance: I had hard work to make them hear me!' Emily Brontë was born on 30 July 1818. Her father was curate of Haworth, Yorkshire, and her mother died when she was five years old, leaving five daughters and one son. In 1824 Charlotte, Maria, Elizabeth and Emily were sent to Cowan Bridge, a school for clergymen's daughters, where Maria and Elizabeth both caught tuberculosis and died. The children were taught at home from this point on and together they created vivid fantasy worlds which they explored by writing stories. Emily worked briefly as a teacher in 1938 but soon returned home. In 1846, Emily’s poems were published alongside those of her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, in Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The following year Wuthering Heights was published. Emily Brontë died of consumption on 19 December 1848. Everyone’s heard of Wuthering Heights - the love story of Heathcliff and Catherine - but do most people know that it’s not really a love story? I came to this book, having heard of it, and by extension the movie, for decades. I have always sterered clear of it, thinking it a slushy romance. I could not have been more wrong. If I were to sum it up it succinctly it would be that it’s about the obsession of loss, much like Hamlet. It’s written in the Gothic genre, so think Poe, but far more terrifying, because of how real it feels, yet completely surreal at the same time. As I read it I thought the characters could not get any worse but they kept surpassing my expectations. In fact, my husband asked me as I was getting towards the last few chapters of the book if there was any redemption and I had to say ‘nope, they’re all truly awful human beings’. It had peaked his interest so much that he’s even going to read it and he never reads books.

Editorial Reviews

This book is absolutely horrifying. The characters are for the most part absolutely detestable, particularly the main protagonists. Heathcliff is the devil incarnate, and Catherine is so utterly manipulative that she manipulates her own death - she and Heathcliff are well suited. I find little sympathy for most of the characters. Perhaps controversially, I do find myself more sympathetic to Hindley, usurped in many ways by an orphan/stranger taken off the streets. He is cast aside by his father and sister, in favour of the newcomer. He loses his horse, his son and home to the newcomer too. I find it understandable why he was cruel towards Heathcliff but he was still awful. I really feel mostly for poor Hareton, a complete innocent in it all and utterly oblivious to all going on, but this too is deliberate. Yesterday afternoon set in misty and cold. I had half a mind to spend it by my study fire, instead of wading through heath and mud to Wuthering Heights.