Reading the Classics discussion

This is the initial thread to discuss Wuthering Heights, mainly about starting the read and your expectations for it. Please don't spoil the plot here.
We may have threads for the book up to a certain point, like end of chapter 1 soon, if people like to discuss that way.

It's better in audio. I was really confused about the narrator and what he was doing when I tried to read it myself it also seemed to be very slow moving. I love books like this though but I did listen to Jane Eyre also it's my fav classic so far. I bought Rebecca so I'll have a few more in my stash soon after reading both Withering Heights and Rebecca. I've also heard Wideacre reminds people of Withering heights.

I am listening to this from Librivox. The reader is Ruth Golding. It is quite good. I too listened to Jane Eyre again from Librivox and the reader was Elizabeth Klett. She is super awesome. It is one of my favourite classics too.

Rebecca wrote: "I am listening to this from Librivox. The reader is Ruth Golding. It is quite good. I too listened to Jane Eyre again from Librivox and the reader was Elizabeth Klett. She is super awesome. It is o..."

me too. I like her voice I also listened to Jane Eyre but from my library on cd.

I don't have the patience to listen to audio as a general rule. It's okay for books that I haven't read before, but I often find the reader emphasis to be different from what I heard in my head when I read it myself. As an example, my son was listening to Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator yesterday and I found myself annoyed with the vocal characterizations given to the grandmothers because they didn't match the way I heard them speak in my imagination.

I listened to an audio with two narrators, which was a bit jarring at times, but most of it is narrated by one or the other at one time, so it mostly works. Plus I think it adds a lot to the idea of how second-, third-, and fourth-hand this story is (being told to one, to another, to us, etc).

I was thrown a bit in the beginning, because all I've ever heard of WH was about this gothic love story, but that's not the way the story started out at all.

Wuthering Heights is one of those classics that I always think I may have read back in school, but at the same time wonder if I only think I've read it because it's so popular. So I'm excited to actually read it (for sure this time) - I found a nice copy in our local used book store.

I think the reaction to Wuthering Heights can be very different depending on the stage of life you are in when you read it. I read it several times in my teens and loved it every time. I read it again in my early 60's and although I still liked it, it read very differently. I still gave it 5 stars but I think a lot of that was for nostalgia.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. I have read it I don't know how many times. I hope everyone who is reading it for the first loves it as much as I do.

Years ago, I attempted reading Wuthering Heights but I kept falling asleep. I am hoping this time around I will not be put to sleep. Of course, my life was a bit chaotic then and rest was needed more than leisure reading, so I am hopeful.

Melissa wrote: "Years ago, I attempted reading Wuthering Heights but I kept falling asleep. I am hoping this time around I will not be put to sleep. Of course, my life was a bit chaotic then and rest was needed mo..."

I had this problem too which is why I went to a good audio recording. A great voice actor might solve the problem.

Reading the book now.

I've read this book when I was on my early teens, believing the general description given to me that it was a "tragic love story". So I was expecting something like "Romeo and Juliet"... Off course, I was a terribly disappointed 12 years old, ah ah. Now, more than 30 years later, I am excited to finally get back and have a chance to revisit the story, the characters, the writing, etc. with a very different level of maturity. Books, like many other things, are much better appreciated at the "right" point of our lives.

That's right, Monica!
"The Classics are those books which constitute a treasured experience for those who have read and loved them; but they remain just as rich an experience for those who reserve the chance to read them for when they are in the best condition to enjoy them."
- Italo Calvino
https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/07...

This is one of my favourite books and I will enjoy reading it again along with this discussion. I think the death of Emily Bronte at a young age was a great loss to literature.

Aprilleigh wrote: "I don't have the patience to listen to audio as a general rule. It's okay for books that I haven't read before, but I often find the reader emphasis to be different from what I heard in my head whe..."

Aprilleigh, I can certainly see where you are coming from. I would strongly support visual rather than audio reading, at least in the first approach to a story. If the author has written the story well, the voice tones you hear should match closely with the author's intention. (This subject might be another good thread, if it's not already out there: How closely -- or not closely -- the characters voices in audiobooks compare to the original text).

This is my first read with this group, and I look forward to learning from the many of you who are no doubt more well-versed in the classics than myself. I have seen the Laurence Olivier/Merle Oberon movie version of WH twice, but this is my first go-'round with the actual text. I'm reading the Longman Cultural Edition from the library, so I'd be curious to hear from others who have read it (including the various essays within). Just about to start chapter 6.

I finally finished the book. I had forgotten it was such a dark book but well written.

It is a dark read but I still love it.
The initial intention of Earnshaw, to adopt Heathcliffe, seems a good positive thing, but the way he dealt with the feelings of his natural born children, to this cuckoo in the nest, seems to be the start of the tragedy that ensues.
Could things have turned out differently if the adults had conducted themselves better? Could the adults behave differently based on the time period? These have been thoughts I have had whenever I read the book.

I watched Fantasy Island the last night and one woman wanted to meet Heathcliffe. Hugh O'Brien played the part and was a good Heathcliffe. I found a book on my shelf, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, A Norton Critical Edition. It is The Text Background and Contexts Criticsm edited by Richard J. Dunn. I did not know I had it so maybe I need to re-check my shelves more often.

Good questions Tracey.