WUTHERING HEIGHTS
by Emily Bronte
You've either never read it or you've read it a long time ago. Well it's time to read it for the first time or to read it again. You know I love books and that I read one after the other. Yet I rarely bother to write about the books I read.
Why Wuthering Heights, you may ask.
Because it could have been any other novel: the tale of a young girl whose heart goes out to two different boys, the tale of two families who's land neighbored each other and how they intertwined or the tale of a stranger and the family that took him in.
Instead, Emily Bronte depicts the darkest and most lugubrious picture of all times. Not once in the novel do you feel good about a certain character, a certain deed or a certain feeling.
The expression of all emotions, even the most beautiful ones such as love and compassion, are swirled into the depths of all that is ugly.
The passion of some is so strong, it scream like a savage animal entrapped in the cruel arena of life. It chokes its actors and its spectators until all they have left is their appalling nakedness of their heart.
They stand naked in front of the reader who did not know till then that emotions can be so beautiful yet so ugly all at once.
Naked, raw, dark and ugly. Yet beautiful, because remember, it truly is the tale of the young girl, the two families and the stranger. A simple story.
Wuthering Heights?! Really?! That is my LEAST favorite Bronte novel. (I don't really like the Brontes in general nor George Eliot)
ReplyDeletea lot of my friends hate it as well. I love it for the exact reason they usually dislike it :)
ReplyDeletelol it is just SO dark and disturbing. I'm always interested in reading author's biographies and learning about their lives. The Brontes had a very dark childhood and life. It is definitely reflected in their writing.
DeleteI would recommend my all-time favorites: Austen and Gaskell.
And i appreciate your recommendation, you can be sure its on my list!!
ReplyDeleteI think thats why I love it so much, I was amazed at how dark the book is, like I said, not a positive thing at all. It wasnt a long book yet it took me a while to read it, pages were long, mood unbearable for too long but i couldnt put it down!
I dont always like to read bio's because they often dont match up with their live styles
I think reading about them helps you understand their writing. Who they are written to or against. Austen's social commentary is only strengthened by understanding her life circumstances. A common theme in her writing is the vulnerability, weakness, and male-dependence of women. She lived that. She experienced all those pressures which she so beautifully writes about...
DeleteThe Brontes had a really dark and sad life. Reading about it helped me understand themes in their writing. For example, the way Jane Erye ends...is it endorsing, appeasing, or making fun of religion? Actually Gaskell (mentioned above) wrote Charlotte Bronte's biography.
Viewed this way, yes i agree with you. I was more referring to novels that address philosophical and political issue. Have you ever heard of Intellectuals bu Paul Johnson? it;s a great books. It takes the life of famous authors such as leo tolstoi, rousseau and sartre and shows how it is not consistent with their writing.
DeleteI haven't yet read it. I try to avoid sad novels, and the last five minutes of the film version that I came across by accident on TCM was so miserable I can't bring myself to read it. But one day I will have to bite the bullet.
ReplyDeleteIt's not sad as much as it is dark. ANd i think a movie can be very depressing, personally i appreciate the talent it takes to convey a certain picture through words
Deleteread it!!
Yes, behind every 'simple story' is a complex web of emotions. The wisdom behind this novel lies in the ability to reveal what truly hides behind the exterior. The character's past and their experiences in their lives transformed them into who they are and how they lived. The inevitability of the tragedy, clearly marked from the start is what lends this novel its greatness. You know its going to be dark and ugly, and yet you keep on reading- since at times it is the difficult moments in our lives that either make us or break us, and you are somehow hoping that in the end someone, somehow, will persevere.
ReplyDeleteAt a certain point in the book, I realized that all the characters were content with the ugliness of their interaction and emotions (aside for the outsider listening to the story of course). Thats when I couldn't put down the book. When I realized that there was no pretense and that all the emotions that people usually would do anything to hide, were there in the open. No curtain, no masks. They make themselves ill, in a way they kill themselves by allowing it to be that way. They can't handle the brutality of the other humans and they surrender or they fight. But even their perseverance is metaphoric to the world of colored emotions.
ReplyDeleteps: i think I guessed who :)